For the last couple weeks the Twentynine Palms Senior Center has been doing double-duty as a “cooling center,” and that only happens when the heat index hovers around above 115 degrees. This last Wednesday by 3 o’clock in the afternoon, we hit that threshold easily. Diane is running the front desk at the senior center, and tells me and a woman named Linda that one of the air conditioners is struggling.
Linda: “But it’s nicer in here than it is out there and I am glad you’re having air conditioning problems because I don’t like it too cold!”
Linda and her husband Larry are frequent visitors to the Senior Center, and I had met them both a few weeks ago at the Twentynine Palms Visitor Center, where they were getting some help sending in a news tip. It was good to see them again, and it felt good in the cooling center – with 2 of the 3 air conditioners doing their best in the heavy and oppressive heat.
Today, Linda was doing crossword puzzles with Sandy…
Sandra: ”Actually my name is Sandra and it means ‘beautiful land.'”
She was at the center with her brother, and they both live together in a trailer in Twentynine Palms, where she says it can get pretty hot…
Sandra: “Yeah I walk out of our front door in the morning and I touched the inside of the door, and it’s hot already. It’s hot to the touch. I mean, I burnt my wrist and my arm on it.
Well we have an air conditioner but we have to use a generator to make the air conditioner work… and it only works in one room. “
Robert: Do you feel like it’s pretty comfortable in here?
Sandra: Oh yeah! This is way more comfortable than where we live.
Levi is wearing a crisp white polo and a beanie, and is about to turn 30. We talked about how the heat can make his days feel inverted, and that high temps aren’t the only danger you face being homeless in the desert..
Levi: “This year – right now – it’s kind of just my schedule is backwards… you know? I’ll go to sleep when the sun’s coming up and I’ll be up through the night, so I sleep through the heat. Because I’m “outside outside” – I don’t have a tent set up because we’re not really supposed to have tents, and I’ve been robbed quite a bit just because – you know – it’s kind of like ‘here I am.’
Honestly, I think I came here once last year. Because that’s a big thing you got to realize being homeless and stuff is like a lot of times people don’t have phones and what not and they don’t really listen to the radio so unless you hear it directly from someone you might have no idea about it.”
As of Thursday the basin is still under an excessive heat warning. And although the mercury dropped a few millimeters in some parts of the desert, Twentynine Palms still reached 116 yesterday. For Ms. Dorothy Rose, after the cooling center closes today at 5 she has a short trip to her next destination.
Dorothy: “I go to the AM/PM or the truck stop.”
Robert: “Does anyone give you any hassle out there?”
Dorothy: “No. I’m in the shade you know, it doesn’t matter. It’s all your perspective in life and what your outlook is. Because you can always know that even if your problems might seem hard to you – if you look around – a lot of people have it worse.
So it’s just a matter of appreciation and respect for what you’ve been given, and what you do with it as you go along and help others.”
If you are out this weekend and you think of it, pack a cooler with some frozen water bottles alongside some thawed ones, and hand them out to anyone who looks like they could use it. Located across from the Twentynine Palms Fire Department and next to the Basin Transit Center, the Senior Center is climate-controlled and has a backup generator.
The City of Twentynine Palms says that the Senior Center may extend its hours as a Cooling Center if the heat index stays at 115°F or higher.
Follow the City of Twentynine Palms on Instagram for updates.
