Northwest heat wave: Volunteers get water to the vulnerable

By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Volunteers are scrambling to hand out water to homeless people in isolated encampments in Portland, Oregon, as the Pacific Northwest sweats through a heat wave that is gripping the normally temperate region. Authorities trying to provide relief to vulnerable people are mindful of a record-shattering heat wave in June that killed hundreds in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. In Portland, temperatures Thursday reached 102 degrees, and more heat was expected Friday. In Seattle, highs were predicted to reach the upper 90s in a region where many don’t have air conditioning and people are unaccustomed to extreme heat.