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As city leaders debate heat response, Spokane Quaranteam launches water program

A council member has said the cooling center plan is insufficient, but city administration says it's based on historical data.

SPOKANE, Wash. — As Spokane prepares for a streak of consecutive triple-digit temperature days, city leaders disagree on whether there will be adequate resources to keep everyone safe.

The City of Spokane has established a cooling center at the Looff Carousel. Capacity was originally 30, but on Friday afternoon Governor Jay Inslee lifted COVID restrictions for cooling centers, so it's being expanded to 72.

There's also space at the city's homeless shelters, at libraries, and COVID-restricted space at places like malls and businesses.

But Council Member Betsy Wilkerson is concerned the plan was sloppily put together and just won't be enough.

"The hot weather's been predicted for several days now, and at the last minute we are scrambling to help our most vulnerable. Even our citizens that are housed, that don't have any air conditioning, where are they going today? Think of our elders," she said. "If we had a plan like we're supposed to have a plan, every year, year-round, then we wouldn't have been caught with our pants down... I want us to have contracts in place when this stuff happens, so we know 'okay, execute contract' not running around trying to find somewhere to put our people."

But the city administration says they're confident the existing plan will work.

Spokesman Brian Coddington says the capacity they're providing is based on data, namely the number of people who came to the city's clean air shelters during last year's wildfires.

"At its peak utilization, we saw about three dozen people utilize that. And so we've established some initial capacity to be able to do that and do it effectively," he said. "But we've also built in contingencies to be able to grow and expand that as demand dictates. You can't always predict demand so we want to be able to be flexible and be responsive really quickly."

Wilkerson also raised questions about the city's water distribution plans. Right now they only have 1,300 bottles.

"It's a great start, but it will not meet the need," she said.

"We're in a facility that has running water, so we have water on site and available," said Coddington "The bottled water is there to supplement people that don't have water bottles or might need to take it to go, they can't fill something up."

But of course the city government isn't the only resource. Spokane Quaranteam is stepping up in a big way; they're going to have hundreds of water stations all across the city all week long.

"It's quicker and better just to take action and work together as a team and go out and do big things," said organizer Rick Clark.

The organization that raised money online to help people and businesses during the pandemic is now working to help prevent dehydration.

"We don't want anybody to die this summer, and some of our summers get hot. But this might be the hottest summer we've ever dealt with," said Clark.

They've collected more than 30 thousand bottles of water thanks to donations, and more than 200 people have signed up to help distribute them.

"I'm going to load everybody up with waters, and then they're going to provide their own cooler and ice, and they're going to go find a corner to sit on," said Clark. "And so over the next few days, everybody in Spokane is going to see these people... giving water to people that might need it."

Still, Wilkerson says government needs to step up too, not rely on this sort of good will.

"Spokane is a giving city," she said. "But we can't always depend on our partners to step up. We have to be ready and able to lead in that space."

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