Extreme temperatures, especially in the state’s interiors, has left the vulnerable population reeling from the heat’s effects

When temperatures soar over 100F in Fresno, California, Kathleen Dortland sometimes has to choose: the air conditioner or the oxygen machine?

The small AC unit in the bedroom of the fifth-wheel trailer she shares with her four cats doesn’t cool much of the house, but without it her home is uninhabitable. She also needs the oxygen that she has relied on since cancer weakened her lungs. This week as California faced a punishing heatwave, Dortland had to run both devices at the same time and she was painfully aware of what that would cost her.

“I don’t even go in my living room. It’s like an oven,” said Dortland. “My electricity bill is already over $100 a month. I can’t afford it. I can’t afford to live.”

With the Central Valley city enduring triple-digit temperatures for four weeks, it feels, the 63-year-old says, like someone “left the oven on up in heaven”. The last week has been brutal as California endured what is expected to be its longest and hottest heatwave – Fresno saw its hottest September temperature at 114F and cities from Los Angeles to Sacramento broke records.

The temperatures have tested California’s power grid and officials warned that, unless the state’s residents conserved energy, there would probably be blackouts. It’s also endangered public health, experts say, particularly for older adults and those with medical conditions, such as Dortland, who are among the most vulnerable to extreme weather.

“Check on friends and family and have someone do the same for you. If you know someone who is elderly or has a health condition, check on them twice a day,” the governor’s office advised in a statement.

Dortland, who is diabetic and has asthma, is at increased risk and she knows this. She lives alone, but has a caretaker who checks on her. Normally, she walks and visits neighbors, but these days it’s simply too hot to do anything, so she stays inside and rarely leaves the bedroom of what she calls “a little metal box”. To cool down, she eats Jell-o and tries to wet herself and the animals that she calls her children.

“The cats, there are times I have to hold my breath and hope they make it through,” she said. “You just sit in one spot and pray and hope for the best.”

Dortland receives social security and can’t afford another air conditioner, she said, and she doesn’t have a car to travel to cooling centers.

Buying even a swamp cooler or an upgraded cooling system isn’t possible for some people, including seniors with fixed incomes, said Karla Martinez with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, a Central Valley-based advocacy organization.

Nearly four hours north in the foothill settlement of Rackerby, Marian Adamson has seen that firsthand. Neighbors are staying inside, and those without air conditioning are finding little relief from temperatures that Adamson’s thermometer clocked at 115F.

“In our area, which is depressed, there are haves and have nots. We have a lot of people in our area who don’t have electricity, who don’t have running water and it’s tough,” she said. “What do they do?”

Adamson and her husband have air conditioning and a generator in the event of power shutoffs, but the heat makes it difficult to do maintenance on their 10-acre property, which is crucial in the fire-prone area.

Trudy Matson, a neighbor of Adamson, said she’s been unable to do preventative work around her foothill property due to the heat at a time when the risk of fires is particularly high.

The 76-year-old typically spends her days mowing, weeding and clearing the roof, but with the heat, Matson has spent most of her time indoors with her dog and 17-year-old cat. She has a swamp cooler downstairs, but no air conditioning in the upstairs of her house, where temperatures have climbed as high as 110F in recent days.

“I just went outside and hosed my clothes off. That’s the only way I could stay cool. Even with the swamp cooler it’s 88F,” she said. “I’ve had enough of this.”

Community centers where people can escape the heat are crucial as the climate crisis brings more extreme weather to California, said Olivia Seideman with the LCJA. Interventions like these are vital, she added, particularly in inland California, which is facing more extreme heat than the coast.

“As we’re thinking about climate justice and climate equity we can’t repeat the mistakes we have been for as long as California has been an entity, where we leave behind folks in rural areas who have been historically excluded,” she said.

The group has advocated for greater action from local and state officials to help protect vulnerable people from the effects of extreme heat caused by climate change, but more needs to be done to combat what is an active public health emergency, Seideman said.

“This is not a problem for the future – it’s happening now,” she added.

In the meantime, the clients the LCJA works with, like Dortland, are struggling amid the unprecedented heatwave.

“Oftentimes we hear folks feeling disoriented in their own homes. They are just sitting down watching TV and they start to feel confused,” said Martinez.

In the heat, Dortland can feel herself getting hazier and going without oxygen doesn’t help. With temperatures so high her oxygen machine has been overheating and shutting off, she is nervous at the thought of possible power outages. In the past, she has relied on portable tanks during outages but that requires her to conserve.

“As long as I don’t move around a lot and I sit in one spot I can conserve my air until I really need it,” she said. “Every day of my life I’m worried. There’s no relief at all with this heat.”