Here’s what seems to work in Miami to keep deaths down as temperatures soar

MIAMI (AP) — Despite a record 46-day streak of triple digit feels-like temperatures, Miami’s unprecedented brutal summer last year wasn’t that deadly, contrasting with the rest of the nation where federal records show heat fatalities nationally spiked to a 45-year high.

One of the reasons is that Miami takes heat seriously, not just reacting when temperatures soar, but planning months in advance. Officials talk to vulnerable people, install air conditioning units early and essentially figure out what to do when things get nasty and practice at it. The Miami-Dade government and the local National Weather Service office team up to treat heat like something more scary, but often less deadly.

When Jane Gilbert took over three years ago as the county’s heat officer, one of the first in an increasingly warmer nation, she said Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told her “I want you to prepare our people on the level that we do our hurricane season.”

Because Miami averages a hurricane landfall nearby every six years or so, according to the National Hurricane Center, getting ready for storm season is a big and quite public deal with media, stores and government all talking about preparations.