How to stay cool at home

( Survival Manual/ Prepper articles/ How to stay cool at home)

A. How to stay cool without AC
19 July 2012 by The Ready Store
Pasted from: http://www.thereadystore.com/emergency-plans/4320/how-to-stay-cool-without-ac?utm_source=rne_ep101_mon_20120730&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ep101&utm_content=main

Summer heat is upon us and it’s important to stay cool. With heat waves rolling across the United States, it’s essential to not get overheated and dehydrated. Many deaths have even been connected to power outages during the heat wave.
These tips will help you and your family stay safe in a power outage situation but might also help you save some money during the summer months.

Close Your Windows. Your first instinct might be to open your windows but often this will make your home hotter instead of cooler. Close your windows, blinds and shades during the day to keep the sun and heat out and trapping the cool in. Open your windows at night if it gets cooler outside.

 Eat Cold Foods. Keep your body temperature down by consuming colder foods that will lower the temperature inside of you. This will also prevent you from using stoves and ovens that will raise the temperature in your house. 

Install Attic Insulation. This is a great way to keep that cool air in your home and not escaping through the ceiling. This will allow you to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. 

Plant Trees Strategically. Everyone loves sitting in the cool shade on a nice hot day. Where you plant your trees can have a large effect on where that shade is. Be sure to plant deciduous trees on the east and west sides of your home. During the winter, the sun won’t be blocked from getting to your home. You can also plant trees near sides of your house that have a lot of windows.

– Stay prepared with enough emergency water for your family –

Install Awnings. Just like a tree works to block the sun’s rays and provide you with shade, an awning can do the same thing.

 Wear Light-Colored, Loose-Fitting Clothing. This will keep your body cool and breezy. Wearing dark or black clothing will absorb the sun and make you hotter. Wear light colors like white and tan.

 Food and Refrigeration. If the power goes out for an extended amount of time, the food in your fridge might begin to go bad. You can use a cooler with ice to keep perishable foods good. You should also begin to eat the foods that won’t keep. If you have freeze-dried foods, you don’t need to worry, they won’t spoil!

Avoid Alcohol. To prevent dehydration, avoid drinking alcoholic drinks. Instead, stick to the water bottles and juices.

 Drink Water. To avoid dehydration, continue to drink water. It’s recommended that you have about eight glasses of water per day.

 Stay Out Of The Sun. This seems pretty intuitive but, to avoid the heat stay out of the sun!

