Scorching Heat Wave Arrives In San Diego, Doctors And Nurses Are Not Doing Okay, San Diego Political Scandals Inspire A Novel

Speaker 1: 00:00 Governor Newsome says, school districts have prepared for at-home classes. Speaker 2: 00:04 And we are now just beginning this journey together, uh, on a more robust approach to distance learning in this state. Speaker 1: 00:13 I'm Maureen Kavanaugh. This is KPBS mid day to day. Speaker 2: 00:16 Sure. Speaker 1: 00:24 A hot weekend and the forecast for San Diego and more of the same coming up, this particular heat wave Speaker 2: 00:31 And potentially more he waves in September are going to linger Speaker 1: 00:36 And looking for an antidote to pandemic fatigue. San Diego author T Jefferson Parker is out with a new thriller, stay with us for midday edition coming up next In his COVID-19 update today, governor Gavin Newsome focused on the start of the school year. The governor says he is anticipating that over 90% of students in the state are likely to start the school year with distance learning. He acknowledged the challenges that face students, parents, and school districts, because of that, Speaker 2: 01:20 This has to be a much more interactive process where we want to bring our students into the screen, truly engaged peer to peer, not just with the interaction, uh, of a teacher. And so we want a more dynamic engagement, uh, to the extent possible Speaker 1: 01:39 Newsome says the state is working with districts to try to bridge the digital divide and address the needs of special ed students. However, governor Newsome reiterated that the longterm goal of the state is to return students to in-person school classes. As soon as it is safely possible, turning from schools to healthcare for the last five months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the courage and professionalism of doctors, nurses, and hospital staff have turned them into heroes in the eyes of many Americans, but they are actually still human. And they're exhausted. KQBD science reporter. Leslie McClurg has been talking to some healthcare workers who are opening up about their mental health after many consecutive months working in the ICU, the Nora and chia was toast. All I saw Speaker 2: 02:32 COVID COVID Speaker 1: 02:34 I felt like every day was on repeat. She treats patients in LA County. It's the hardest hit County in the state with hundreds of thousands of cases and thousands of deaths, winch and Shia looked around nearly all of our patients were connected to a ventilator to breathe. Most were older, overweight, diabetic, and Latino. Seeing how disproportionately COVID has affected the Latino population. Being able to be Speaker 3: 03:00 That person for them now is what I always wanted as a child growing up in East LA. And she had dreamed of treating low income families like hers, but that comes with a big burden. It's just, it was just so emotional. I can say that I didn't cry often. And the heartache didn't end at work. When she had got home, her two young children ran towards her, but she had to run in the opposite direction. How's that is that not being able to hug your child when she's so happy that you're home because you've been gone for 14 hours since she had didn't embrace her kids until she scrubbed herself raw in a scalding shower, she's finally taking a month off to reconnect with them. But at the same time, I feel that duty of like, this is my specialty. This is what I signed up for. I have to be there. Victor sees narrows can relate. He's an ER doc in orange County, another hotspot. His hospital is running out of beds for patients. Many from families, just like his. Speaker 4: 04:01 I grew up very underserved. I come from a very humble family and I'm the first physician first person to graduate like college Speaker 3: 04:09 He's originally from Mexico, but now most of his family lives in LA. Social distancing has made it hard to feel close to it. Speaker 4: 04:16 We're very lovey Debbie hugging, kissing the cheek as a normal thing. When you say goodbye or say hi, you know, and it's like, it was hard, Speaker 3: 04:24 Even harder because Cisneros lives alone. Speaker 4: 04:27 You just feel trapped, right? Because you in the ER for 10 hours, which are intense, exhausting, it smells, people are vomiting, there's blood. Speaker 3: 04:39 So we used to look forward to coming home. Speaker 4: 04:41 And now you're like, I'm going to couch in front of a screen by myself. It's like, almost like you're in jail. Speaker 3: 04:48 Many of his friends don't want to hang out knowing he's around sick people Speaker 4: 04:53 And like this, I don't know how sustainable this can be. I know for a fact maybe physicians that are already burnt out, this is probably the tipping edge for them. Speaker 3: 05:02 You know, doctors, aren't the biggest help seekers suffering is kind of part of the profession to some degree, but people shouldn't be suffering. That's Debra Marin. She's a psychiatrist in New York city. She directs a brand new program designed to address issues like depression, anxiety, or post traumatic stress disorder. All of which are upright. Now in health care workers, the idea is to shore up people's resilience and be supportive of them. They need to feel like they're not in this alone. There's a hotline, a wellness app and workshops designed to help connect nurses and doctors. It's providing a model for hospitals in California. Marin says the most important step is to ask for help from a supervisor, a friend, a therapist. It's not bad advice for all of us. And that was KQBD science reporter. Leslie McClurg San Diego was in Speaker 1: 05:58 For a heat wave this weekend and well into next week. And while hot weather in August is nothing new for the region. The COVID-19 pandemic complicates. And in some cases prohibits, some of the usual way of San Diego is get to beat the heat and triple digit. Inland temperatures also raise concerns about fire dangers, which is also complicated by COVID concerns. Johnny Mae is Alex tardy meteorologist with the national weather service. Alex, welcome back. Thank you for having me on one is the