Federal officials agreed Friday that the government needs to better communicate the dangers of extreme heat as more frequent hot weather put lives at risk.
“Mitigating the impacts of extreme heat requires all of us, in the federal government and the private sector, to work together to invest now in preparedness,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at the Extreme Heat Summit.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is hosting the summit series to “define actionable ways” to prepare for extreme temperatures ahead of summer. Friday’s virtual panel — which kicked off the series — came days after the Biden administration launched an interactive map called HeatRisk that tells users when temperatures in their area are high enough to harm their health.
Sara Newman, director of the National Park Service’s Office of Public Health, said the agency is “increasingly aware” of how heat impacts workers, especially “when our visitors make bad choices that impacts our staff and puts our employees at a greater risk.”