Responses to How to stay cool without AC
•  I sit in front of computer, TV, or read a book with my feet in a tub of room temp water – it is amazing how cool you feel with wet feet. I also use a wet cloth around my neck and wear as few clothes as possible. I keep a couple cans of pork and beans and veggie soup in fridge and pretend I’m camping and eat them right out of the can. Cold food keeps my internal temp cool and then I try to see humor in it all so I don’t get upset and stressed and heat up gain – lol.
•  After a few a few hurricanes, a fertile imagination has proved fruitful. During our 100° days and 80,90° nights we found that putting our 10″ portable battery operated fans do great when sat between or in front of ice coolers. Making for a great ice box effect. For those that experience respiratory issues this has proved to be a life saver. One set of batteries you can easily get 12- 18 hrs of breeze depending in fan setting. For extended seasons like the months after hurricane Rita, a small solar charger is a must. Using coat hangers you can also hang the small hand held dollar store fans in the window you sleep near and get a breezy nights sleep. Which was a great help to my mother whos health was very fragile during those days. We made it almost 3 months.
•  I worked in the desert for years and now live in the semi tropical heat and humidity of southwest Florida, While out in the desert 100+ degree sun we wet our shirt and hat or bandana. At night I would run cool clean water on a top sheet and wring it out as not to soak the bedding. Lay this over you and if possible add a fan to get the air moving around you to carry away your body heat. This works great with those accidental sunburns also combined with the cooling relief of aloe.
•  We keep our claw-foot tub filled with cold water, like a mini-pool. Everyone has access to it. No washing, just cooling. Then when you wake up in the middle of the night baking hot, unable to sleep, you take a quick, cool dip.
•  keep half gallon cartons of water in the freezer. when it gets too hot place the frozen carton into a tray of water (cooking pan or aluminum ) that is at least 2 inches deep. That’s it ,and it will lower the temp. in your room at least 10 degrees…. really works.
•  I installed a “Whole House” Fan years ago. In the summer when the days are 100+, I get up at 4:30am. I open all the windows and run the fan until 7 am. This pulls all the cool outside air into the house and pushes it through the attic. From 7am on, the house is closed up tight. Stays nice and cool. I also cook outside using a Coleman stove and a crock pot. Keeps all that heat where it should be … Outside!
•  Having fans on will circulate the air so it doesn’t get “stuffy”, thus making it seem cooler even without AC.
•  I went to Texas in August a few years ago and knew I would be miserable because of how hot it gets there. So I did a search on the internet for personal cooling systems and found something called Black Ice. With Black Ice I could get into my hot rental car in the Texas heat and be comfortable until the Air Conditioning kicked in. I also bought the soft ice bag cooler and kept it in the trunk so that I could always have a Black ice charging which takes about 20 minutes in ice water. Plus the hotel had an endless supply of Ice for me to keep my Black Ice charged. I understand it works great for hot flashes too! Here is their website: http://blackicecooling.com/index.html
•  Here’s what we did, when we lost power after a hurricane in Biloxi, Ms in 1985. Prior to the hurricane I had frozen a bunch of the rectangular milk and ice cream buckets I had saved. 1 gallon ice-cream buckets are great; because they will stay frozen a lot longer. Anyway, we put that ice in the fridge and it kept pretty well for a couple of days. But, we also had blocks stored in our upright freezer to help keep that stuff frozen for as long as possible. It was miserable without cool air. but I had filled our bathtub and our washing machine with water, prior to the hurricane, for washing, bathing, and flushing, (and also some other large containers.) It was great to be able to take some of the wash water and put it in a bowl of ice and wash with wash cloths. It helped to keep us cool. There are lots of things you can do to prepare and have a few things to make life a little easier after a power outage and these are just some. Get creative about how you can help alleviate the discomfort of a situation like this, you will be surprised at the things you might innovate. And don’t forget to store drinking water
•  Battery powered fans really help. Keep blinds on the windows closed. We had an attic fan installed and it really helps on a daily basis, but if we don’t have electricity I plan to open the door to the attic and hope the heat will rise into the attic and out the fan, even if it isn’t running. You might also look at solar attic fans. I’ve also read that you should open the windows at the top so the hot air flows out.
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B. Effective Natural Cooling Strategies
Aug 27th, 2012, Off The Grid News, By Nathan F
Pasted from: http://www.offthegridnews.com/2012/08/27/effective-natural-cooling-strategies/

…The dog days of summer are almost over now, as the temperatures in most places are finally starting to moderate into the range of the tolerable. The summer of 2012 has been the hottest we have seen in quite some time, and unless you have been spending the last three months holed up inside your home with the air conditioner blasting away, the chances are that you and your family have been suffering a good bit.

Of course, for those who live off-the-grid, power supplies are always at a premium, and therefore air conditioning is not really an option in most instances. Or at least, it is not a very practical option, since air conditioners are ranked near the top of the all-time energy hog list, and spending precious electrical resources to run such power-hungry machines is hardly consistent with an energy-efficient lifestyle. For this reason, off-the-gridders who live in climates where extreme summertime heat is an issue – and outside of Alaska, Hawaii, and maybe the Pacific Northwest, that is pretty much everywhere in the United States – should be leaving no stone unturned in their search for low-power and no-power ways to keep their homes cool when the mercury begins to rise.

While this year’s heat wave is now water under the bridge (in the form of a river of sweat), we can only imagine how bad things might get next year. So if you are willing to look ahead, there are a number of changes or modifications you may be able to make to your home and the surrounding homestead that will allow you to beat the heat when it returns with a vengeance in 2013. It wouldn’t be a bad idea at all to start making plans to address that situation now, so that you will be organized and ready to roll with your home renovation project come next spring, before those scorching summertime temperatures have the chance to go soaring into infinity.

