Some residents at Miami VA moved after air conditioning breaks down

MIAMI, Fla. – Administrators and staff worked through the weekend and into Monday to get the air conditioning fixed at the Miami VA Medical Center.

Nearly two dozen veterans who live in an area of the center, the Community Living Center, had to be relocated to different parts of the facility after an AC chiller broke down on Saturday.

“As of this afternoon, the system should be up and running again and we’re going to be back on track,” said Kalautie S. JangDhari, executive director, of the Miami VA Healthcare System.

JangDhari said spot coolers were brought in while the chiller was being replaced.

“Those are the huge air conditioning units that are pretty amazing — they cool things down very quickly,” she said.

A new chiller was emergency ordered and was installed Monday morning.

“(We) are making sure that it’s functioning well,” JangDhari said, adding that they are checking temperatures in the rooms every 15 minutes.

None of the residents that had to be moved suffered any heat-related medical issues. The plan was to have the residents moved back to their usual living quarters as early as Monday afternoon.

The chiller was replaced just in time, too.

Local 10 Weather Authority Certified Meteorologist Luke Dorris is warning everyone to brace because it’s only going to get hotter.

“There’s something in the mid-levels of the atmosphere, a big area of high pressure—it’s what we call a heat dome. That heat dome will slide nearer to us, and that will take our temperatures into record territory,” said Dorris. “Stack the humidity on top of that, we’re looking at a heat index of 110.”

That’s dangerously hot considering that more than 300 people are treated for heat-related illnesses in Miami-Dade County each year, and more than 30 people die from excessive heat so keeping cool is lifesaving.

>See the Miami-Dade County extreme heat action plan.