Colorado is sweltering this week, with highs up to 105 degrees projected for the eastern plains on Thursday. And as temperatures spike locally, a new report highlights the risks of extreme heat specific to rural areas.
Researchers at Headwaters Economics and the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine that rural communities are among the most vulnerable to extreme heat. That’s due to a confluence of social, economic, environmental and physical factors.
“We have not that many tools and solutions that are tailored to rural communities that recognize the isolation, dispersed populations, infrastructure challenges and the (rural) labor force,” said FAS senior manager of climate and health Grace Wickerson, who conducted the research. “We need to actually design interventions that reflect rural realities.”
Those rural realities include a population that might be particularly susceptible to the ravages of unrelenting heat.
“It’s a population that is aging, that has more health conditions, and those are all things that are making that population more sensitive to extreme heat,” Wickerson said. “Rural Americans were twice as likely to have health issues that raised their risk for extreme heat.”
Rural areas also tend to have an older housing stock and a higher percentage of mobile homes than in metro areas – two types of housing that fare poorly when temperatures soar.
“Aging housing is more expensive to cool,” Wickerson said. “That means people are spending more money on their energy bills to keep their homes at safe levels. Or because that's too expensive for them, keeping their housing at unsafe temperatures. That can then be a trigger for a heat-related illness.”
And then there are workforce challenges.
“Hundreds of rural counties are relying on outdoor tourism and Natural Resources industries, as well as various other outdoor work places,” Wickerson said. “Those folks are outside being exposed to heat during their workdays. And that is just another compounding factor if they then go home to a home that is not safely cool.”
That’s something farmer Wes Vaughn can attest to. He works long summer days outside, weeding vegetable beds at Growing Gardens, a farm in North Boulder.
“It can get really draining being out here day in, day out, when the days are 95 degrees plus,” Vaughn said. “It really impacts the amount of work that we're able to do and trying to take care of our bodies - taking shade, food, water breaks.”
Vaughn said his entire staff goes through a heat training each year. They learn to recognize the signs of heat exhaustion – dizziness, thirst, heavy sweating and weakness – as well as the signs of heat stroke – confusion, sweat cessation and loss of consciousness. They also learn how to prevent it – by hydrating, taking frequent rests and staying shaded as much as possible throughout the day. His crew will start its shift as early as 6:00 am to take advantage of the coolest hours of the day.
High risk, but few resources
According to Wickerson, the risk facing rural areas is compounded by their relative dearth of resources to prevent and treat heat-related illness. They pointed to the lack of accessible healthcare in many rural areas. That risk could soon be compounded by recent federal decisions to limit Medicaid funding.
“We are going to see more funding challenges in rural healthcare systems and hospitals that will make them more financially vulnerable and potentially result in some closures,” they said. “That means you'll have to travel farther to get care for your heat-related illness. So high exposure, limited capabilities to get care.”
The Northeast Colorado Health Department covers Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington and Yuma counties - parts of the eastern plains with some of the highest predicted temperatures this week. Response coordination officer Mike Burnett says those regions can’t respond to heat in the same way that urban areas are able to.
“The unfortunate thing for most of rural Colorado is that there just aren't some of the resources and capabilities that there are in some of the larger counties,” Burnett said. “In our six county district, we don't have any specific cooling centers that are designated.”
But those communities do have other resources that might prove to be just as important.
“We enjoy a population of folks that tend to be relatively well connected to each other,” Burnett said. “Neighbors, helping neighbors. We have a lot of organizations that reach into some of the populations of folks that may be more vulnerable to this.”
He says those tight-knit connections – people caring for and keeping each other safe – makes a big difference.
“I think it's those connections,” he said. “Those social connections that people experience out here that prevents some of this heat-related issue that might be more prevalent in other parts of the state.”