Energy-Efficient Alternatives To The Air Conditioner While the need to save electricity may preclude the use of an air conditioner in most off-the-grid settings, there are a couple of power-drawing technologies that you may still want to consider using to help keep your home more comfortable in the summertime heat.

Fans of course are the alternative to air conditioners that everyone knows about. How many fans you would like to have going in your house at any one time is up to you, but for the sake of efficiency, you should certainly consider having ceiling fans installed in each and every room where people normally congregate. This low-power, aesthetically pleasing, virtually noiseless type of fan is extremely efficient in its operation and can reduce temperatures in the average room by up to four degrees when kept on for an extended period of time. Ceiling fans can be purchased that turn in either direction, so it is important to make sure you have fans that rotate in a counterclockwise direction in summer, which will create soothing indoor drafts by pulling warm air upwards.

The most powerful and effective type of ceiling fan is what is known as a whole-house fan. These centrally located machines are actually mounted in the ceiling instead of on it, and they work by drawing hot air upwards and funneling it through into the attic, where it can then be vented into the atmosphere. More sophisticated whole-house fan systems are available that can remove hot air from many rooms simultaneously before venting it through multiple interconnected openings, but the cost of a set-up like this can easily run into the thousands – which could be worth it, depending on how determined you are to keep things cool inside your humble abode.

Evaporative coolers are another possibility for those who are willing to cash in some of their electricity chips to keep their homes livable in summer. The appearance of an evaporative cooler is not all that different from an air conditioner, but rather than relying on the circulation of expensive chemical gases to remove excessive warmth from a room, these coolers instead take advantage of the process by which dry air loses heat whenever it interacts with water and causes it to evaporate. Because it operates by exploiting an entirely natural activity, an evaporative cooler only uses about 25 percent as much electricity as the average air conditioner, which can make it a good option for off-the-gridders living in arid areas where high humidity levels don’t interfere with the evaporative process.

There Is No Such Thing As Too Much Venting The thing to remember about the ability of moving air to cool warm humans is that as long as air temperatures are below the 98.6-degree threshold at which our bodies normally function, we can always make our homes feel cooler by encouraging good air movement. The best way – really, the only way – to do this without investing precious power resources is to fill our homes with as many holes or openings as possible, arranged in ways that work with prevailing wind patterns and the laws of physics to facilitate the maximum amount of interior air flow.

The most common type of opening in our homes are of course windows, and it is generally true that the more windows we have, the easier it will be to promote effective air passage. But windows aren’t the only choice available for those concerned with interior cooling; vents that allow air to enter on one side of the house and exit on the other are another possibility, and vents have an advantage over windows in that you don’t have to worry about covering them with shades to keep the sunlight from coming in during the hottest part of the day.

In order to maximize the cooling effects of both windows and vents, there are basically three things that must be done. First, once you know what the prevailing wind patterns in your area are, you will want to make sure that the openings in the walls of your home are set up to work with these patterns and not against them. In other words, if the winds in your area mostly blow from the south to the north, it will not do to have all of your windows installed in the east and west walls, or to have the largest windows on the east and west and smaller windows on the north and south. So when designing a new home or remodeling one that already exists, if good cooling is what you seek then window location is something that you must plan out with intelligence and foresight.

The second thing you must do is make sure that your openings of exit are elevated above your openings of entrance. This is because hot air naturally rises, which means if you let warm summer breezes in at a height of eight feet on the south side but try to sent them back out through vents or windows at a height of four feet on the north side, the air in your home will stagnate instead of flowing freely. Remember, you want to bring the outside air in, but you don’t want it to stick around once it enters your home, so it is important that your arrangement of vents and windows include openings that are higher on the side of exit than on the side of entrance.

The third thing you will need to do to keep air flowing steadily is to put vents, cutouts, or even windows in any walls on the inside of your home that could possibly obstruct the free movement of the air. Few homes are constructed with the principles of smooth and steady airflow in mind, so the idea of adding interior openings is nothing that should be sneezed at.

