As temperatures remained high the Saint Louise Hospital treated
patients that were showing up with heat illnesses.
Gilroy – With high temperatures breaking 10-year-old records more than 10 days ago, Saint Louise Regional Hospital doctors saw a spike of patients in their emergency room.
As Pacific Gas and Electric Co. workers hit the streets last week trying to bring back power to hundreds of South County residents, some of whom had been without power for many days, patients were piling into the hospital. The emergency room at the hospital took in 10 heat exhausted patients Tuesday, July 25, as temperatures soared, the fifth straight day of triple-digit weather.
“We have had a bigger number than usual of heat-related incidents,” said Vivian Smith, Saint Louise Hospital spokesperson.
Smith said the hospital has been taking in about 100 patients a day, which she noted was unusual even for this time of year. She said the hospital will, on average, care for a couple of heat related incidents a day. During the early evening Tuesday, five patients filed into the hospital at one time.
While the temperature cooled to the low 90s Wednesday, PG&E was out trying to fix the transformers that malfunctioned due to the overwhelming heat. All power was predicted to be back on in Gilroy and Morgan Hill by the end of Wednesday, said Jeff Smith, PG&E spokesperson.
The PG&E spokesman said the grid system in Gilroy is built for the cooler Bay Area climate. Due to the extraordinary heat, the systems failed because they did not have time to cool down at night. In cooler climates, such as the Bay Area, the systems have more homes attached to each grid, while homes in the desert of Arizona will have less per grid. He added the system in Arizona would not be able to stand days of 130 degrees.
“Even under these (extreme) conditions a majority of the transformers held up well,” Smith said. He said only a tenth of a percent of transformers actually malfunctioned although Smith said that was still enough to cause major issues.
He said the electrical company will now regroup and go over whether the heat storm that has cooked the area is a new trend or just an anomaly. If they decide it could reoccur, he said, PG&E will then see what changes it needs to make.
Local residents have said that PG&E needs to change its ways. Throughout the power outage Morgan Hill and Gilroy residents complained the electrical company was being less than honest. A resident would call a toll-free line and be told by an automatic message that their power would be back on within a two-hour period. One resident said that time frame changed eight times throughout the weekend.
“I don’t really have confidence in that they’ve found the problem,” said Greg Costa, whose power returned on Tuesday, July 25 after three days without power only to go back out early Wednesday morning.
Costa said all he asks is that the company be honest with its customers. If they are low on the priority list, then so be it, just as long as they know and can make plans around it. Instead Costa said he was told over and over that the power would go back on at any point, only to sit in the dark for days.
Smith tried to put to rest that PG&E was lying to its customers and said the way the company was distributing information to customers was unacceptable and needed to change.
But Costa was not satisified.
“If we’ve got a problem with the grid system then they need to let us know ahead of time,” Costa said. “Apparently, if it breaks they have a heck of a time getting it back up again.”
Residents without power saw cooling after July 27 when temperatures reached the mid-90s, the lowest it had been in a week and far cooler than the triple digits experienced the weekend of July 22-23.
Brian Babcock is an intern who recently graduated from San Francisco State University. You can reach him at 847-7240 or bb******@gi************.com.
