ATLANTA — Throughout the metro, thousands of people battled the sun as temperatures climbed to near-record highs.
“You got to be a different kind of person to be able to endure these types of temperatures,” Christopher Gregory, owner of CMG Landscape and Maintenance, told Channel 2’s Michael Doudna.
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Gregory and his team were hard at work Tuesday. He has worked to fulfill residential and government contracts since 2017 and has deadlines to meet.
“When you’re doing government contracting, you got fulfillment and the commitment that you got to keep. So rain, sleet or snow, the government, they don’t play,” Gregory said.
He says he has an eight-water bottle minimum for his employees and tries to make sure they take needed breaks to prevent exhaustion.
And they are far from alone, as firefighters also are forced to battle the increased temperature.
“We’re getting a great uptick in calls for dehydrated people,” Atlanta Fire Captain Steve Owen said.
He says firefighters facing these calls have to be careful as the temperature creates another work hazard.
“It’s very intense, especially with the heat coming on right now,” Owen said.
He says firefighters prepare for hot days like this by loading up on electrolytes the night before and having cold drinking water on their fire trucks and engines.
However, people can help firefighters by taking care of themselves.
“Heat can affect people in just a few minutes,” said Dr. Danny Branstetter, Vice President of Quality and Safety at Emory.
He says in temperatures like this, it can take less than 15 minutes for people to feel the effects.
“Really, your body’s not able to regulate its temperature effectively, i.e. cool down despite the external temperature. So sweating, the things we do normally to cool our bodies down is impaired because of the extreme heat,” Branstetter said.
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