Roofs Need Venting Too As previously mentioned, whole-house fans can move air out of a home efficiently by sending it straight up through openings in the attic. But there are several other venting options available for the roofs of homes, and given the irresistible urge that all hot air has to rise, these possibilities should not be overlooked.

Some of the best roof-venting options available include:

• Chimneys – with fireplace or without, chimneys can provide excellent vertical airflow and venting. If you paint the part of the chimney that extends above the roof black, or install a plane of glass at the top facing the southern sun, this will cause air near the top of a chimney to heat and thereby create an even stronger updraft effect than would exist under normal circumstances.
• Operable skylights – they can be shuttered when the sun is shining directly down on them and opened during the hours of the day when it is not.
• Turbine ventilators – these neat devices look like spinning tops sitting on top of the roof as they efficiently suck the warm air up from below.
• Atriums – these will add beauty, a feeling of serenity, and high-quality air movement to any home or indoor space.
• Cupolas – these are dome- or square-shaped rooms that extend upward from the roof of a home. They can be large enough to actually accommodate guests or small enough to provide venting and little else. Cupolas are an attractive architectural innovation that has sadly fallen out of favor, but like atriums, they can improve your house aesthetically at the same time they are improving the interior circulation of air.

Additions to your home like these will obviously require some work and financial investment. But they could very well be worth the expense and effort for those who are truly serious about reducing their indoor suffering index in the months when the outdoor heat index rises into the stratosphere.

Keeping Things Cool On The Outside
Setting up good natural air flow is all well and good, but of course the cooler the air is when it enters your home the more effective it will be at keeping your family cool as it passes through. Shade trees that can provide shelter from the southern sun will help reduce the temperature of the air before it enters your home, and large overhangs or awnings that can keep windows in shadows will do the same. Generally speaking, the more shade you have on your homestead, the cooler things will be, so this is something you should always keep in mind when you are picking a building location or making plans for your surrounding landscape.

Another excellent way to reduce air temperature is to install a pond or fountain near your home, preferably on the side of the house facing into the wind. As we have already seen in our discussion of evaporative coolers, dry air loses heat as it evaporates water, so any time moving air sweeps across a watery surface, it will be cooled quite efficiently and effectively. In a humid climate, this would not work very well since the air is already saturated with moisture, but in an arid climate putting in a pond or a fountain can be an excellent way to help reduce the temperatures of a breeze before it actually enters a home.

One last trick is to landscape your exterior so that the trees and shrubs and outbuildings will naturally channel and concentrate the prevailing winds toward the house. And if the objects used to create this effect are tall enough to provide some shadow as well, then so much the better. ©2012 Off the Grid News

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C. Are You Ready Series: Heat Safety
1 July 2013, ReadyNutrition.com, by Tess Pennington
Pasted from: http://readynutrition.com/resources/are-you-ready-series-heat-safety_01072013/

Heat related deaths are the number 1 weather related killer in the United States. Although this type of death is preventable, annually many people succumb to extreme heat. Historically, from 1979-2003, excessive heat exposure caused 8,015 deaths in the United States. During this period, more people in this country died from extreme heat than from hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes combined. In 2001, 300 deaths were caused by excessive heat exposure.

People suffer heat-related illness when their bodies are unable to compensate and properly cool themselves. The body normally cools itself through sweating but under extreme heat, sweating just isn’t enough. In such cases, a person’s body temperature rises rapidly and very high body temperatures can damage the brain or other vital organs.

Several factors affect the body’s ability to cool itself during extremely hot weather. When the humidity is high, sweat will not evaporate as quickly, preventing the body from releasing heat quickly. Other conditions related to the risk include age, obesity, fever, dehydration, heart disease, mental illness, poor circulation, sunburn, and prescription drug and alcohol use.

Because heat-related deaths are preventable, people need to be aware of who is at greatest risk and what actions can be taken to prevent a heat-related illness or death. The elderly, the very young, and those with mental illness and chronic diseases are all at highest risk. However, even young and healthy individuals can succumb to heat if they participate in strenuous physical activities during hot weather. Your risk to heat related illnesses can be reduced by staying hydrated and being in an air conditioned environment. If a home is not air-conditioned, spend time in public facilities that are air-conditioned.

