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Watts Towers in Los Angeles in June.
Photo by Shutterstock.
“Heat is a silent and largely invisible killer. It is, in fact, actually the deadliest of all weather-related disasters combined,” says Edith de Guzman, co-founder of the LA Cooling Collaborative. She says, “I like to think of the image of a kid with a magnifying glass concentrating the sun into one area while surrounding areas remain untouched.”
It’s no accident that some local neighborhoods are turning into “urban heat islands,” according to Henrik Minassians-Palasan at CalStateNorthridge. “It goes back in history … to redlining and racially restrictive land covenants” in places including Watts and South East Los Angeles.