Heat kills by pushing the human body beyond its limits. In extreme heat and high humidity, evaporation is slowed and the body must work extra hard to maintain a normal temperature.

Most heat disorders occur because the victim has been overexposed to heat or has over-exercised for his or her age and physical condition. Older adults, young children, and those who are sick or overweight are more likely to succumb to extreme heat.

Conditions that can induce heat-related illnesses include stagnant atmospheric conditions and poor air quality. Consequently, people living in urban areas may be at greater risk from the effects of a prolonged heat wave than those living in rural areas. Also, asphalt and concrete store heat longer and gradually release heat at night, which can produce higher nighttime temperatures known as the “urban heat island effect.”

How can I protect myself from extreme heat?

Extreme Heat: Know the Terms

Heat Wave
Prolonged period of excessive heat, often combined with excessive humidity.

Heat Index
A number in degrees Fahrenheit (F) that tells how hot it feels when relative humidity is added to the air temperature. Exposure to full sunshine can increase the heat index by 15 degrees.

Heat Cramps
Muscular pains and spasms due to heavy exertion. Although heat cramps are the least severe, they are often the first signal that the body is having trouble with the heat.

Heat Exhaustion
Typically occurs when people exercise heavily or work in a hot, humid place where body fluids are lost through heavy sweating. Blood flow to the skin increases, causing blood flow to decrease to the vital organs. This results in a form of mild shock. If not treated, the victim’s condition will worsen. Body temperature will keep rising and the victim may suffer heat stroke.

Heat Stroke
A life-threatening condition. The victim’s temperature control system, which produces sweating to cool the body, stops working. The body temperature can rise so high that brain damage and death may result if the body is not cooled quickly.

Sun Stroke
Another term for heat stroke.

Before Extreme Heat

To prepare for extreme heat, you should:

• Install window air conditioners snugly; insulate if necessary.
• Check air-conditioning ducts for proper insulation.
• Install temporary window reflectors (for use between windows and drapes), such as aluminum foil-covered cardboard, to reflect heat back outside.
• Weather-strip doors and sills to keep cool air in.
• Cover windows that receive morning or afternoon sun with drapes, shades, awnings, or louvers. (Outdoor awnings or louvers can reduce the heat that enters a home by up to 80 percent.)
• Keep storm windows up all year.

During a Heat Emergency

What you should do if the weather is extremely hot:

• Stay indoors as much as possible and limit exposure to the sun.
• Stay on the lowest floor out of the sunshine if air conditioning is not available.
• Consider spending the warmest part of the day in public buildings such as libraries, schools, movie theaters, shopping malls, and other community facilities. Circulating air can cool the body by increasing the perspiration rate of evaporation.
• Eat well-balanced, light, and regular meals. Avoid using salt tablets unless directed to do so by a physician.
• Drink plenty of water. Persons who have epilepsy or heart, kidney, or liver disease; are on fluid-restricted diets; or have a problem with fluid retention should consult a doctor before increasing liquid intake.
• Limit intake of alcoholic beverages.
• Dress in loose-fitting, lightweight, and light-colored clothes that cover as much skin as possible.
• Protect face and head by wearing a wide-brimmed hat.
• Check on family, friends, and neighbors who do not have air conditioning and who spend much of their time alone.
• Never leave children or pets alone in closed vehicles.
• Avoid strenuous work during the warmest part of the day. Use a buddy system when working in extreme heat, and take frequent breaks.

Additional Information

An emergency water shortage can be caused by prolonged drought, poor water supply management, or contamination of a surface water supply source or aquifer.

Drought can affect vast territorial regions and large population numbers. Drought also creates environmental conditions that increase the risk of other hazards such as fire, flash flood, and possible landslides and debris flow.

Conserving water means more water available for critical needs for everyone. Appendix A contains detailed suggestions for conserving water both indoors and outdoors. Make these practices a part of your daily life and help preserve this essential resource.

First Aid for Heat-Induced Illnesses

Extreme heat brings with it the possibility of heat-induced illnesses. The following table lists these illnesses, their symptoms, and the first aid treatment.

Author unknown

There’s a story told about an elderly lady in Arkansas, where the state voted to increase welfare payments to indigents. Hoping for a tear-jerker story, a television interviewer went into the back hills where many welfare recipients lived.

The old woman he chose to interview lived in a one-room shack: drafty in winter; stifling in summer. Her bed was a few rough planks nailed together, with a pine-needle mattress. A couple thin blankets and a fireplace, did little to protect her from the cold.

