Governor Hochul: “Starting in some parts of our state today, but certainly into Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we are going to be having an extreme heat event. This is not a natural hot weather stretch for us here in the State of New York, especially Upstate. But we are going to be seeing temperatures at levels we have not seen in our lifetimes. And I want to update New Yorkers on what we're doing about this significant public health event.”
Hochul: “Be ready. Talk to your family members, keep an eye on your neighbors, talk to your children, the younger ones, make sure you keep an eye on them that they don't get exhausted and overcome with heat illnesses. Heat stroke is the number one cause of death during a heat event. It's the most dangerous.”
Earlier today, Governor Hochul updated New Yorkers on the extreme weather.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format.
AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available.
PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
So, the topic of the day all across the State of New York is the weather. We have been predicting for days now – literally starting in some parts of our state today, but certainly into Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we are going to be having an extreme heat event. This is not a natural hot weather stretch for us here in the State of New York, especially Upstate. But we are going to be seeing temperatures at levels we have not seen in our lifetimes. And I want to update New Yorkers on what we're doing about this significant public health event.
Right now, everywhere north of New York City is under a heat advisory and it's only going to get worse. Starting today in the Genesee Valley in the Finger Lakes and starting tomorrow extreme heat will hit everywhere in the great State of New York.
Now what does this mean? It's a dangerous mix of high temperatures and extreme humidity causing “feels like” temperature of over 100 degrees. Now that's hot. And in places that are not accustomed to this, like Plattsburgh, up on the Canadian border, we'll be experiencing real feel temperatures of 104 degrees. So, process that for a moment. This is an extreme weather event.
Plus, we have Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton in an extreme zone, and that's going to peak on Thursday. We think about extreme weather – we've done many briefings. I assembled my team days in advance to start getting the notifications out to everyone. Critically important. We've engaged in calls with all of our elected partners, county executives and mayors, making sure they have what they need. Making sure that our hospitals and nursing homes have what they need to prepare for this because this is a deadly event. I cannot overstate that. When you think about all the extreme weather we have, even here in New York, from the Hudson Valley to Buffalo to Long Island to the North Country. We have seen blizzards. We have seen flooding. We've had hurricanes. We've had tornadoes. But the heat event that is most likely to cause more deaths is an extreme heat event. That's what we're talking about. This could be a deadly event. Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths. Over 1,200 people annually in New York and across this country lose their lives to extreme heat.
To be prepared for this, I've already declared that I'm activating the National Guard to be prepared to go assist wherever necessary, whether it's helping stand up cooling centers, because especially outside of certain regions, there are many areas that do not have home air conditioning. So, it's critically important that we have a cooling center for people to go to. And I wanted to make sure that we have all the resources necessary. So the National Guard stands on alert as we speak.
We had a conversation with the head of our Public Service Commission to think about the fact that this temperature could lead to an overload of the grid. We want to make sure that we have resiliency, that there's plenty of generators, that we have ways to stop gap and slow down some of the industrial use of power if we need to conserve. So those are all operationalized and we feel very confident we'll be able to manage that as well.
We announced an air quality health alert. You all remember a year ago, when the wildfires in Quebec led to this area having the worst air quality on the planet for a three-day period from Syracuse to New York City. So, we have elevated ozone levels, and we want to make sure everyone checks that as well.
So, to help, we're also opening up our parks and pools early. We have a lot of people who are going to want to beat the heat by cooling off or taking their families for an afternoon dip or evening dip. And we want to make sure those are open as well.
We have been talking to schools. Right now, individual superintendents have the power to either have half days in many parts of our State. They've already announced that school will only be in for the morning sessions, but that's an individual decision which we support making sure that especially for schools that do not have air conditioning, that the children are safe.
And we're also talking our— Department of Labor and Ag and Markets are focusing on their clientele, the workers and the people who work on farms to make sure that they have, they're taken care of during this heat event. And again, making sure our hospitals and nursing homes have everything they need to manage this. And modifying our outside workers at the state workforce. Our DOT workers, our Thruway workers, to make sure we focus on worker safety.
So, what can we do about it? It's coming. It's almost here. So be ready. Talk to your family members, keep an eye on your neighbors, talk to your children, the younger ones, make sure you keep an eye on them that they don't get exhausted and overcome with heat illnesses. Heat stroke is the number one cause of death during a heat event. It's the most dangerous. I'll go over the symptoms – dizziness, heavy sweating, nausea, fainting, thirst. Immediately call for help if your body temperature is over 105 degrees. Or you suspect someone else is having a heat stroke.
It's as basic as this. It's all about staying hydrated. Have plenty of water with you and your family and your pets. Keep an eye on your pets. Don't let them outdoors if it's hotter outside than it is indoors. And our Department of Health website has all the cooling centers you'll need that are being put out by your county and town as well.
So again, check on everybody. This is an important opportunity for us to show who we are as New Yorkers, how we look out for one another, and we will get through this together, but please take this seriously. This could be a deadly event. We want everyone to get through this safely as we try to beat the heat over the next week.
Thank you.