Power shutoffs, no A/C, outdoor work. In a nation built on inequality, heat’s victims are exactly who you’d expect.
By Willy Blackmore
Word In Black
It wasn’t extremely hot when Shauna Thomas’ electricity was shut off in early June last year after she fell behind on her bills. In St. Ann, Missouri, the small city just north of Saint Louis, where Thomas lived, it was 88 degrees that day.
But in the weeks that followed, the temperature skyrocketed as a heat dome weather system settled over a large swath of the eastern half of the country, including Missouri.
On the day Thomas, 55, was found dead in her sweltering apartment, the temperature hit 96 degrees, and the heat index was well over 100.
In Dallas, a week earlier, the temperature was in the 90s as Jacob Taylor, a 28-year veteran letter carrier, delivered mail in one of the US Postal Service’s older mail trucks that lacked air conditioning. He never made it home from his shift.
“I was told that a customer saw him his mail together to make deliveries, all of a sudden, collapsed,” Kimetra Lewis of the Dallas Union for Letter Carriers said. Taylor died later that day. He was only 51.
Heat Is a Killer — and Victims Are Often Black
Extreme heat can be fatal, but it’s not always easy to see it as such. While high temperatures are the deadliest form of extreme weather, deaths from extreme heat are difficult to identify and are frequently misattributed to other causes.
But as temperatures soar due to climate change, a growing number of heat-related deaths are gaining attention from researchers and the media. And, like Thomas and Taylor, the victims are often Black.
In 2024, inmate Adrienne Boulware died in the Central California Women’s Facility when the temperature in Chowchilla hit 110 degrees. In 2023, Eugene Gates, another Dallas letter carrier, died while working his Dallas route during a heatwave.
“Heat may be a natural hazard, but who dies from it often reflects longstanding inequalities in housing, employment and access to cooling.”
A 2025 Center for American Progress report put it plainly: “Those who are most vulnerable to heat-related health effects include working-class, low-income, and majority Black or Latino communities, as well as people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, people who are pregnant, people who work or exercise outside, older adults, and young children.”
There were more than 21,000 heat-related deaths in the U.S. between 1999 and 2023, according to CAP, with the number of deaths per year steadily rising since 2016.
Thomas, the resident whose electricity was cut off, and Taylor, the letter carrier, fell victim to broader issues that turn dangerous heat into deadly heat: a rapidly warming climate triggering extreme weather events, a lack of air conditioning, and outdoor work.
Changing Laws
It was reported that Thomas had preexisting health issues before the heat wave, but officials concluded high temperatures and lack of air conditioning were factors in her death, if not the outright cause of it. Had the heat hit a few days earlier, or had state laws been a little different, her air conditioning might have been available to her when she needed it most.
There’s no provision for turning power back on when it gets dangerously hot.
Missouri has what’s called the Hot Weather Law, which bars utilities from shutting off electric or natural gas service when the temperature is forecast to reach at least 95 degrees or when the heat index reaches 105 degrees or higher. The law is in effect between June 1 and Sept. 30 every year.
While Thomas’ electricity was shut off after the Hot Weather Law took effect for the year, the temperature was below the 95-degree threshold. There’s no provision for turning power back on when it gets dangerously hot.
“We are saddened to learn about the passing of one of our customers,” a spokesperson from Ameren Missouri, the electric utility in St. Ann, said in a statement. “While we cannot share specific customer account details due to privacy considerations, our thoughts are with the individual’s family and friends.”
Incompatible With the Climate Crisis
For delivery drivers, the problem of extreme heat is twofold. Besides the outdoor portion of the work, they often drive for hours on end in vehicles that, more often than not, lack air conditioning.
The classic USPS mail truck is officially called a Grumman Long-Life Vehicle, and the postal service built up its fleet of these utilitarian trucks over the course of a decade starting in 1987. While many have surpassed their expected 25-year lifespan, in many ways, they’re incompatible with the climate crisis era.
“The only form of cooling in the USPS’s old Grumman LLV mail trucks … was a hilariously small fan or opening the side doors and driving as fast as possible,” according to Car and Driver.
Without A/C, the temperature inside the mail trucks can exceed outdoor temperatures on hot, sunny days, which can quickly become dangerous. The Postal Service is updating its fleet, replacing LLVs with air-conditioned Next Generation Delivery Vehicles. The majority of the trucks will be all-electric too.
But the process will take time, and summers are only getting hotter.
This article was originally published by Word In Black.
