Islanders Find Ways to Weather Hottest Temps on Record
Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 1, 2021
As a brutal heatwave scorched the Pacific Northwest, islanders suffered, but still found some ways to stay cool as the thermometer climbed past 100 degrees for three consecutive days last Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Monday brought the worst of it. At Vashon’s closest official National Weather Service station, Sea-Tac Airport, temperatures hit a mind-boggling, all-time record of 107 degrees that day. Sunday’s high was 102 degrees. Saturday’s was 101.
It was the first time in history that Seattle had three-digit temperatures for three consecutive days, and part of a pattern of worsening heatwaves and extreme weather in a warming world.
Bob Larson, assistant chief of Vashon Island Fire District, told The Beachcomber that first responders had been busy from Friday through Tuesday morning — but that busier weekends were part of a recent pattern on Vashon. VIFR received about a half-a-dozen calls related to the heatwave, he said, from islanders who were lethargic or dehydrated. Sadly, a fatal drowning took place in a swimming pool on Vashon on Saturday, with VIFR and King County Medic One responding to the call.
It was the only water-related call of the weekend, Larson said.
Larson said first responders had been on pins and needles throughout the heatwave, waiting for whatever was going to happen next. But he praised the community for its actions to stay safe and healthy in the heat.
“The population took care of themselves, staying cool and hydrated,” he said.
On Saturday, some islanders founded shady spaces on the lawn of Open Space for Arts & Community to listen to two “Welcome Home” concerts, featuring local musicians.
Others flocked to Vashon beaches over the weekend. At Lisabuela Park on Sunday, the parking lot overflowed up the steep sides of the road leading to the beach. KVI Beach was also packed, with parked cars lining both sides of the narrow streets above the beach. As late as 10 p.m. on Monday, Dockton Park was filled with visitors wearing bathing suits and draped in towels.
With coordination and funding from VashonBePrepared, Vashon Center for the Arts and Subway were designated as cooling centers, and workers in both places said that locals had stopped by to take advantage of the air-conditioning and cool drinks offered on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
On Sunday, VCA offered another way to beat the heat, at a benefit in Kay White Hall for local dancer Mia Giovanna Kuzma, who has been accepted to Pittsburgh’s Point Park University with a major in dance. Through a GoFundMe campaign, Kuzma hopes to raise the money necessary to attend; her dance concert on a Sunday was the launch of that fundraising effort.
Another 50 islanders braved the triple-digit heat on Sunday to attend a celebration of Pride Day, as Vashon Heritage Museum reopened its indoor spaces for the first time since March 2020. On view was the museum’s prizewinning exhibit, “In and Out: Being LGBTQ on Vashon.”
One visitor, Rudd Schupp, snapped photos of the exhibits and the show’s co-curators, Stephen Silha and Ellen Kritzman, looking hot but happy in front of an array of refreshments.
“This was such an unexpected and wonderfully perfect Pride for me,” Schupp said. “I ventured to Vashon to escape the dreaded heat dome over Seattle and commune with friends on the water’s edge. What a gift when they shared the opportunity to visit the Heritage Museum and see this lovingly curated exhibit.”
At Vashon Library, Library Services Manager Jose Garcia welcomed islanders into cool public space, which was open as a cooling center on Saturday and Monday but remained closed Sunday.
Garcia said the library had lots of visitors on the days it served as a cooling center, eager to spend quiet and comfortable time amid the stacks. At 4 p.m. Monday, he surveyed the library and said it was filled with the most people that had come in at any time during the heat emergency. Some, he said, were new faces to him.
“We seen lots of kids and we’ve processed a lot of library cards,” Garcia said, adding that visitors also included youth coming in to connect with their devices.
At Thriftway, on Monday afternoon, shoppers also moved slowly through the aisles, seemingly in no hurry to leave the air-conditioned comfort of the store. If they came to buy ice, however, they were out of luck — by that time, it was long gone.
