It’s that time of year again. Kids are playing in open fire hydrants, beaches are crammed with oiled-down bodies, and Mister Softee’s ice cream is selling like hotcakes. The summer heat has hit Queens. Hard.
So how do you beat it?
Some tips are obvious - drink a lot of water - even when not thirsty; stay out of the sun whenever possible; and keep rooms well ventilated, whether through air-conditioners, open windows or fans. Besides these oft-repeated common sense basics, the New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM) offers a handful of other useful guidelines:
As always, OEM will open cooling centers throughout the city, offering overheated locals - especially seniors - a place to cool down.
Bayside residents Herman “Hy” Skolnick, 80, and his wife, Frances Stahl, 78, enjoyed the air-conditioning at the Bayside Senior Center on Tuesday, July 10. The pair met through the organization - which doubles as one of the city’s 300 cooling centers when the thermometer rises - about five years ago during Friday night dancing.
“I come here basically every day unless I have a doctor’s appointment,” Skolnick said.
Even better, cooling centers are never more than a stone’s throw away - there are 74 in Queens alone. To find one near you, use the search feature at OEM’s website (https://gis.nyc.gov/oem/cc/search.htm).
“Cooling centers offer the public a chance to escape the heat when they don’t have any air-conditioning,” said OEM spokesperson Andrew Troisi. “There are no technical criteria for when we open and close them, but generally, they open up whenever there’s a prolonged period of extreme heat.”
On Monday, July 9 and Tuesday, July 10, temperatures reached 90 degrees, but with the humidity, the heat sometimes felt like it was about 100 degrees. However, temperatures for the rest of the week - Wednesday, July 11 through Sunday, July 15 - are expected to drop back down into the 80s, according to the National Weather Service’s Eastern Region Headquarters.
During the midday heat on July 10, cops from the 110th and 102nd Precincts squared off for a softball game at the Alley Pond Park in Glen Oaks. To combat the weather, each brought large bottles of water and Gatorade, and the officers made sure the game was over by noon - oftentimes the hottest part of the day.
For many people throughout Queens, however, the heat is more than simply a nuisance to be avoided. It can be problematic for those who work outside, like Greg Levine, owner of Complete Construction Corporation, a carpentry contracting business based in Bayside.
“On days when it gets up to 95 [degrees], you have a much slower productivity rate,” said Levine. “You lose 20 percent of your day.”
Peter Benfaremo is in an entirely different line of work, but he dislikes the heat just as much. Better known as the Lemon Ice King of Corona, Benfaremo has been selling ice from the corner of 108th Street and Corona Avenue for 63 years, and hot days have never been kind to business.
“Days like this [stink],” said Benfaremo. “Everybody stays inside, or else they go to the beach. Nobody wants ice.”
A good cup of flavored ice is certainly one way to beat the heat, but the safest option, as outlined by OEM, is to remain inside and stay hydrated. Last year, during a heat wave between July 27 and August 5, 40 people died of heat stroke in New York City. In addition, the number of deaths from natural causes increased by 8 percent during that period. While senior citizens are at the highest risk for heat stroke, no one is immune to the condition.
