Workers come prepared to survive sizzling shifts
Five months ago, people in the region were straining their backs from hoisting heaps of snow and many surely were muttering to themselves that summer weather couldn’t come soon enough. Well, those summer days have arrived – with a vengeance.
The recent heat surge that has had temperatures in the 90s the past few days is expected to remain in the mid-90s through today, according to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh. Temperatures soared into the 90s or higher along much of the East Coast on Wednesday.
Brenda Walls, a flagger with the state Department of Transportation who was working Tuesday in a construction zone on Connellsville Street in North Union Township, said she knew she would have to come to work this week prepared to battle the heat.
“I went out the other night and bought a new water fan,” she said, as she stood in the sweltering mid-afternoon sunshine. “It was definitely a blessing on a day like today.”
Walls, who has worked for 10 years as a flagger, said that she has been through the hottest days of summer and also the coldest days of winter. But, as the perspiration rolled down her face, she didn’t hesitate to say what weather type of she prefers working in.
“I would much rather have this heat than the cold,” she said. “In the winter, when the wind chill is below zero, you have so many layers of clothes on you can’t even move.”
Walls added that the most important thing to remember when working outside in the heat is to stay hydrated. By early afternoon, she said that she already had drunk eight bottles of water. She also was well equipped with an umbrella, a stool to rest on, a cold, wet rag to hang around her neck and her new miniature fan that sprays water.
“You have to come prepared for this,” she said.
Nearby, PennDOT construction worker Tom McBride, his face drenched with sweat as he worked on untangling a rope, said he doesn’t care too much for the heat.
“Working out here on a day like today is miserable,” he said, adding that he and his partner, Jeff Sboray, had been through about two gallons of water by early afternoon.
“It’s not too fun to be out here today,” said Sboray.
They both added that they preferred working in the colder weather, rather than the heat.
While some people had no choice but to be out in the scorching heat, Uniontown resident Lisa Bobrick decided to take her dog, Thunder, for an afternoon walk to the post office. As she leaned over to give Thunder a drink of water, she said it was going to be a very short walk.
“It is way too hot out here,” she said.
According to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, the area may begin to feel a relief from the heat on Friday, when high temperatures are expected to be in the low 80s and remain that way throughout the weekend.