I know that many utilities offer a program where you can pay more than your monthly bill and the excess funds help support households who struggle to pay their bills. Find out what your utility company does and I encourage you to donate up to $50 extra/month. It may sound a lot, but for every person that does this, that’s one struggling household – a family whose parents lost their job, or are dealing with sick members – that can get relief from the heat that will grip the country. Most places are seeing highs 5-10 degrees above normal and even worse, lows that are 10-15 degrees above normal.
Also learn about your utility’s policies for shutoff programs and demand they do not do that for struggling households who can’t pay their bills.
Usually cities will have their pools open and will activate cooling centers. They have to think about social distancing guidelines, like gyms and restaurants have had to do. They could limit the number of people that come in – maybe employ a reservation system where people can call and reserve time to go to the center.
Another challenge among many, but one that must be addressed.
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