Brunswick was one of several Midcoast and southern Maine communities to open a free cooling center to the public over the weekend as a heat wave raised temperatures to dangerous highs.
While the Brunswick Parks and Recreation Department regularly opens warming shelters on the coldest nights of the year, according to Director Tom Farrell, this was the first time the department has operated a cooling space since its 2013 move to the Recreation Center on Neptune Drive.
“It was pretty clear to everybody that this was going to be prolonged, sustained hot weather with high humidity,” Farrell said of the decision to open the cooling shelter from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. “It wasn’t uncommon for us to be thinking in these terms because in the summertime this is a real issue that we deal with in the programming we run.”
Melissa Fochesato, director of community health promotion at Mid Coast Hospital, suggested the town open a cooling center about a week before the arrival of the heat wave, which was projected to bring temperatures of up to 90 degrees, according to Farrell. Brunswick also coordinated with the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program, which stocked the shelter with cold drinks and snacks.
The temporary cooling space, an air-conditioned room in the Recreation Center that Farrell said will soon be used as a daycare, was one of 20 similar shelters set up across southern Maine last weekend, according to the Maine Emergency Management Agency.
Dr. Caitlin Civiello of the Mid Coast Hospital Emergency Department praised Brunswick for providing the space.
“It’s an amazing thing because really the No. 1 way to avoid heat exhaustion and heat stroke is to stay cool,” she said. “I would say the high 80s to low 90s you worry about people spending more than 20 to 30 minutes outside in the sun without shade or significant hydration.”
Young children, adults over 70 and people vigorously exercising in hot temperatures are particularly susceptible to heat exhaustion, which can come with symptoms like dizziness, nausea and headaches, according to Civiello. Prolonged exposure can lead to the more serious heat stroke, which can cause confusion, seizures, lack of consciousness and even death if untreated. Severe sunburns can worsen these problems by preventing high body temperatures from coming down even after sufferers find shade.
Heat stroke is rare in Maine, according to Civiello. Yet she often sees patients with heat exhaustion, partly because Northerners underestimate the danger of extreme temperatures.
“People don’t often know the signs of heat exhaustion because they’re not as familiar with it off, so they aren’t as good at avoiding it,” she said. “Much like people who are visiting from southern states aren’t as good with signs of Lyme, and so they may develop chronic Lyme.”
Experts warn that global warming will increase the risk of heat-related illnesses in the coming decades.
“There are a number of different things to be concerned about from a public health perspective when you start thinking and talking about climate change,” said Rebecca Lincoln, a toxicologist and programs coordinator at the Maine CDC. “Extreme heat events becoming more frequent over time is one that we’re extremely concerned about and we’re working hard on.”
While projected average temperature increases of a few degrees may sound insignificant to laypeople, according to Lincoln, they reflect dramatic changes in the number of extreme heat days – days when the heat index exceeds 95 degrees.
“What we’re actually talking about is those extremes doubling, tripling and quadrupling – going from something like five really hot days in the Lewiston-Auburn region to 15,” she said. “An increase of a couple of degrees between the 2000s and the 2050s doesn’t sound like a lot when you average it all out, but two weeks of really hot weather in the summer is going to feel a lot different than things feel right now.”
While Maine pushes to cut its carbon emissions, the CDC is working with communities to develop plans to help especially vulnerable populations like the unhoused and the elderly during periods of extreme weather, Lincoln said.
The results might not always be dramatic; according to Farrell, no one used the Brunswick cooling shelter on Thursday. Even so, he said the effort of setting up the space was worth it.
“If someone truly has a need, we want to make sure that we’re providing the best service we can to the citizens of the community,” Farrell said. “It’s the right thing to do, the responsible thing to do, to give the community the ability to come to a space that they can be safe.”
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