As a dangerous heat wave hits New York City and its surrounding areas, safety measures to protect citizens from this dangerous heat have expanded ahead of the holiday weekend. These additional measures build on the Heat Emergency Plan announced on Monday.
“I am asking every New Yorker to make a heat plan before the worst of this weather arrives,” said Mayor Mamdani. “The best protection against extreme heat is air conditioning. If you don’t have it at home, know now where you’ll go to stay cool. Check in on your neighbors, especially seniors, and if you see someone outside who appears to be in distress, call 311 so we can get help to them…”
Residents can expect hours of Olympic- and intermediate-sized outdoor pools extending until 8:30 p.m. Eight additional cooling centers will be opened in City buildings from noon through midnight over this weekend. This also includes an additional 10 cooling centers, which will be opened within public library branches.
Outreach volunteers were also expanded by an additional 150, making the total street outreach workforce reach over 600 volunteers. These measures will bolster the city’s already historic response to this sudden increase in heat, alongside 21 Cooling Outreach On-Location vans for additional street protection and in-home wellness checks.
To help New Yorkers and visitors to find these cooling centers, the Mamdani administration has activated over 2,200 LinkNYC kiosks to display walking directions to the nearest NYC Cooling Center. They were previously used successfully following last the last winter.