As Temperatures Soar, One In Six US Families Can't Pay Their Utility Bill

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At least 10 people died during extreme heat in one southern Texas community over a span of about two weeks in June.

Nearly all had one thing in common.

“The vast majority do not have air conditioning in their homes. They either have the fans off, or they have fans on but not proper ventilation,” Webb County, Texas, Medical Examiner Dr. Corinne Stern told the Associated Press. “There has been at least one or two that have air conditioning but don’t want to run it due to the bill.”

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W​ebb County, with a population of about 267,000, includes the city of Laredo on the Mexico border. N​early 26% of people there live in poverty. That's about twice the national median.

B​ut not being able to afford air conditioning or pay utility bills isn't just a problem in areas like Webb County.

About 20 million households in the U.S., or one in six, are behind on their utility bills right now, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association, or NEADA. The association represents state programs that help low-income families pay their utility bills and advocates for more funding to help reduce energy costs.

NEADA predicted in early July that the cost of cooling a home would rise 11% this year.

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M​eanwhile, July was the hottest single month ever recorded on Earth, and the frequency of heat waves in major U.S. cities has increased from an average of two per year in the 1960s to six a year during the 2010s and 2020s.

“So now, we’re having back-to-back heat waves. So what a family could have done, say, for example, five years ago, maybe the idea was that a week in the summer was very uncomfortable and you could turn on the air conditioning just for that week," Mark Wolfe, executive director of the NEADA, told weather.com in a recent interview.

“Now you can’t do that anymore. Now you have to turn the air conditioning on all summer. it’s very, very different.”

You Don't Have To Be Outside For Heat To Kill

"Being inside a home during a deadly heat wave can be a quite toxic combination," Dr. Neil Gandhi, regional medical director of emergency medicine for Houston Methodist Hospital, said in a recent interview.

"What happens in a sealed house, especially one which is lacking proper circulation or a house which doesn't have A.C., is that temperatures can rise quite quickly."

T​hat can lead to heat illness, heat stroke and death.

W​hile there is no exact criteria, Gandhi said inside temperatures around 84 or 85 degrees are when air conditioning becomes crucial.

"I think it's extremely important for (people without air conditioning) to have a general awareness of what their temperature is throughout the day and what the forecast will be," Gandhi said.

"It's also very important for them to take stock of who's in the house with them frequently."

For example, the very old and very young are most at risk.

"Those two extremes of population, the elderly and the pediatric populations, are two groups which are extremely impacted by even minor alterations in the heat," Gandhi said. "Recommendations that we would make are opening windows when possible, turning on fans, staying hydrated."

(MORE: Here’s How To Stay Cool Inside During A Heat Wave)

G​andhi said the 18 emergency departments in his jurisdiction saw an uptick of about 25 to 30 additional patients per day over the past few weeks on days when temperatures rose above 100 degrees.

Heat Shouldn't Be The Killer That It Is

Heat has killed more people in the U.S. on average each year over the last three decades than lightning, tornadoes and hurricanes combined, according to the National Weather Service.

Because local, state and federal agencies often count and track heat deaths differently, official numbers vary widely.

The average number tracked annually by the National Weather Service is 168. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts it at about 700. Other experts say it could be as much as 10 times that many.

(​MORE: America's Top Weather Killer Is Not Tornadoes, Flooding Or Lightning)

E​xperts say there's no reason for it to be that way. Wolfe advocates for more assistance for families who struggle to pay bills. Gandhi says if people don't have air conditioning, they need to get to someplace cooler. That could be a friend or family's house, or a local cooling center.

S​tern puts it more bluntly.

"Deaths ruled by heat stroke are ruled accidents, and accidents by definition are preventable," Stern told the Texas Tribune. "All of these deaths could have been prevented."

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