MONTREAL, Quebec (NBCNC) – Canadian health authorities said Thursday that 33 people in the Quebec have died from heat-related complications over the last few days.
The number includes 18 in Montreal, which has been hit hard by muggy temperatures for several days.
Quebecers are struggling to escape the oppressive heat hovering over the province. And so, emergency crews continue door to door warnings, working to prevent any more deaths.
The most dangerous areas: the hot zones of Montreal filled with older buildings and packed with concrete where many seniors live without air conditioning.
Montrealers have put in 30 percent more calls to 911 since this wave began.
But those receiving care in some of the city’s oldest hospitals are also suffering with no AC. The rooms are not equipped to battle the heat.
The Tsatoumas said their hospitalized mother was battling pneumonia and became dehydrated and suffered a heart attack. “I don’t understand for elderly people to have no air conditioning for the state that they are in,” explained Effie Tsatoumas “I am healthy and I had a hard time breathing in there.”
This mass of superheated air now covers Canada from Lake Superior to Prince Edward Island carrying extremely high humidity and overstaying its welcome. Dave Phillips with Environment Canada said, “It just stays put, it is huge, it’s dominating half a continent.”
And workers are roasting under a hot sun. For those running Halifax food trucks, savoring the summer is a little tougher. One worker said, “The air is still and the fryers and the grills are going, it gets very hot in here!”
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