Swimmers dive into the Willamette River from a dock at Sellwood Riverfront Park during a heatwave in Portland, Oregon on June 28, 2021.
At least 95 people have died in Oregon in connection to the dangerous heat wave that swept through the Pacific Northwest, according to the Associated Press via KATU. Gov. Kate Brown called the latest fatality report "absolutely unacceptable."
“Following events like this we always do reviews and see what we can do better next time,” she said Sunday (July 4) on CBS' Face the Nation. Despite setting up cooling centers, providing water, and warning residents ahead of the record-breaking temperatures, “We still lost too many lives," Brown remarked.
The unprecedented weather has possibly led to hundreds of deaths from the U.S. Northwest to southwestern Canada, reporters say. Portland alone saw triple-digit temperatures that not even Miami, Florida and Dallas, Texas usually see.
To make matters worst, some homes in the Pacific Northwest don't usually have air-conditioning units. As a result, residents flocked to hotels, pools, malls, and other locations to escape the heat. Firefighters were also on standby in case the hot weather triggered any wildfires, and officials enacted fireworks and burn bans across the state.
Scientists said the extreme weather like the heat dome is typically the result of human-caused climate change.