JESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer City employees post a second notice sign at the encampment at 22nd and the Parkway, August 17, 2020, in Philadelphia.
t’ll be just as hot on Monday in Death Valley with a predicted high of 129 degrees, per the NWS. The agency is warning people who live in eastern California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah to limit their time outside to between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m.
Nearly 60 million people in the US, from Arizona up to the US-Canada border, are under a heat advisory, watch or warning this week, CNN meteorologist Tyler Mauldin said.
The heat is the result of high pressure that’s settled over much of the West Coast.
Usually, the West and southwestern US experience the North American monsoon during this time of year, said Daniel Berc, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Las Vegas. But the monsoon hasn’t developed as it typically does so instead of heavy rainfall Death Valley is getting hotter under high pressure, Berc told CNN.
It’s been a sweltering summer for much of the US — last month was the hottest July on record for seven states along the East Coast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Not to be outdone, Death Valley reported a high of 128 degrees last month, too — its hottest temperature (until this month) since 2013, NOAA reported.
A firefighter stands among the remains of homes burned down in the Rockaway neighborhood of Queens during Hurricane Sandy on October 31, 2012. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Arlene Phipps’ string of bad luck started the night Hurricane Sandy crashed into New York’s coast.
Fierce winds pelted Phipps’ two-story home on New York City’s Rockaway Peninsula that day in 2012, and sea water flooded the first floor, where she ran her daycare center. The damage was so extensive, the city condemned the building, forcing Phipps and her family to live in a hotel for several years.
Then in 2017, Phipps’ husband died unexpectedly, leaving her with a more than $200,000 mortgage that drained her savings as she struggled to reestablish her livelihood.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do—I’m 66 years old, I have a heart condition,” Phipps said. “I’ve had one thing after another.”
Sandy killed 44 people and ultimately cost the city an estimated $19 billion in damages and lost economic activity, officials reported, with over 69,000 residences damaged and thousands of New Yorkers like Phipps forced to find new homes.
By Bill WichertLaw360(August 14, 2020, 9:24 PM EDT)
The dark clouds hovering over the economy have produced an unlikely glimmer of hope for New Jersey’s struggling suburban office market as the health risks posed by the coronavirus encourage businesses to look beyond crowded New York City, experts say.
With workers fearful of taking mass transit and either riding in packed elevators or enduring long waits to reach top floors because of social distancing, companies may explore setting up offices in the Garden State suburbs, potentially boosting a struggling market that has seen tremendous vacancies while employers have gravitated toward urban areas.
“That sort of plain vanilla box in the suburbs, where you can drive to it in your automobile cocoon, get out and then walk up the stairs … sounds a little bit more attractive today than it did just five months ago,” said Rutgers University professor James W. Hughes, former dean of Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
The impact on suburban office complexes amid the pandemic “all depends on how companies are going to be restructured, redefining themselves, how they’re going to set up their work templates and the like going forward,” Hughes said.
Jeffrey L. Heller, New Jersey managing director at commercial real estate services firm Avison Young, cautioned that the idea of the outbreak spurring businesses to head to the state’s suburbs is at this point only a “narrative.” There’s no trend or factual information that “would demonstrate this migration outward,” Heller said.
Yet there are “building blocks out there which would lead into the narrative,” he said.
Among those factors, companies are considering the “hub and spoke” model, which would involve a hub office in New York City, a smaller office in the New Jersey suburbs and similar outposts in other parts of the region, Heller said. Employees would be able to work from home and drop into those small offices on an occasional basis.
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. People are talking about the hub and spoke,” Heller said. “That wasn’t discussed previous to COVID. … It’s good to have at least the concept out there and people talking about it.”
Having smaller hubs also could save on time spent commuting between New York City and New Jersey, Hughes said.
“It may be optimal in terms of total productivity if you do have hubs, smaller hubs in New Jersey where people can cluster together once or twice a week on a staggered basis,” Hughes said.
Another positive sign for New Jersey’s suburban office market is the robust amount of residential sales in the suburbs during the pandemic.
Overwhelmed by demand, California’s power grid imposed rotating blackouts, while the coronavirus crisis created a dilemma for those who were unable to stay cool at home.
Heat rising off the pavement created the illusion of puddles near a high-tension power transmission line in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Officials ordered rolling blackouts on Friday night and said continued scorching weather might make more shut-offs necessary. Credit…Richard Vogel/Associated Press
By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports for The New York Times Published Aug. 15, 2020 Updated Aug. 16, 2020, 12:00 p.m.
A heat wave rolling through the Southwest has forced intermittent power shut-offs in California, a state already struggling with wildfires and a recent surge in coronavirus cases, raising fears that the rising temperatures could turn deadly.
Californians used so much electricity to try and stay cool Friday night that the agency that oversees much of the state’s power grid declared an emergency and, for the first time in 19 years, shut off power to hundreds of thousands of customers for several hours to avoid a damaging overload.
There is little relief in sight. High temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit are expected in Los Angeles every day through Friday. In parts of California and Arizona, thermometers are cracking 110. The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for much of the West Coast, including parts of Oregon and Washington State and extending inland to Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
The sweltering heat comes as coronavirus cases are on the rise in California, which reported more than 65,000 new cases and about 950 related deaths over the past week. The health crisis may be deterring residents from gathering at cooling centers or at public places like malls and libraries, making people more susceptible to injury from the heat and driving up electricity demand, as those who have air-conditioners keep them running full blast.
