Amid a sweltering heat wave that set a record high temperature Friday at 102 degrees in the Portland area, the number of 911 calls and visits to nearby emergency departments are up.
“The Portland metro area is facing the highest heat risk of 2025,” said Brendon Haggerty, a manager with the Multnomah County Health Department, “due to record temperatures and number of days it will be hot.”
The county remains under an extreme heat warning through Tuesday.
911 calls on Friday rose to 415 – 44 of them being heat-related. The average number of emergency calls is far below that number, said Julia Comnes, a spokesperson for Multnomah County, with that number around 330.
“Heat-related emergency department visits were also up. Typically, we see a single visit or no visits. Yesterday, we had 16 visits, six of them from Hood to Coast participants,” said Haggerty.
Hood to Coast is a 196-mile relay race from Mount Hood to Seaside. Participants were encouraged by the event’s organizers to skip legs if they felt unwell while racing in the heat wave.
“With temperatures as hot as they were,” Haggerty said, “even conditioned athletes are susceptible to heat illness. This underscores the need for all of us to adjust vigorous exercise or work to the cooler morning hours during extreme heat.”
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