HeatRisk
Those “feel like” temperatures are hitting triple digits today for some of us according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service. The NWS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are testing a new heat tool. Their experimental HeatRisk tracker creates a new way of quantifying the risk of dangerous conditions associated with hot weather. They are taking feedback from the public until the end of September. Megan Borowski, a senior meteorologist with Florida Public Radio Emergency Network, joins Engage to explain the experimental heat tool and its potential impact on vulnerable populations.
Waffle House Index
Regardless of what time of day you are reading this, Waffle House is open. It is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year including all the holidays. A Former FEMA Administrator once said, “If you get there and the Waffle House is closed, that’s really bad.” That idea is what prompted the creation of the Waffle House Index. Ty Matejowsky is a professor of anthropology at UCF and author of “Smothered and Covered: Waffle House and the Southern Imaginary.” He joins Engage to explain why the index is a metric used to weigh storm severity and disaster recovery.
988 Lifeline and 211 Info Line
As Central Florida’s population continues to rise, so does the need for services for people in crisis. Help is just three numbers away. Heart of Florida United Way operates both the 988 and 211 hotlines. The agency reports that from March 2023 to March 2024, there were 11,769 calls from Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties answered which averages to about 30 suicide/crisis calls per day. Israel Navarro is the Director of Quality and Training for Heart of Florida United Way’s 211 and Crisis Services. He joins Engage to discuss what it takes to answer those calls for help.
O-Drone Music Festival
Saturday was International Drone Day. That doesn’t refer to the aerial vehicles. Rather, it is a commemoration of a type of avant-garde music that has always held a space with fans of music from the fringe. Drone music holds an important place in that the experimental nature of the genre has contributed to more popular formats forming the basis of influence for EDM and techno, industrial music and the alternative shoegazers of the 80’s and 90s. Jared Silvia is the organizer of Circuit Church, a live, electronic music series that happens monthly in the city’s Milk District. He discusses Orlando’s first O-Drone Festival at The Nook on Robinson held on Saturday.
