thedrifter
07-28-05, 07:48 AM
Marines treat 25 recruits for heat issues
Published Thursday July 28 2005
By SANDRA WALSHThe Beaufort Gazette
Twenty-five Parris Island recruits were treated for heat-related health issues Wednesday as temperatures approached 100 degrees with a heat index reaching 119 degrees.
Ten of the recruits from the Marine Corps recruit training depot were kept at Branch Medical Center on the island, six were taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital and nine were sent to Naval Hospital Beaufort, according to Master Sgt. Art Prioletta, spokesman for the depot.
Depot officials said a so-called black flag was called for Wednesday morning, which means all nonessential physical activity is halted because temperatures exceed 90 degrees. Wednesday's temperature hit 99.
Essential training allowed during a black flag includes The Crucible, Basic Warrior Training and firing training on the riffle range.
The Marine Corps Martial Arts Program is continued in the shade.
All of the recruits who suffered from heat exhaustion were participating in one of the allowed exercises, Prioletta said.
Different flags, all limiting the degree of activity allowed on the depot based on temperature, are called for throughout the summer, with the black flag serving as the most restrictive.
By Wednesday night, 16 of the 25 recruits were released and back on the station, seven recruits still were under evaluation and two were being held for observation at the Naval Hospital, Prioletta said. Their conditions were unknown Wednesday night.
"We're on administrative black flag, meaning the Branch Medical Center here on base is filled up to capacity right now with heat-related cases," Lt. Scott Miller said Wednesday afternoon. "When that happens, all training stops."
Prioletta said the administrative black flag was called between noon and 1 p.m. and all training was stopped.
Marine Corps policy calls for any recruit with a fever above 102.5 degrees while training to be taken to one of the three tubs in one of the station's two cool rooms.
Cool rooms use fans blowing 60-degree air over large tubs filled with ice and water, while IV units filled with 60-degree fluid are pumped into recruits to prevent heat-related problems from mild dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke to Rhabdomyolysis, or when overexposure to heat leads to a breakdown of protein and can cause liver and kidney damage, Parris Island officials have said.
Cool rooms are open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily from the third Monday in April through the third Monday in October, or whenever outside heat index temperatures exceed 75 degrees, Prioletta said.
"We haven't had any strokes or anything like that; it's just been minor heat injuries," he said.
The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for all of South Carolina and southeast Georgia on Wednesday, which is done if heat indexes reach "dangerously high" temperatures of 115 or higher, said Steven Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Charleston.
"We don't keep records as far as heat indexes, but we have tied the record high at the Charleston airport so far (Wednesday) -- which is 99 degrees," he said.
The record high temperature for Beaufort for July 27 was set in 1936 at 100 degrees. Today's record temperature was set in 1949 with 102 degrees.
Taylor said today's forecasted temperature will approach 94 degrees with a heat index of between 105 and 110 degrees. Weekend temperatures are expected to cool down to the upper 80s, he said.
By noon Wednesday, North Myrtle Beach was the hot spot in South Carolina, with 98 degree temperatures and a heat index of 116 degrees. Areas in the Upstate had the coolest temperatures. In Greenville, where the temperature was 92, the heat felt as if it were just below 100 degrees, according to the weather service.
Columbia-based South Carolina Electric & Gas said customers broke usage records on Tuesday as they pumped up air conditioners to stay cool. Customers used 4,692 megawatts for the one-hour peak period, eclipsing the previous high set July 14, 2004 by 118 megawatts. A megawatt of electricity is about the amount used by 330 homes in one hour.
State-owned utility Santee Cooper reported a summertime record for electricity usage Monday at 4,980 megawatts, said spokeswoman Laura Varn. The utility's all-time peak was 5,373 megawatts set in January 2003.
Ellie
Published Thursday July 28 2005
By SANDRA WALSHThe Beaufort Gazette
Twenty-five Parris Island recruits were treated for heat-related health issues Wednesday as temperatures approached 100 degrees with a heat index reaching 119 degrees.
Ten of the recruits from the Marine Corps recruit training depot were kept at Branch Medical Center on the island, six were taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital and nine were sent to Naval Hospital Beaufort, according to Master Sgt. Art Prioletta, spokesman for the depot.
Depot officials said a so-called black flag was called for Wednesday morning, which means all nonessential physical activity is halted because temperatures exceed 90 degrees. Wednesday's temperature hit 99.
Essential training allowed during a black flag includes The Crucible, Basic Warrior Training and firing training on the riffle range.
The Marine Corps Martial Arts Program is continued in the shade.
All of the recruits who suffered from heat exhaustion were participating in one of the allowed exercises, Prioletta said.
Different flags, all limiting the degree of activity allowed on the depot based on temperature, are called for throughout the summer, with the black flag serving as the most restrictive.
By Wednesday night, 16 of the 25 recruits were released and back on the station, seven recruits still were under evaluation and two were being held for observation at the Naval Hospital, Prioletta said. Their conditions were unknown Wednesday night.
"We're on administrative black flag, meaning the Branch Medical Center here on base is filled up to capacity right now with heat-related cases," Lt. Scott Miller said Wednesday afternoon. "When that happens, all training stops."
Prioletta said the administrative black flag was called between noon and 1 p.m. and all training was stopped.
Marine Corps policy calls for any recruit with a fever above 102.5 degrees while training to be taken to one of the three tubs in one of the station's two cool rooms.
Cool rooms use fans blowing 60-degree air over large tubs filled with ice and water, while IV units filled with 60-degree fluid are pumped into recruits to prevent heat-related problems from mild dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke to Rhabdomyolysis, or when overexposure to heat leads to a breakdown of protein and can cause liver and kidney damage, Parris Island officials have said.
Cool rooms are open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily from the third Monday in April through the third Monday in October, or whenever outside heat index temperatures exceed 75 degrees, Prioletta said.
"We haven't had any strokes or anything like that; it's just been minor heat injuries," he said.
The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for all of South Carolina and southeast Georgia on Wednesday, which is done if heat indexes reach "dangerously high" temperatures of 115 or higher, said Steven Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Charleston.
"We don't keep records as far as heat indexes, but we have tied the record high at the Charleston airport so far (Wednesday) -- which is 99 degrees," he said.
The record high temperature for Beaufort for July 27 was set in 1936 at 100 degrees. Today's record temperature was set in 1949 with 102 degrees.
Taylor said today's forecasted temperature will approach 94 degrees with a heat index of between 105 and 110 degrees. Weekend temperatures are expected to cool down to the upper 80s, he said.
By noon Wednesday, North Myrtle Beach was the hot spot in South Carolina, with 98 degree temperatures and a heat index of 116 degrees. Areas in the Upstate had the coolest temperatures. In Greenville, where the temperature was 92, the heat felt as if it were just below 100 degrees, according to the weather service.
Columbia-based South Carolina Electric & Gas said customers broke usage records on Tuesday as they pumped up air conditioners to stay cool. Customers used 4,692 megawatts for the one-hour peak period, eclipsing the previous high set July 14, 2004 by 118 megawatts. A megawatt of electricity is about the amount used by 330 homes in one hour.
State-owned utility Santee Cooper reported a summertime record for electricity usage Monday at 4,980 megawatts, said spokeswoman Laura Varn. The utility's all-time peak was 5,373 megawatts set in January 2003.
Ellie