For the week of June 12, 2022:
The long-awaited report from the B.C. Coroners Service, released June 7, said 619 people died due to excessive heat from June 25 to July 1, 2021.
The heat dome was the worst natural disaster in Canadian history. But it didn’t have to be.
Meteorologist David Jones
A legacy of the deadly July 2009 heat wave was a new, two-step system to warn British Columbians developed in 2012 by David Jones. He was the coastal warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment Canada’s Pacific storm prediction centre until he retired in 2017.
“Meteorologists actually have an opportunity to prevent death,” Jones told theBreaker.news Podcast host Bob Mackin.
Late afternoon June 23, 2021 came and the weather office forecast a dangerous, long-lasting heat wave. Provincial health and public safety officials did nothing to warn the public or muster resources on June 24.
“It would’ve been the perfect time to launch that deadly heat alert,” Jones said.
It was too little, too late, when the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health authorities issued their extreme heat warning before supper hour on June 25.
Hear more from Jones on the report by the Coroner and the B.C. government’s response.
Also, a commentary on how the NDP government buried a report recommending changes to the freedom of information laws, and headlines from the Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest.
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