What Is Extreme Heat?
Conditions of extreme heat are defined as summertime temperatures that are substantially hotter and/or more humid than average for location at that time of year. Humid or muggy conditions, which add to the discomfort of high temperatures, occur when a “dome” of high atmospheric pressure traps hazy, damp air near the ground. Extremely dry and hot conditions can provoke dust storms and low visibility. Droughts occur when a long period passes without substantial rainfall. A heat wave combined with a drought is a very dangerous situation.

During Hot Weather
To protect your health when temperatures are extremely high, remember to keep cool and use common sense.

The following tips are important:
Drink Plenty of Fluids. During hot weather you will need to increase your fluid intake, regardless of your activity level. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. During heavy exercise in a hot environment, drink two to four glasses (16-32 ounces) of cool fluids each hour. Don’t drink liquids that contain alcohol, or large amounts of sugar—these actually cause you to lose more body fluid. Also avoid very cold drinks, because they can cause stomach cramps.
Warning: If your doctor generally limits the amount of fluid you drink or has you on water pills, ask how much you should drink while the weather is hot.

Replace Salt and Minerals. Heavy sweating removes salt and minerals from the body. These are necessary for your body and must be replaced. If you must exercise, drink two to four glasses of cool, non-alcoholic fluids each hour.  Drinks that have electrolytes can replace the salt and minerals you lose in sweat. However, if you are on a low-salt diet, talk with your doctor before drinking a sports beverage or taking salt tablets.

Wear Appropriate Clothing and Sunscreen. Wear as little clothing as possible when you are at home. Choose lightweight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothing. Sunburn affects your body’s ability to cool itself and causes a loss of body fluids. It also causes pain and damages the skin. If you must go outdoors, protect yourself from the sun by wearing a wide-brimmed hat (also keeps you cooler) along with sunglasses, and by putting on sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher (the most effective products say “broad spectrum” or “UVA/UVB protection” on their labels) 30 minutes prior to going out. Continue to reapply it according to the package directions.

Schedule Outdoor Activities Carefully. If you must be outdoors, try to limit your outdoor activity to morning and evening hours. Try to rest often in shady areas so that your body’s thermostat will have a chance to recover.

Pace Yourself. If you are not accustomed to working or exercising in a hot environment, start slowly and pick up the pace gradually. If exertion in the heat makes your heart pound and leaves you gasping for breath, STOP all activity. Get into a cool area or at least into the shade, and rest, especially if you become lightheaded, confused, weak, or faint.

Stay Cool Indoors. Stay indoors and, if at all possible, stay in an air-conditioned place. a) If your home does not have air conditioning, go to the shopping mall or public library—even a few hours spent in air conditioning can help your body stay cooler when you go back into the heat. b) Call your local health department to see if there are any heat-relief shelters in your area. c) Electric fans may provide comfort, but when the temperature is in the high 90s, fans will not prevent heat-related illness. d) Taking a cool shower or bath or moving to an air-conditioned place is a much better way to cool off. Use your stove and oven less to maintain a cooler temperature in your home.

Use a Buddy System. When working in the heat, monitor the condition of your co-workers and have someone do the same for you. Heat-induced illness can cause a person to become confused or lose consciousness. If you are 65 years of age or older, have a friend or relative call to check on you twice a day during a heat wave. If you know someone in this age group, check on them at least twice a day.

Monitor Those at High Risk. Although anyone at any time can suffer from heat-related illness, some people are at greater risk than others.
•  Infants and young children are sensitive to the effects of high temperatures and rely on others to regulate their environments and provide adequate liquids.
•  People 65 years of age or older may not compensate for heat stress efficiently and are less likely to sense and respond to change in temperature.
•  People who are overweight may be prone to heat sickness because of their tendency to retain more body heat.
•  People who overexert during work or exercise may become dehydrated and susceptible to heat sickness.
•  People who are physically ill, especially with heart disease or high blood pressure, or who take certain medications, such as for depression, insomnia, or poor circulation, may be affected by extreme heat.
•  Visit adults at risk at least twice a day and closely watch them for signs of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Infants and young children, of course, need much more frequent watching.

