BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
PROF. VIVEK SHANDAS
HOLDS A THERMOMETER
AND DATA RECORDER
USED TO MEASURE
URBAN HEAT
HEAT WAVE BRINGS OUT
SCIENTISTS AND POINTS TO
NEED FOR COOLING CENTERS
L
ast week’s heat wave sent Lane County residents scur-
rying for shade. Press releases from the city and county
offered suggestions for cool places like the library or
swimming pools to take cover. But for those without air
conditioning or in some cases without a roof over their
heads, heat waves can turn deadly.
In 2003, a heat wave that hit France killed more than 14,802
people. Most of those who died of hyperthermia were elderly
people living alone in apartment buildings without air condi-
tioning — temperatures of more than 104 degrees for seven
days in a row were recorded in some areas. On Aug. 19, here
in Eugene, temperatures topped 104 degrees as well, and sci-
entists and community activists sprang into action to record the
heat and to help area community members survive it.
Vivek Shandas of Portland State University came to Eu-
gene-Springfield with a team of scientists using highly sensi-
tive thermometers connected to GPS locators and data record-
ers mounted on poles outside their cars to record temperatures
every one second at 6 am, 3 pm and 7 pm while driving 35
miles per hour.
One of the goals of the project, which teamed up the city of
Eugene’s urban foresters, is to locate “urban heat islands” that
are often 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than other parts of
the same city.
Shandas, together with researchers Jackson Voelkel and Bill
Garcia, examines the temperatures and then looks at aspects
of the city such as trees, buildings and their heights, roads and
other features. Shandas says the research in other cities, from
Portland to Doha, Qatar, has shown that he might expect to see
urban heat islands in industrial areas, along railroads and large
paved parking lots. Shandas himself drove the route out near
Eugene airport, an industrial area with railway lines.
Shandas says prelminary temperature data shows “a range
of temperatures that are higher than we’ve seen in other cit-
ies” with an almost 14 degree difference throughout the region,
ranging from 91 to 105 degrees in the afternoon, and that Eu-
gene’s downtown is hot, compared to Portland’s, which he says
is cool from shade. The researchers will be “refining the maps
in the coming weeks with higher resolution data,” and then they
will be able to describe what ground-level factors, from grass to
tree canopy, explains the variation in temperatures.
Impacts of climate change mean that summer heat waves
will be more intense and of greater magnitude and duration,
Shandas says. The PSU research aims to bring together city,
county, state and nonprofit entities to figure out who is more
vulnerable to effects of heat islands and air pollution and what
can be done to mitigate it.
Shandas says heat waves can be silent killers, and heat most
often kills at night when bodies don’t regulate temperature
during REM sleep. Heat compounded with the smog that of-
ten accompanies rising temperatures can adversely impact the
elderly, those with heart or lung conditions and other vulner-
able populations. Studies like this can help governments assess
where mitigation efforts should begin. For example, planting
trees can create more shade and varying building heights can
create airflow.
Shandas and the information out of PSU’s Sustaining Ur-
ban Places Research Lab will in the long-term help cities plan
how to better cool their citizens, but in the meantime, Shandas
mentioned seeing a homeless man trying to shade himself from
the sun as the researcher drove his route in the heat of the day.
Through intense volunteer efforts and donated space mainly
from local churches and others, Lane County has managed to
sustain the Egan Warming Centers to aid the unhoused during
cold spells when temperatures drop below 30 degrees between
Nov. 15 and March 3. But Shandas points out that during heat
waves, many people, housed and unhoused alike, have no re-
spite from the heat at night, a time where they are most likely to
die of hyperthermia.
With climate change increasing summertime heat and caus-
ing droughts, the time has come to implement cooling centers.
Shelley Corteville, director of the Egan Warming Centers,
says currently there are no plans for cooling centers; however,
St. Vincent de Paul, in an effort unrelated to Egan, has been
HISTORYHAPPENINGS
handing out hundreds of bottles of water around town during
the recent heat waves.
Corteville and two volunteers filled ice chests with water
bottles provided by SVdP, put them on dollies and walked
around Eugene and Springfield handing the “mobile hydration”
out to those in needs, including the people Corteville says she
prefers to call “our neighbors without addresses” and checking
in on how they are doing. “It’s a privilege to get to go out and
do this,” she says.
Corteville says people she encountered were exhausted and
unable to sleep in the heat, and she called in CAHOOTS (Cri-
sis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets) twice for help. She
said people also asked for food — fruit in particular. Eugene,
she notes, has more water fountains than Springfield, but many
smelled moldy, and she says, “Just providing a fountain is not
enough.” It needs to be clean.
People with pets were also given water for their animals, she
says. Other needs she encountered were shorts and clean socks.
“People don’t think about our neighbors without addresses
needing clothes this time of year,” she says, but without access
to laundry, clothing becomes unwearable in the heat and people
need protection from the sun.
While there are no plans for cooling centers, Corteville says
she would love in the future to see mesh tents, maybe with mis-
ters, where the housed and unhoused alike could shelter from
the heat. “We are all in this together,” she says, “and it’s impor-
tant to maintain humanity.” Libraries and other cool buildings
can only handle so many people. She says she would like to see
the business community become part of the effort.
The research out of PSU could help any future endeavors
determine the coolest places to put campsites for the unhoused,
what areas of town have vulnerable populations exposed to ex-
cess heat and where future cooling centers could be if the com-
munity pulls together to create them.
For more on the PSU research on communities, air and heat islands, go to suprlab.
org. To volunteer in future efforts handing out water, contact Corteville at dir.ewc@
gmail.com.
149-YEAR-OLD GOTH: THE F.B. DUNN HOUSE
Built in 1867, this Gothic-style pioneer home once stood on 3 acres of land given to
Christiann Cecelia Christian and her husband, Francis Berrian (F.B.) Dunn by Christian’s
father, Daniel Christian. According to the city of Eugene’s Historic Cultural Resources
Inventory, the house was originally nearer to 11th facing north but was moved and
reoriented to its current location at 13th and Pearl Alley, most likely to take advantage
of views of Skinner Butte and Deady Hall.
An early lithograph shows the home to have been well landscaped, and oral history
tells us it was maintained by a Danish gardener. A windmill provided water for the home
and gardens. Frederick Stanley (F.S.) Dunn, the sixth of Dunn’s eight children, was a
Harvard-educated Latin professor at Willamette University and later at the University of
Oregon. In addition to being a Mason, he was on the board of the YMCA, provided
sermons to the Methodist Church and was a member of the Sons of the American
Revolution.
Most notable for us now, F.S. Dunn, the namesake of one of UO’s residence halls,
participated for a short time in a leadership role of the local Ku Klux Klan.
F.B. Dunn was an original trustee of what was to become Eugene. He was involved in
the civic and cultural groups and activities of his time. Dunn served as Eugene’s second
mayor, 20 years as a school director and was a Masonic Lodge leader in addition to
owning a successful dry goods store. Dunn Elementary School was named after him.
F.B. Dunn died July 20, 1892, from a sudden heart attack brought on by “exertion
when trying to control a balky cow.”
Heather Kliever is education curator at the Lane County Historical Society and Museum.
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A ugust 25, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com