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This article was originally published on August 24 by Deceleration, a nonprofit online journal producing news and analysis at the intersection of environment and justice.
Deceleration Editor’s Note: On Thursday, August 22, 2024, a 46-year-old woman died on a sidewalk in the Five Points area of San Antonio in the midst of a brutal heat wave—an apparent victim of the day’s extreme temperatures. While the official high that day reached 106 degrees Fahrenheit, those temperatures are taken on the northside at San Antonio International Airport. Due to inequitable development patterns in urban areas and lots of heat-absorbing asphalt and concrete, temps across many more central neighborhoods are frequently much higher than what is recorded there. For example, Deceleration recorded heat index temps as high as 130 the day before in the downtown area. A family member confirmed to Deceleration that the woman was Jessica Witzel, a detail that has since been reported by other media. Deceleration Co-Editor Marisol Cortez had been supporting efforts to get Witzel, a family friend, off the streets and into medical care and stable housing. As Cortez writes here: Witzel’s death, much like that of Albert Garcia last summer, follows a pattern of lethally slow response time by local officials to the intertwined crises of climate, housing, and healthcare access for disabled people. — Greg Harman