Her furniture, a table and two chairs, were fashioned from the same rough wood as her bed. Some shelves held a few cans of food from the general store, a three mile walk down the road. Several jars of preserves and a few squash completed her larder.

She had no fridge or freezer. The fireplace provided heat for cooking. With no phone or television her only connection with the outside world was an old radio that pulled in two or three local stations on a good day.

The old woman had one convenience, running water. A crystal clear stream gurgled a short distance behind her home.

A small garden near her back door provided fresh vegetables during the summer, and some squash and turnips for the winter. A tidy flower garden brightened the front of her house.

The television crew arrived and set up their big expensive cameras. Their mobile station broadcast pictures of the woman and the place she called home.

Eventually the interviewer asked the old woman, “If the government gave you $200 more each month, what would you do with it?”

Without hesitation the woman replied, “I’d give it to the poor.”

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

By Lillian Leader, June 2, 2006

Have you ever looked, really looked, at a soldier’s face? Sometimes it’s young, barely an adult, the hopes of youth still painted in its features. Sometimes it’s old; older than faith, older than wisdom, older than time. And sometimes…sometimes it’s a bit of both all at once.

Sometimes it’s gritty and pained, remembering the face of another who has fallen. Sometimes it’s laughing, pleased to have a moment of peace. Most of the time it’s proud because it knows, oh yes it knows, the world is a different place – a better place because of it.

Next time you look at a soldier’s face, see if you can find that glint of pride. Sometimes it’s hidden and you have to search it out. You’ll find it in the eyes; always in the eyes. For the eyes are indeed the windows to the soul, even a soldier’s soul.

And when you’ve carefully examined every feature of that soldier’s face, stand up straight and tall, and smile your best smile. Thank that soldier, because it does what some cannot or will not. It defends what it believes to be right with its very life.

But more important, it defends a perfect stranger: you. And when you see a flag-covered casket, stand in memoriam of all the soldier’s faces you’ve examined. For when one of them falls, they all fall. And when one of them stands, they all stand.

Shouldn’t we stand with them?

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

This Memorial Day weekend, we ask that you make sure to pause and remember what this holiday is REALLY all about. Even better– make sure your children and grandchildren realize what it’s about. This video tells it all, without a word spoken.

By Capt. John Rasmussen (Army News Service, May 22, 2002)

EAGLE BASE, Bosnia and Herzegovina — It was raining “cats and dogs” and I was late for physical training.

Traffic was backed up at Fort Campbell, Ky., and was moving way too slowly. I was probably going to be late and I was growing more and more impatient.

The pace slowed almost to a standstill as I passed Memorial Grove, the site built to honor the soldiers who died in the Gander airplane crash, the worst redeployment accident in the history of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

Because it was close to Memorial Day, a small American flag had been placed in the ground next to each soldier’s memorial plaque.

My concern at the time, however, was getting past the bottleneck, getting out of the rain and getting to PT on time.

All of a sudden, infuriatingly, just as the traffic was getting started again, the car in front of me stopped.

A soldier, a private of course, jumped out in the pouring rain and ran over toward the grove.

I couldn’t believe it! This knucklehead was holding up everyone for who knows what kind of prank. Horns were honking.

I waited to see the butt-chewing that I wanted him to get for making me late.

He was getting soaked to the skin. His BDUs were plastered to his frame. I watched-as he ran up to one of the memorial plaques, picked up the small American flag that had fallen to the ground in the wind and the rain, and set it upright again.

Then, slowly, he came to attention, saluted, ran back to his car, and drove off.

I’ll never forget that incident. That soldier, whose name I will never know, taught me more about duty, honor, and respect than a hundred books or a thousand lectures.

That simple salute — that single act of honoring his fallen brother and his flag — encapsulated all the Army values in one gesture for me. It said, “I will never forget. I will keep the faith. I will finish the mission. I am an American soldier.”

I thank God for examples like that.

And on this Memorial Day, I will remember all those who paid the ultimate price for my freedom, and one private, soaked to the skin, who honored them.

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

By Rob Gilbert, editor of “Bits & Pieces”

Last spring I was walking in a park. A short distance ahead of me was a mom and her three-year-old daughter. The little girl was holding on to a string that was attached to a helium balloon. All of a sudden, a sharp gust of wind took the balloon from the little girl. I braced myself for some screaming and crying.

