Despite promises, California doesn’t know how many people died in record summer heat wave
State records show a total of 7,300 deaths attributed to the record-breaking heat, but officials couldn’t calculate how many of those deaths were actually related to the extreme weather
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State records show a total of 7,300 deaths attributed to the record-breaking heat, but officials couldn’t calculate how many of those deaths were actually related to the extreme weather
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AUGUSTA — The state’s death toll from the record-breaking heat waves from earlier this summer has likely topped 7,000 people, but investigators have yet to calculate how many were directly related to the heat.
The list of officially reported deaths, compiled by the California Department of Public Health, shows 7,300 people who died from the blistering heat wave this month, with the bulk attributed to four counties in the south, according to the list released on Tuesday.
But the department was still working to determine how many of those deaths, if any, were directly related to the heat.
“There is not a single cause of death that fits perfectly,” said health department spokesman Dan Zungu, who said the death total does not take into account all the complications from heat such as heat stroke.
“It’s sort of a continuum of care. All of these are things that could have killed you, but the public health department is making sure that we’re looking for the direct causes of death. That is why it has not been absolutely finalized yet.”
Zungu said the department has been working with the counties to determine how many of the deaths in those four counties were directly from the record-breaking heat.
The department had previously estimated the number of deaths as 8,500, but said in a statement on Tuesday it expects to update the final figure by the end of the week.
The four counties hardest hit by the record heat were Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, with 15,700 people directly killed by the extreme heat, according to the state’s list. Another 6,400 people died from heat-related issues in coastal regions, including Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, etc, Zungu said.
Zungu said the department