forecast for the next few days. How hot will it get? Speaker 5: 06:32 So the forecast is for the heat we saw yesterday on Thursday to continue all the way through next week. And in fact, even higher temperatures, especially for our inland valleys for our mountains and our deserts. So one of the differences with this heat wave compared to some of the smaller heat waves we've seen so far this year is that our coastal areas are gonna warm up. But also our inland areas are going to see extended heat. So possibly even seven days or a week of unusually warm temperatures, Speaker 1: 07:08 There are some fires burning up in Los Angeles County and notably the Lake fire burning up in Las Angeles national forest. Does that mean though that we won't be at critical risk for a fire? Yeah. Speaker 5: 07:22 So that's a good question. We've already seen a lot of small fires even in San Diego County this summer, which is not unusual. Um, but what is unusual is this summer, we haven't seen any monsoon thunderstorm activity in our mountains. And the, what that does is it really makes things worse than they might normally be. So our fire threat is above average. So we have an elevated fire threat. And every time we see these heat waves like this, that go on and on, uh, it is common and this is what we expect over the next week or so that we will see some fires. So fire danger is elevated. It's not like what we see in the fall time, but it is elevated. And the fire you mentioned, uh, burned really hot and fast. We saw another one up in cherry Valley, uh, Riverside County that burned hot and fast Apple fire. So we need to be very careful and treat this in a situation that, uh, wildfires will spread quickly. If they start now, usually Speaker 1: 08:23 During a hot weekend like this, we would see crowds of people at San Diego beaches, but that's not something public health officials are encouraging this time around. So how does the national weather service advise people to keep cool during hot weather? Speaker 5: 08:38 Yeah. So a lot of us take it for granted, but obviously air conditioning is our number one source. If you don't have air conditioning, I don't have access to it throughout the day or even during the nighttime, the County and the two, one, one information center provides cooling centers. So we, we definitely advise those who don't have access to air conditioning, whether it be just for the peak of the day or at all to contact to one, one information center and see if there's a cooling center nearby. Normally you also could go to the mall, you could go to a restaurant, um, and those options just are not there because of the pandemic going on. So the next best thing, you know, would be like, you mentioned the beach. If you're able to get down to the beach, our water temperatures are still relatively cool in the upper sixties. So it is refreshing, but that's just a temporary relief. So cooling centers are really the main source, uh, for someone that really needs a break from the heat Speaker 1: 09:43 Into the next few weeks. Alex, if you would, as summer comes to a close what's the long range forecast. Speaker 5: 09:49 Yeah. Unfortunately I don't have any good news in that regard. So, so far this year, our coastal communities, San Diego Carlsbad, Oceanside Del Mar have been spared by a lot of these heat waves. And it's, it's mainly been felt over inland areas, especially our deserts, like Bracho Springs. Uh, they're seeing a really warm summer warmer than it should be. But our outlook indicates that this particular heat wave now and potentially more heat waves in September are gonna linger. And so once we get through this first heat wave, which will last, you know, through next week, it does look like on the horizon in late August or perhaps in early September that we're going to have to deal with more heat waves and not just in the deserts, but also over our coastal areas and our Valley areas. So it looks like above normal temperatures might stick around for a while as we go into the late summer, early fall. Speaker 1: 10:49 Okay. So we're all going to have to try to stay cool. Then I've been speaking with Alex tardy meteorologist for the national weather service. Alex, thank you so much. Speaker 5: 10:59 Yeah, let's try to stay as cool. Thank you. [inaudible] Speaker 1: 11:09 We're in the dog days of summer with most activities still closed down, looking at an uncertain future and it's left many of us searching for diversions. There couldn't be a better time for one of San Diego's best known writers to come out with his latest thriller T Jefferson Parker's new novel. Then she vanished weaves San Diego headlines and characters that we almost recognize into an alternate universe of suspense. And once again, Parker's pensive professional, private eye Roland Ford has to sort out all the answers except for himself T Jefferson Parker is a New York times bestselling author and a three time Edgar award winner and Jeff Parker welcome back. Oh, most to be here morning now, rolling forward, finds himself mixed up with a politician, a kidnapping, and a lot of chaos this time around what can you tell us about the plot? Speaker 6: 12:05 Yeah, a lot happens in this book, uh, like, like all good thrillers and most of my books, there's a lot of, uh, a lot of suspense and a lot of surprise, you know, in, in the opening scene of the book, Roland is hired by a California state assemblyman whose wife has gone missing, and this man hires roll into to find her. He's a PI that specializes in missing persons from that kind of humble, conventional pie novel beginning the story kind of spins out of control very quickly. And a wee Roland finds himself a way deep over his head. As, as you almost expect him to do Speaker 1: 12:41 Certain East County political scandal seems to have inspired some of the plot for then she vanished. Let's see, we have a politician who fought as a Marine in Iraq, finding himself in a campaign finance scandal. Hm. How do you gauge how much you can make your characters identifiable and how much you need to fictionalize? Speaker 6: 13:05 You know, it's always a fine line. I