Extreme heat prompts cool preparations for Pride weekend, hydration stations around city

Keeping people cool in extreme heat is part of the plan this weekend in Winnipeg as the Pride festival gets underway under a blazing sun.

"Safety is number 1 for our event always, and this year, the added safety is making sure people are staying hydrated," Pride Winnipeg president Barry Karlenzig said.

"We don't want to see people with heat stroke or randomly passing out on the site because of the high heat."

Free water refill stations, tents with screen walls to allow air flow and a first aid area with extra ice on hand are all part of Karlenzig's game plan for the event at The Forks.

There are four water stations around the site and Pride Winnipeg is also bringing in a water trailer with nine spigots for refilling bottles.

"It almost looks like little draft taps that you would see at a beer garden," Karlenzig said.

The Pride festival begins at noon on Saturday with various events throughout the day until 6:45 p.m. Events continue on Sunday following the Pride parade.

The two-kilometre parade starts at the legislative building at 11 a.m. Sunday. The temperature is expected to be pushing 30 C by the time it ends at The Forks.

There are more than 160 entries registered for the parade and more than 10,000 people registered to walk in it, Karlenzig said.

"That's record numbers for this organization, and we couldn't be happier to see that," he said.

That means underscoring the importance of taking caution in the heat.

"One of the biggest things we tell everybody is make sure to wear a hat. It's Pride weekend, we understand that when people are going out to events and stuff, they want their hair to look amazing [and] they want to look amazing," Karlenzig said.

"Take the amazing out of it [or] find an amazing hat to wear, because it's going to be very hot."

Environment Canada has issued heat warnings for Winnipeg and several communities in southern Manitoba as the region continues to experience a period of hot and humid weather — temperatures in the low 30s with humidex values closer to 38.

The high heat is expected to linger for the next three days. Even the overnight temperatures are expected to be around or even above 20 C.

The normal high and low for this time of year is 22 C and 8 C.

The City of Winnipeg also has offerings on tap for parched people and pets. Three hydration stations, which feature a bottle-filling spout, have been set up to offer drinking water and can be accessed 24 hours a day.

They are located at:

• Central Park (near 406 Edmonton St.).
• Selkirk Avenue at Powers Street (near 469 Selkirk at the Bell Tower).
• Broadway Neighbourhood Centre (near 185 Young St.).

This is the second summer for the hydration stations, which have been set up in the same spots as last year. The locations are based on need and past experience, said Lisa Gilmour, the city's emergency management co-ordinator.

They address limitations faced by those in the city who are unsheltered and have more difficulty accessing clean water.

"We did an assessment … on where we felt there wasn't a lot of available water in the city, or where it was a little bit harder to get water inside, and where we thought there'd be a lot of people," Gilmour said.

During previous heat waves, portable water-tank trailers were parked in high-need areas. The advantage of the hydration stations is they are connected to fire hydrants, which eliminates the need for refilling.

"It's cold water right from the system," Gilmour said.

In the event the hydrant is needed for a fire, crews can turn off a valve to the hydration station and connect their hoses.

"We worked with our water and waste department to figure out which hydrants would work, because not all hydrants are suitable to have a station attached," Gilmour said.