This town will kill you

The death toll from our historic heat wave of late June keeps climbing. The last numbers I've seen are 107 in Oregon, 67 of which were in Multnomah County. As Multnomah County has only about 20 percent of the population, for it to have 63 percent of the deaths is a real disgrace.

The many people who hate Portland mayor Dud Wheeler are blaming him, but on this one, I think they're misplacing their scorn. Public health is a county responsibility, and it's pretty clear that the county botched matters badly. For example:

As Multnomah County started to prepare for the historic heatwave last week, county officials activated 2-1-1 to serve as a hotline for cooling center locations and transportation assistance. But officials at the county and 2-1-1 learned over the weekend that callers were having issues reaching the hotline as temperatures soared over 110 degrees.

On June 27 between midnight and 2 pm, 2-1-1 received 124 calls that were sent to a message indicating the offices were closed, according to 2-1-1’s Director of Partnerships, Cara Kangas.

Hey, who's in charge here? Why, that would be The Latest Kafoury. Deadly Deborah, as it were.