Syracuse, NY -- And the heat goes on. A heat advisory is in effect through 7 p.m. today for Onondaga, Madison and southern Oneida counties as the heat index hovers around 100 degrees. The National Weather Service urged people to stay indoors, stay out of the sun and to drink plenty of fluids. Protester Kathleen Rumpf, 58, only followed...
Syracuse, NY -- And the heat goes on.
A heat advisory is in effect through 7 p.m. today for Onondaga, Madison and southern Oneida counties as the heat index hovers around 100 degrees. The National Weather Service urged people to stay indoors, stay out of the sun and to drink plenty of fluids. Protester Kathleen Rumpf, 58, only followed one of those suggestions.
Since last Friday, Rumpf has lived outside the Justice Center in a makeshift jail cell. She is protesting jail conditions.
“I’m holding up,” Rumpf said. “I don’t consider the weather, I consider the issue.”
The heat has created some issues for general manager E.J. Purcell, 59, of American Roofing, who has been working on the same job in North Syracuse for the last three days. If it were not for the heat, Purcell said, the job would have been completed in a day.
“It’s too hot to apply shingles when it’s like this,” said Purcell, who bought lunch for his four workers before they left around 2 p.m. “It’s just so hot, the stones come right off when you walk on it. You’ll scuff up the whole job.”
Purcell had two roofing estimates to do before he returned to his air-conditioned home Wednesday afternoon.
Gayle Davis, 57, could say the same thing after the Catholic Charities of Onondaga County installed a free air conditioner in her Syracuse apartment Wednesday morning. Since the heat wave started, her Syracuse apartment has been a steady 90 degrees or more, Davis said.
“It was like, thank you, Lord,” said Davis, who is disabled. “Finally, I will be able to breathe good again.”
The air conditioner is part of a program started last summer by Catholic Charities. It will give away about 75 air conditioners this summer to low-income families who are eligible for federal HEAP assistance and have a note from a doctor, said Eleanor Carr, director of elderly services for Catholic Charities.
“We try to prioritize for those with the greatest health needs,” Carr said. “Those who are homebound, frail, not able to get out.”
Mike Cases-Vinal, of Liverpool, installed the unit in Davis’ apartment. He works with Project Fix, a program that helps with “house maintenance ... small things that need to be done that elderly people might not need to call a contractor for,” Cases-Vinal said. “It’s nice, especially when you can tell that somebody really can’t afford to go out and spend the money.”
Tuesday, Central New Yorkers used a record-breaking amount of energy, surpassing the record set in 2006.
Between 2 and 3 p.m. Tuesday, more than 6,800 megawatts of electricity were being used in Upstate New York, according to National Grid. The previous record was 6,692 megawatts, set on Aug. 2, 2006; the high in Syracuse on that day was 93 degrees. Tuesday’s high was 94 degrees.
“The grid is handling the heat wave very well,” said Courtney Quatrino, speaking for National Grid.
While many chose air-conditioned rooms, a large number of Syracusans flocked to city pools to stay cool. On Tuesday and Wednesday the pools stayed open until 8 p.m., an hour later than normal. The pools will close at their normal hours today, but the parks department may extend that later closing depending on the weather.
Despite the heat, Rumpf will stay in her “jail cell” through Friday morning until she leaves to attend Frank Woolever’s funeral. Woolever was a priest and peace activist who died Monday after complications from a stroke.
For now, Rumpf drinks a lot of water and sometimes sits in the shade of the police station to stay cool. During the day she uses the bathroom at the Renaissance Hotel, the police station or the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. When Rumpf was asked where she uses the bathroom at night, she responded, “You don’t want to know.”
Contact Fernando Alfonso III at falfonso@syracuse.com or 470-6078.