Tempe creates an emergency response center to be a refuge in a climate disaster

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Tempe creates an emergency response center to be a refuge in a climate disaster

Transcript¹

Officials in the Arizona city are worried about suffering a massive power grid² failure like Texas did a year ago. The city is developing "resilience hubs" with community groups to help when needed.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It was about a year ago when a series of severe winter storms hit Texas. By the time they'd passed, millions of people were without power. Heat, food and water - they were all in short supply. The electrical grid failed. Hundreds died. To the West, in an Arizona suburb near Phoenix³, officials are anticipating a similar crisis from a prolonged heat wave, and they're working to prepare. Anthony Wallace at member station KJZZ has the story.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Good morning, everyone. Just to tell you real quick, we've got a raffle⁴ for two...

ANTHONY WALLACE, BYLINE⁵: On a cool Saturday morning in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix, people cluster in a parking lot surrounded by strip malls. At information booths and under shade canopies⁶, they're talking about what they'd like to see in the vacant building at the center of the event.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Bill assistance, utility assistance and help for homeless and mentally ill - just a place where people can go for help.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Information on where to get food pantry - is that going to be available here?

WALLACE: Today's weather is nice, but many here agree that when it gets hot, the neighborhood needs a place people can go to cool down. Phoenix regularly sees a hundred days each year of triple-digit temperatures.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: There's no shade around here. Look at these trees. That's not a shading tree. That's not a shading tree.

WALLACE: The city of Tempe's director of sustainability is Braden Kay.

BRADEN KAY: So we have about a 1,600-square-foot building. We're looking at a sign here - at Cafe Istanbul. It used to be a Middle Eastern cafe.

WALLACE: Kay and his colleagues plan to transform the cafe into the city's first resilience hub, a year-round community center that can act as a refuge in a climate disaster. He says the concept is catching⁷ on across the country.

KAY: There are several cities, like Austin and Baltimore and Minneapolis, that we've had consult with us, and now that we've seen crises like the one in Texas and in the Pacific Northwest, there's really an understanding of this heightened need for these emergency response centers in every neighborhood in the country.

WALLACE: The city is investing $2.3 million in mostly federal funds in the center, part of it COVID-19 relief money. Today, Kay and his colleagues are trying to learn how the center can best offer services like housing and job assistance, but Kay hopes they will also learn...

KAY: What's going to make you trust this building in order to come here at 9 o'clock at night if it's 112 degrees and your air conditioning has gone out?

MELISSA GUARDARO: I think anybody who works in this extreme heat space is not worried that it's going to happen so much as it's going to happen; it's just a matter of when.

WALLACE: Melissa Guardaro is a heat researcher at Arizona State University. And some experts warn of a so-called Hurricane Katrina of extreme heat in Phoenix. Imagine - an historic heat wave pushes temperatures to 110 degrees or more for five days straight, straining the power grid and causing outages all over town. No air conditioning.

GUARDARO: We like to call that a cascading⁸ disaster. And it's not just the heat and the power, but your water will go out, too.

WALLACE: One study estimated that such a catastrophic event in Phoenix could leave 1.6 million people injured or dead. Tempe's sustainability director Braden Kay says they aim to open the Tempe resilience hub this May and, eventually, add backup power so its air conditioning can continue running if the grid fails.

KAY: Our idea is that, eventually, you should be able to be in a five- to 10-minute walk of a resilience hub, no matter where you are. But we got to start somewhere.

WALLACE: An argument for resilience hubs is that having a place to go and people you trust nearby can be the key to survival in a disaster. Research from the 1995 Chicago heat wave shows more socially isolated⁹ communities suffered higher death rates than those with greater social connection. Dominique Parks, who's 58, relies on power for more than just air conditioning.

DOMINIQUE PARKS: It would be a very good plus. I would be in trouble 'cause I have to have oxygen. So that would even be double trouble for me if I - if my electricity went out.

WALLACE: This project in Tempe is an attempt to flip¹⁰ the script on disaster relief and aid in general, which can be top-down, very costly¹¹, chaotic¹² and reactive, not preventive and community-based. The idea is to better understand what people really need. The city is looking toward scouting¹³ locations for future resilience hubs. It anticipates adding one to two hubs a year, creating more places more people can go to come together, where the AC can always run.

For NPR News, I'm Anthony Wallace in Phoenix.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

3 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

4 raffle   

n.废物，垃圾，抽奖售卖；v.以抽彩出售

参考例句：

• The money was raised by the sale of raffle tickets.这笔款子是通过出售购物彩券筹集的。
• He won a car in the raffle.他在兑奖售物活动中赢得了一辆汽车。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 canopies   

（宝座或床等上面的）华盖( canopy的名词复数 )； （飞行器上的）座舱罩； 任何悬于上空的覆盖物； 森林中天棚似的树荫

参考例句：

• Golf carts with bright canvas canopies wandered the raingreen fairways. 一场雨后显得愈加葱绿的高尔夫球场草地上，散放着一些带有色彩缤纷的帆布华盖的高尔夫小车。
• Rock permitted seven canopies, cornices floors, decorative glass, Ambilight, momentum magnificent, magnificent. 七檐佛殿背倚山岩，楼层飞檐翘角，殿顶琉璃装饰，流光溢彩，气势恢宏，蔚为壮观。

7 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

8 cascading   

流注( cascade的现在分词 )； 大量落下； 大量垂悬； 梯流

参考例句：

• First of all, cascading menus are to be avoided at all costs. 首先，无论如何都要避免使用级联菜单。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Her sounds began cascading gently. 他的声音开始缓缓地低落下来。

9 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

10 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

11 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

12 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

13 scouting   

守候活动，童子军的活动

参考例句：

• I have people scouting the hills already. 我已经让人搜过那些山了。
• Perhaps also from the Gospel it passed into the tradition of scouting. 也许又从《福音书》传入守望的传统。 来自演讲部分