Adjust to the Environment. Be aware that any sudden change in temperature, such as an early summer heat wave, will be stressful to your body. You will have a greater tolerance for heat if you limit your physical activity until you become accustomed to the heat. If you travel to a hotter climate, allow several days to become acclimated before attempting any vigorous exercise, and work up to it gradually.

Do Not Leave Children in Cars. Even in cool temperatures, cars can heat up to dangerous temperatures very quickly. Even with the windows cracked open, interior temperatures can rise almost 20 degrees Fahrenheit within the first 10 minutes. Anyone left inside is at risk for serious heat-related illnesses or even death. Children who are left unattended in parked cars are at greatest risk for heat stroke, and possibly death. When traveling with children, remember to do the following:
•  Never leave infants, children or pets in a parked car, even if the windows are cracked open.
•  To remind yourself that a child is in the car, keep a stuffed animal in the car seat.  When the child is buckled in, place the stuffed animal in the front of the driver.
•  When leaving your car, check to be sure everyone is out of the car.  Do not overlook any children who have fallen asleep in the car.

Use Common Sense. Remember to keep cool and use common sense:
•   Avoid hot foods and heavy meals— they add heat to your body.
•  Drink plenty of fluids and replace salts and minerals in your body. Do not take salt tablets unless under medical supervision.
•  Dress infants and children in cool, loose clothing and shade their heads and faces with hats or an umbrella.
•  Limit sun exposure during mid-day hours and in places of potential severe exposure such as beaches.
•  Do not leave infants, children, or pets in a parked car.
•  Provide plenty of fresh water for your pets, and leave the water in a shady area.

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D. Deadlier Than Natural Disasters: How to Prevent Heatstroke
24 May 2012, The Survival Doctor, by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Excerpts pasted from: http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com/2012/05/24/how-to-prevent-heatstroke/

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at the period between 1979 and 2003 and found that more people died from heatstroke than from hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes combined. And most heatstroke deaths are so preventable.

To Prevent Heatstroke, You Must …Recognize Heat Exhaustion The good news is heatstroke doesn’t just come out of the blue. It’s one problem in a spectrum of heat-related illnesses. First comes heat exhaustion. If you heed its warnings and do the right things, you can prevent what’s sure to follow otherwise—the potentially deadly heatstroke.

The symptoms of heat exhaustion are:
•  A sudden, massive increase in sweating
•  Muscle cramps
•  Extreme weakness
•  Dizziness
•  Headache
•  Nausea or vomiting
•  Fainting

Signs of heat exhaustion are:
•  Pale skin color
•  Goose bumps and skin that has become cool to the touch
•  A weak pulse
•  A pulse rate well below one hundred
•  Low blood pressure
•  Confusion

It is this risk of confusion that makes it very important you work with a partner so you can monitor each other.

To Prevent Heatstroke, You Must …Halt the Exhaustion

Here’s what to do if you have those signs or symptoms:
•  Stop work immediately. Not when you get to a finishing place, not in a few minutes. Immediately. Your body generates heat with activity.
•  Find the coolest spot available, and lie down.
•  Drink water or a sports drink. You’re almost always dehydrated. The fluids will help cool you and help your circulation work more efficiently to cool you off.
•  Don’t drink caffeine. It’s a diuretic and can adversely affect your circulation.
•  Don’t drink high-sugar drinks. They’re harder to absorb.
•  Stay cool the rest of the day. As I explained in my hypothermia articles, our body functions best at 98.6, give or take a degree or two. When you develop heat exhaustion, your temperature regulators go haywire. Your body has lost the ability to cool itself and will only get hotter unless you externally cool off. Your core, where your vital organs reside, have heated to 102 or more. Your whole body needs time to cool because when your temperature gets to 103, you’re getting very close to the shutdown levels of heatstroke.

If that happens, it’s a medical emergency. I’ll give you suggestions on what to do about that in the next post. [immediately below]

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E. What to Do for Heatstroke When You Can’t Get Help
29 May 2012, The Survival Doctor, by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com/2012/05/29/what-to-do-for-heatstroke/

Many years ago, before many of you were born, I trained at a large Dallas hospital. In the summers, the ambulances carried tubs of ice, and if they picked up someone with probable heatstroke, they’d start to ice them then and there.

