In Canada, officials estimate dozens of people across British Columbia have died in connection with the record-shattering, climate change-driven heat wave that engulfed the western U.S. and Canada in recent days. Over 230 deaths have been reported in the region since Friday, around 100 more than would be considered normal in that time span. In Edmonton, Alberta, community outreach workers shifted their focus from COVID prevention to making sure unhoused people could survive the dangerously high temperatures.

Verna Fischer: “There’s going to be a lot of people and going to be ending up in the hospital and being really, really sick from this, because they don’t — some of them don’t know how to look after themselves.”