City of Spokane opens cooling centers for people to escape heat

June 26, 2021 6:50 PM

Elenee Dao,

Posted: June 26, 2021 6:50 PM

Updated: June 28, 2021 7:33 AM

by Elenee Dao

SPOKANE, Wash. – About a thousand spots will be open across Spokane for people to cool off this weekend and well into the next.

The city is utilizing multi-purpose rooms in the Looff Carrousel building as well as public libraries to help people escape from the heat.

Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward was at the opening on Saturday to tour the cooling center at the Looff Carrousel. Seventy-two seats were set up as well as a tent outside for those wanting to be under the shade outdoors.

Earlier this week, City Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson criticized the administration for not opening cooling centers sooner, as well as not having more permanent solutions.

“We were planning on what were going to do on the carousel for several days,” Woodward responded. “We wanted to make sure we had the facilities, that we have staffing and what those hours were going to look like and utilizing the infrastructure we already have, and the facilities we already had in place.”

The cooling center at the Looff Carrousel building is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for at least the next week as Spokane has triple digit temps in the forecast.

COVID-related capacity restrictions have been lifted for cooling centers as the northwest deals with the historic heatwave.

LIST: Cooling centers across the Inland Northwest