Looking To Escape The Heat? NYC Reminding Residents 200 Cooling Centers Are Open, Spray Caps Put On Hydrants
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- With social distancing still a top priority, the city is stepping up efforts to keep residents safe and cool.
The sun was blasting down on East New York, Brooklyn on Monday, the humidity weighing heavy like a wet blanket at Martin Luther King Jr. Playground.
"It's unbearable," Tara Renee told CBS2's Hazel Sanchez.
"It has been like a heat wave. It has been very, very hot," Dakota Broomes added.
MORE: New York City Enters Its First Official Heat Wave This Year
Renee brought her daughters, 7-year-old Dakota and 3-month-old Keoni, to the closest place to find relief.
But deep in the borough and far from a body of water, "It's kind of difficult. We depend on either the sprinklers or the pools. So if the pools are not open, then we come to the sprinklers and if the sprinklers are closed then what to do, I guess, stay home?" Renee said.
"Just got out of the sprinklers. Bring it down. Sit in the shade and just relax," added Kevin Gambrell of East New York.
As part of the Cool It NYC and Cool Streets initiatives, the city opened more than 200 cooling centers across the five boroughs, including one at P.S. 13 on Pennsylvania Avenue in Brooklyn.
MORE: Find A Cooling Center Near You
Andrew D'Amora, first deputy commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management, said COVID-19 precautions have been made, requiring masks and providing them to anyone who needs one. Attendance has been minimal.
"We are open just in case, so if you need to come, come," D'Amora said.
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City parks, like one in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, have their sprinklers going, along with cooling and misting sites. City-wide, more than 300 hydrants are opened with spray caps, though Sanchez saw local residents open one up on their own.
"Don't do that at all. Visit your local fire house and a spray cap will be provided and then they will turn it on for you," D'Amora said.
Once the water started to flow, people felt a lot better.
"The kids, they've already been in the house for three months, so I bring them outside as much as I can during the heat wave," Tina Alston said.
