Relief at last! Highland Park woman gets free A/C unit after all

A Highland Park woman received a free air conditioning unit after LAist reported on her experience with the recent extreme heat wave.

Laura Montiel, 67, waited for more than five hours to receive a free portable A/C unit at a giveaway event last week hosted by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in Lincoln Heights. The event was for low-income Angelenos over 60 years old.

But she didn't get one then. She told LAist that she waited in line, but when she finally got close to the front, she had to leave to pick up her granddaughter.

Montiel said she really needed the A/C unit because the latest heat wave — that lasted for a week and broke records across the Southland — had made her sick in her apartment, which has no A/C.

“My kids are like, ‘Oh my God, mom, how can you handle it?’ she said. "I go like, 'Well…nothing I can do. How am I going to buy [an A/C] if I don't have the money?'"

She noted that the recent heat wave was particularly bad.

"It's like when you have the oven on and you open it, you can feel that heat," she said. "I feel it when I open my door to my apartment. It was the most horrible in my more than 50 years of living in California.”

When the Department of Water and Power read LAist’s story about Montiel’s experience, they delivered a free A/C unit to her. Montiel told LAist her son will help her install it this weekend, in time for higher temperatures forecast again next week.

LAist will check in with her to see how the installation goes.

“I’m so excited, so happy,” Montiel said. “I’m so thankful to [LADWP] to give something to take care of us, the older people. I don't want to suffer again. The way I felt… it was the worst.”

Worse heat, worse health impacts

Montiel said if she felt similarly sick from the heat again, she would go straight to an emergency room. She said during the worst of the heat wave, she felt lightheaded, weak and like she was going to pass out in her apartment. She had to call her neighbor for help because her legs were so weak.

Laura Montiel, right, poses with the LADWP team that delivered her free portable A/C unit to her second-floor apartment in Highland Park.

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Courtesy LADWP

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This summer was officially California’s hottest since at least 1895, and the world’s hottest since at least 1850, when record keeping began, according to the most recent data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency. The hottest summers on record have all occurred within the last 10 years.

Research shows these hotter and longer heat waves are a sign of how fossil fuel pollution is changing the climate. That puts more people at risk for the potentially deadly health impacts, particularly older people who may have underlying health conditions or take medications that affect their body’s response to heat.

People who are unhoused, as well as people who live in homes without sufficient cooling are at the highest risk of developing life-threatening heat illness as a result of more extreme temperatures.

That’s the case for Montiel, who said the heat makes her diabetes and asthma worse, and who had borrowed a fan from a friend to help deal with the recent heat wave. But she said the fan didn’t do much.

Research has found that fans are only effective at cooling to a certain extent. That’s why experts say improving access to air conditioning and energy-efficient heat pumps is a necessary part of adapting to global heating. But that can only go so far: There is broad scientific consensus that global fossil fuel pollution needs to be cut in half within this decade to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.

Stay up to date on the next A/C giveaway

This summer is the first time the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has hosted an A/C giveaway event. Officials said it’s a new strategy to help address the public health impacts of rising global temperatures primarily driven by fossil fuel pollution.

People wait to receive portable A/C units at LADWP's free A/C giveaway event at the Lincoln Park Senior Center in Lincoln Heights on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024.

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Erin Stone

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LAist

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The Lincoln Heights giveaway on Sept. 9 was the third such event. A spokesperson said the department provided more than 1,000 free portable A/C units to older qualifying Angelenos this summer.

A final air conditioner giveaway event is planned for the San Fernando Valley, though the details have yet to be confirmed, according to the utility. People who RSVP online will get priority, and everyone will need to bring an ID and LADWP bill.

Check ladwp.com/HeatRelief2024 for updates.