generally don't base characters on any one real person. Um, uh, I create, I create kind of composite sketches of people from various, uh, people that I know or I've seen on TV or met or interviewed or something. And, uh, in this case, you know, Dalton straight is a, you know, East County politician kind of a hard Scrabble guy. Um, and, and I, I composed him out of various, uh, political families and politicians that I've seen and known operating in this, in this area for, for decades. You know, there's no, there, there there's no, uh, scarcity of quote unquote, uh, you know, corrupt politicians to choose from. So, so Don straight is kind of a composite sketch of some people that you may recognize and some people that you want Speaker 1: 13:52 Now, just like the previous three novels in the role in Ford series, the action takes place all over San Diego County. What locations did you explore for this book? Speaker 6: 14:02 Well, Borrego, you know, Borrego Springs, I go down there fairly often, just as a, as a tourist, you know, to see the beautiful, you know, the wild flowers and hike the trails and experience the desert. So I put that in there, you know, um, I've got, uh, I've got a big focus on in this book on the East County out towards an into Imperial County. Um, I'm kind of fascinated by that rough, uh, hard Scrabble place, you know, the, the rocks and the Hills and the mountains and the heat and the agriculture and the whole, you know, world out there is so different than what you think of when you think of San Diego. And when you read about San Diego paper on TV or the movies or whatever, you know, it's always the sun and the surfers and the, and the beautiful city in America's finest and all that good stuff. And I've written about that plenty, but I wanted to explore the, kind of the, know the, the back country, a little bit of East County and Imperial County. And, uh, I had a lot of fun doing that. I hope my enthusiasm for the, for that hard, uh, desert place comes through, because I think it's fascinating to just to be out there and experienced Speaker 1: 15:05 One thing that this novel captures that really speaks to our current situation is the sense of society at a breaking point. Is that what you were thinking about while you were writing the book because he wrote it before the COVID pandemic, right? Speaker 6: 15:19 I did. And now that exactly is what I was thinking about when I went to write this book, Maureen say it was two years ago and I began it at that time. I, I felt the divisiveness in the country had reached almost a fever pitch. Um, there was so much violence in the air in Las Vegas, you know, the casino shooting in the nightclub in thousand Oaks and just one after another. And it dawned on me that, you know, the schools and the synagogues and the churches in the casinos and the nightclubs, nothing is nothing safe anymore, you know, and that really kind of got to me, and I just felt this kind of free spirited, free, free landing, freeloading, you know, violence in the air. And it really kind of bothered me. And I tried to put some of that into the book and capture these, these divisive and, uh, sort of chaotic times. And, and that was, that was before COVID. But I had enough foresight to, to set the book in an election year because I realized that we would be right here right now. Uh, my readers would be, you know, looking towards November and probably, you know, arguably one of the most important, uh, presidential elections that we've ever had in this, in this country. And so the book is trying to address politics, violence, divisiveness, and also be a good entertaining read. Speaker 1: 16:29 Wow, that's a large agenda. Now, the book, your new book, then she vanished has just been released and you would normally be going on a book tour. What are you doing? Speaker 6: 16:41 You know, something I'm staying in my little home office here and I'm writing a lot. I've written more pages, more good pages in the past six months since the lockdown than I've ever written in my life. Um, so I, I'm one of the very fortunate who are able to work at home. And I'm also fortunate because at the time that the lockdown came to us here in Fallbrook and in March, I had just begun a book for next year, not a role in Ford's story at all, and nothing to do with, with, with COVID at all, but a 1968 Laguna beach story, a coming of age story about a boy, looking for his older sister who has lost herself in the counterculture, a world of, of 1968 protests and drugs and hippies in, in, in Laguna beach, California. So I'm not only working a lot and writing a lot, but I'm, I've transported myself imaginatively to a world without COVID. And it's, it's kind of my way of avoiding it in a way Speaker 1: 17:40 Everybody has their own way of coping, I think, through this. So this is a remote book tour for you. You can't be there in persons. How are you connecting with your readers and getting feedback on your new book? Speaker 6: 17:52 It's really strange. It's really different. Um, I'm doing a lot of, uh, zoom, video, uh, conferences, I guess you call it with, with readers, um, kind of, uh, open forums, you know, and I'm hearing just, I'm beginning to hear their reactions to the book, but it, but it is different and it is strange, and I'm not getting that immediate, you know, sort of bookstore feedback that you, that you get when you're an author sitting at your little table and signing books and people are remarking on, you know, the, the work and what they think about it. So that's, that's all gone. And right now it's these kind of, kind of strange, um, zoom meetings with a bunch of faces on the screen at the same time. And, and you're kind of answering questions and trying to get a feel for how the book is, is, is making people react. Speaker 1: 18:36 I've been speaking with author T Jefferson Parker, his new book is called, then she vanished. He'll be speaking with readers about his new book in a zoom call tonight, sponsored by Laguna beach books. That event starts at 5:00 PM. Jeff Parker. Thank you so much. Speaker 6: 18:52 Thanks for having me on Maureen. You take care.