Preparing to Age in Place

We, those are great tips. I’ll make sure to keep them at the forefront. Thank you.

I'll bet I'm not the only person feeling concern about the heat wave.
PBS has a series "Weathered" by meteorologist Maiya May. It consists of short (10 minute) programs about climate issues around the country and world.
Heat waves kill people.
Disaster preparedness is something we need to consider as we age in place.
https://www.pbs.org/show/weathered/

I am new to this support group.

I live in Houston with my husband. We are both in the mid 70s. He still works as a federal judge (too stubborn to retire) but I left my job as a librarian and teacher many years ago. Our biggest challenge in Houston is the weather. Several days after Beryl with no power, ac, internet, tv, etc. We went out and sat in our cars in the driveway with the AC on for spells. Shortages of gas and food. But very very fortunate there was no flooding. In 2017 we were out of our house for months. We are also very fortunate to have heat and AC back today. Most of our friends do not. And the heat index has been over 100.

The simple fact is that these adjustments and the heat index get more difficult as you age. I have severe arthritis and use a walker as well as mild diabetes, cardio, and kidney problems. Am on a plant based diet. Not so easy to keep a special diet when it is hard to find or prepare any food at all. Try to keep as active as possible but the heat makes it difficult even when the AC works.

In any case glad to be in this group. Looking for tips and ideas as well as sharing complaints!

Whoops! Make that "power and AC", not "heat and AC".

I'm remembering living without a/c in the 1950s and 60s.
In the worst heat we wore bathing suits all day and took frequent cold showers and baths.
Rubbing the wrists with ice also helped us to cool down, or holding wrists under the cold water tap.
I was a kid then, but might do it again if our a/c fails.

We are fortunate that the lower level of our home is mostly below ground level, and maintains a temperature under 83F even without AC, no matter how hot it gets outdoors, as long as night temps fall below 80F. (my "cold stored" produce prefers below 65F, but that's not practical)
As city kids without AC, we often slept on a screen porch, then got up very early to do all the chores - the deal was if we finished by noon, Mom would take us, and cold supper, to a local beach and Dad would meet us there after work. As young adults with no AC, we closed our house up when the sun came up, then opened it after dark and used window fans to expel the hot air. On really miserable days, we retreated to the beach or local ice cream parlor to cool off at suppertime.

When we were college students one hot summer my sister invited me over and she and I and her roommates filled the bathtub with ice and stuck our bare feet in it!

We made a mistake I fear moving to AZ 2.5 years ago. The first summer in 22 was very hot of course it is the Desert. But 23 and now this Summer is off the charts. Not only Hot but Humid- and never really cools down in the night. Hate it!

Thank you so much for your post.
This is of great concern to me.

Is anyone using a device like Alexa in their home. I am thinking ahead to emergency calls in case of a fall if one is alone.