But, no! As the little girl turned to watch her balloon go skyward, she gleefully shouted out, “Wow!”

I didn’t realize it at that moment, but that little girl taught me something.

Later that day, I received a phone call from a person with news of an unexpected problem. I felt like responding with “Oh no, what should we do?”

But remembering that little girl, I found myself saying, “Wow, that’s interesting! How can I help you?”

One thing’s for sure — life’s always going to keep you off balance with its unexpected problems. That’s a given. What’s not preordained is your response. You can choose to be frustrated or fascinated.

No matter what the situation, a fascinated “Wow!” will always beat a frustrated “Oh, no.”

So the next time you experience one of life’s unexpected gusts, remember that little girl and make it a “Wow!” experience. The “Wow!” response always works.

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

He’s played with the likes of Johnny & June, Charlie Daniels, and Hank Williams Jr.  He’s written songs for Rascal Flatts and Montgomery Gentry.  He’s even played for the President.  And he’s only 19 years old!!

His name is Hunter Hayes, and he scored the opening slot on one of the biggest concert tours of the summer of 2011, the Speak Now Tour with Taylor Swift, so I’m sure you’ll be hearing his name alot in the coming months.  Hunter started playing a toy accordian at age 2, and hasn’t stopped since.  He learned by ear how to play keyboards, guitar, drums and more, and plays them ALL on his debut single, “Storm Warning”!  Some may be quick to discount Hunter because of his cute looks and young age, but his songwriting and vocals show a wisdom well beyond his 19 years.  Plus, if you have a teenage daughter that you’re trying to sway to Country music, just show her this video…she will be in love!

Find out more about Hunter at www.hunterhayes.com, and listen for his fresh Wolf track, Storm Warning, right here on The Wolf!

xoxo
-Charley

Author Unknown — from ‘E-Mail Ministry’

My mother used to ask me what the most important part of the body is, and through the years I would take a guess at what I thought was the correct answer. When I was younger I thought sound was very important to us as humans so I said, “My ears, mommy.” She said “No, many people are deaf. But you keep thinking about it and I will ask you again soon.”

Several years passed before she asked me again. Since my last attempt I contemplated a correct answer. So I told her, “Mommy, sight is very important to everybody, so it must be our eyes.” She looked at me and told me that I was learning fast, but the answer is not correct because there are many people who are blind.

Stumped again I continued my quest for knowledge and over the years she asked me a couple more times and always the same answer, “No. But you are getting smarter every year my young child.”

Then last year my Grandpa died. Everybody was hurt. Everybody was crying. Even my father cried. I remember that especially because it is only the second time I saw him cry. My Mom looked at me when it was our turn to say our final good-bye to Grandpa. She asked me, “Do you know the most important body part yet my son?” And I was shocked she asked me this now. I always thought this was a game between her and me. She saw the confusion on my face and told me, “This question is very important. It shows that you have really lived in your life. For every body part you gave me in the past I have told you that it was wrong and given you an example why. But today is the day you need to learn this important lesson.”

She looked down at me like only a mother can. I saw her eyes well up with tears. She said, “Son the most important body part is your shoulder.” Was it because it held up my head? She replied, “No, because it can hold the head of a friend or loved one when they cry. Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on sometime in life my son. I only hope that you have enough love and friends that you will always have a shoulder to cry on when you need it.” Then and there I knew the most important body part was not selfish, it was sympathetic to the pain of OTHERS.

© Wake Up With the Wolf Show – 93.1 the Wolf – WPAW.  Please share this with your friends!

Last week, we received some disturbing news from our friend Melissa Fourrier, executive director of Greensboro-based Foster Friends of North Carolina. Due to budget cuts that are being made by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, her organization – which helps roughly 700 foster children in Forsyth & Guilford counties – may lose all its county funding.

If Foster Friends of NC sounds familiar to you, it should. This is the organization that 93.1 The Wolf and the Kevin Harvick Foundation helped through its “Christmas for Kids” fundraiser in December 2010. Many of you donated generously to this great cause, but it may not be enough. Melissa tells us that Foster Friends may have to shut down in August after operating for six years.

We ask you to help this worthy organization in whatever capacity you’re able to.  They need not only donations, but volunteers. Without the services of FFNC, hundreds of Triad-area foster kids will be left without so many of the “little things” we take for granted that make life special.

Click to learn more about Foster Friends of NC, but please don’t wait!

Thanks and God bless,

Chuck & Leanne