I don’t know if they still do that, but heatstroke continues to be an emergency, killing hundreds each year and leaving many more disabled. And cooling remains the top priority in treatment.

Heatstroke Warning Signs
In order to know what to do, you need to be able to recognize the warning signs of heatstroke (also called sunstroke). With heatstroke your vital organs shut down. Many people even stop sweating. It’s like your body has given up (or burned out).

One of the first organs that shows damage is the brain. Therefore, many of the signs and symptoms of heatstroke are related to brain function, such as:
•  Agitation
•  Confusion
•  Hallucinations
•  Disorientation
•  Euphoria
•  Seizure
•  Coma

What to Do for Heatstroke When You Can Get Help
Call 911 immediately. Never wait and see if someone with heatstroke is going to get better on their own. Their organs are cooking.

Until the ambulance arrives, cool the person off as best you can. If they can walk and it’s not far, get them into air-conditioning. Otherwise, have them lie down in the shade. Take off all but their underclothes. Spray or bathe them with cool/cold water and fan them. If the person is unconscious, place them on their side so their tongue won’t impede their airway.

What to Do for Heatstroke When You Can’t Get Help
But what can you do if there’s no ambulance—no way to get expert medical help?

Your only hope is to cool the person off as quickly as possible and get some fluids in them. In addition to the guidelines above, here are more tips:
•  If you have ice, place a pack on the person’s groin and armpits, and under their neck.
•  Even if available, there’s a debate about whether someone with heatstroke should soak in a tub of ice water. The problem is, if their heart stops, it’s going to be difficult to do CPR. I think, whatever gets them the coolest the quickest is what you should do.
•  Soak a sheet in the coolest water possible, and wrap it around their bare skin.
•  Fan them for the cooling effect of evaporation.
•  If they’re alert enough, have them slowly drink as much cool water as possible.
•  If you have access to intravenous fluids, now’s the time to give them.

Even if you fully hydrate and cool someone with heatstroke, they’ll have multiple-organ damage. Get them to a medical facility as soon as possible.

You can see why ideally, you catch heat exhaustion before it becomes heatstroke. Have you or has anyone you know had a heatstroke? What happened? How is the person now?

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F. How to Protect Outdoor Workers (and yourself) from Heat Stroke
8 July 2013, ArmageddonOnline.com, by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Pasted from: http://www.armageddononline.org/protect-from-heatstroke-2013.html

In a typical year 658 Americans die from heat-related causes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This summer extreme heat in the Southwest has left one man dead from heat stroke and dozens of people hospitalized due to heat-related illnesses. Researchers at Columbia University predict an increase in the number of heat waves over the next few years, suggesting a growing need for those who work or play outside to learn how to recognize and avoid heat-related illnesses.

Outdoor workers are particularly vulnerable in extreme heat. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are continuing their Heat Illness Prevention Campaign, a joint project that began in 2011. The campaign aims to educate outdoor workers and their employers about ways to prevent heat-related illnesses. OSHA’s Web site now includes educational resources and training information.

The leading prevention techniques include drinking water every 15 minutes regardless of thirst, avoiding alcohol and caffeine, taking regular breaks in the shade and giving new employees a lighter workload to acclimate them to working in hot temperatures. OSHA also encourages outdoor workers to learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. People are often unaware that their exposure to heat is harmful until they need medical assistance. Symptoms of heat exhaustion include headaches, nausea, dizziness, weakness, thirst and heavy sweating. If ignored, heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke, which requires immediate medical attention. Indicators of heat stroke include confusion, fainting, seizures and dry, red skin. OSHA has developed a free smart phone app called Heat Safety Tool that indicates the risk of heat exhaustion and provides recommended precautions based on the temperature and humidity in a given location. The app is available in English and Spanish for iPhone and Android. It can be downloaded free of charge via, OSHA’s Web site or iTunes.
[The  “OSHA Heat Safety Tool” app is also available and free for Android, found at Google Play. Mr. Larry]