CHULA VISTA, Calif. — The Norman Park Senior Center and the Chula Vista Library are both serving as cooling zones for people in the City of Chula Vista.
This comes after Governor Gavin Newsom announced a State of Emergency and a Flex Alert for California, in response to the above-average temperatures.
Governor Newsom says the Flex Alert will be from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday night and will be used to increase energy production and reduce the risk of outages.
"Take a look at your 5-day forecast. We are looking at yet another heat dome,” said Newsom, in a Wednesday afternoon address. "Hots are getting a lot hotter. The reality is we're living in an era of extremes: extreme heat, extreme drought."
With temperatures expected to be high for the next several days, everyone who can, likely will want to turn up their AC. Governor Newsom says that's why he's calling for a Flex Alert.
That's also why Aaron Ruiz with the Norman Park Senior Center says they're expanding their cooling zone hours into the Labor Day holiday.
"We've decided to stay open because it's important for those who don’t have AC or can make their way to the movie theater or mall to cool off,” said Ruiz. “We're a center that a lot of older adults rely on for programming and just for hanging out with some friends, so we're going to open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday."
Joan Sullivan has been coming to the senior center to stay active for years. She shared with us, "I don't have air conditioning. I just live a few miles down the road and I really appreciate the air conditioning here." Joan said that it was starting to get too hot. “I was watching channel 8 this morning and the weather is supposed to be 85 in Chula Vista, and it's supposed to be like 95 on Sunday. What?!"
Ruiz says they want to let more people know that the Norman Park Senior Center is available.
"I think a lot of people don't know about it. They pass by the center and are probably curious as to what goes on inside," said Ruiz.
Ruiz also says, if you don’t have reliable transportation, they can help with that too if you live in Chula Vista and want to come to the senior center via their shuttle service.
"It's a free service that gets you from your home to the senior center," said Ruiz.
- To find more cooling zones in the City of Chula Vista, click here.
- To find cooling zones for San Diego County, click here.
- To find cooling zones for the City of San Diego, click here.
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