Plenty of Americans got a taste of just how brutal last summer's heatwaves were. But "many communities miss or don't report the true toll of heat," NBC News reports, meaning the issue can go overlooked. That's not the case in Arizona's largest county, Maricopa, home to Phoenix and its suburbs, which has been tracking heat-related deaths since 2006. The latest numbers, released Wednesday by the local health department, show the toll on one of the hottest communities in the US, including a record number of heat-related deaths.
- 645: That's how many Maricopa residents died from heat-related causes last year, up from 61 in 2014 and 425 in 2022.
- 75: The rough percentage of heat-related deaths involving men.
- 66: The rough percentage of heat-related deaths involving people aged 50 and older.
- 65: The percentage of heat-related deaths involving drugs, alcohol, or a combination of both.
- 46: The percentage of heat-related deaths with cardiopulmonary disease as a contributing cause.
- 45: The percentage of heat-related deaths involving people experiencing homelessness.
- 110: The minimum temperature in degrees Fahrenheit that was hit over 30 continuous days in the county last July.
Describing the increase in deaths as "very concerning," county medical director Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine says "we need to do a lot more to expand our heat relief activities and make sure every person in Maricopa County has access," per NBC. She notes "the pandemic led to a housing crisis and increased rents" and "people who are homeless are 500 times as likely to die from heat" in the county. "Nearly every one of these deaths can be prevented," but "it's going to take support from every level to improve the situation," Sunenshine adds, per KNXV. For individuals, that can mean checking on elderly neighbors or people who live alone and offering transportation to cooling centers. (More heat stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
