Brianne Bowen Photo
“No, I’m not home,” Malachi Benson told a caller as he sat in the Dixwell/Newhallville Senior Center. With two newspapers folded neatly in front of him, Benson had left his home’s broken air conditioning to seek relief from the heat. He usually spends just a few hours at the senior center, but he stayed most of Monday and Tuesday – reading and talking to friends – to escape the heat wave currently blanketing the region.
The senior center is one of several “cooling centers” opened by the city this week to help people cope with a heat wave. The city has also extended public pool hours. The city takes these measures every time the heat index reaches 95 or above; in other words, whenever heat and humidity combine to feel like 95 degrees or higher, the mayoral spokeswoman Anna Mariotti said.
Both measures will remain in place until Saturday, when the 90-degree temperatures are expected to subside. The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for New Haven until 8 p.m. Thursday.
To be efficient, Mariotti said, the city locates its cooling centers in buildings that are already open and have functioning air conditioning – like senior centers, libraries, and schools. (Click here for a story about ways people have kept cool outside of cooling centers and city pools.)
At the Dixwell/Newhallville Senior Center, people played pool, caught up with friends, and read the newspaper. Evelyn Randall, 78, comes to the center every day to exercise and play bingo. “We’re doing pretty good!” she said. “With the air conditioning, it feels good in here to me!”
Center director Irrita Osborn (pictured) noted that the center had a high turnout for its tai chi class Tuesday morning. Most of the seniors are regulars, she said, though she did see four or five new faces this week, possibly due to the center’s designation as a cooling center.
Another of the cooling centers, the New Haven Free Public Library, bustled with activity. Book check-out lines grew long, children played upstairs, and the chess group had its weekly meeting. “Certainly it’s busy, but the library is always busy,” Manager of Programs and Communication Carol Brown said. Library visitation peaks in the summer, and this week’s crowds haven’t been out of the ordinary, information desk receptionist Marianne Carolla confirmed. A sign on the front door directed visitors to the official cooling center, located downstairs in the library’s new cafe. The cafe was empty save for a man eating a snack from the vending machine. New Haveners polled in the children’s section had come for the books, not the air conditioning, they said. “To tell you the truth,” Brown said, “libraries are cooling stations all summer. This is nothing new for us.”
City pools have been at or above capacity all week, Deputy Director of Recreation Bill Dixon said. At Wilbur Cross, Dixon walked in to see a full pool. Kids had to wait for others to leave before they could swim, and some came in through the wrong doors. “Whoa,” he recalled thinking. Dixon said the city’s larger pools, like the one at Cross, hold 75 people. Smaller ones can accommodate 40 to 60 swimmers. The head lifeguard at Cross, William Benitez, estimated that the pool has seen twice as many people this week.
Elizabeth Pereira swims with her daughter Zara, age 2.
One swimmer, Elizabeth Pereira, tries to bring her children to the pool every day. “We’re trying to get the kids used to being in the water,” she said. Asked if she likes to swim, Pereira’s daughter Zara, age 2, gave a big smile. Because of the heat, Pereira said, she’s trying to make sure her kids play in the water at home as much as possible, in addition to hitting the pool each evening.
New Haveners have also flocked to the city’s 13 splash pads. “They’re getting major usage,” Dixon said. “I haven’t seen one stop running yet.” The city has also increased the hours of operation for its beaches.
Dixon said the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Trees has done everything it can to make sure citizens have the chance to cool off. “I want to see what our water bills will be for the week,” he said with a laugh.
New Haveners are coping with the heat in others ways, too. For two children on Orange Street, this week’s temperatures provided the chance to partake in a quintessentially American summer activity: running a lemonade stand. Abby Rakotomavo, age 4, and Theo Amande, 6, made freshly squeezed lemonade for the first time this week.
A man started to walk by, then stopped.
He gave the kids a quarter, but didn’t take any lemonade.
“You don’t see this anymore!” he said.