2021 heat dome survivor urges Oregon to do more on climate

PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — Ukiah Halloran-Steiner was 16 years old and living in McMinnville, Ore. with her parents when the 2021 heat dome hit Oregon, bringing triple-digit temperatures for multiple days in a row.

“I was in high school and I was actively involved with climate justice organizing across the state of Oregon. But more so, I was a kid who was a teenager thinking about my future, thinking about the life that I wanted to live ahead of me,” she said. “When the heat wave hit, it was really, really a scary experience to be a young person, to have the realities of climate change — this obscure label I had thought about or learned about — really impacting me in my everyday life.”

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Halloran-Steiner is now in college studying politics and hopes to eventually use her degree to make an impact in the lives of people who are even more affected by climate change than she is.

“My family didn’t have air conditioning at the time. We’ve since had the privilege of being able to put that into our home. But there was just a lot of fear for my grandparents, for my neighbors, people who didn’t have access to cool spaces, people who were unhoused. I was very worried about them, people with underlying health conditions. And I feel very lucky I was able to find safety and find safe places to stay during that time,” she said.

She said that, to stay comfortable, she took refuge by the river or in the forest, which she was fortunate enough to live near. She noted that her friends living in more urban areas were more miserable. She said her family checked in on one another often, and her grandmother, who also did not have air conditioning, stayed with a friend who did.

With a heat wave affecting much of the U.S. this week and the potential for a hot summer in Oregon, Halloran-Steiner is calling on lawmakers to support and fund climate initiatives.

“I don’t think that leaders have done enough across the world, across the country, and unfortunately across Oregon to protect Oregonians and people living here who are gonna continue suffering from worse and worse heat events like this and other climate disasters. So I really applaud the work that has been done, but I see a need for more and more tangible and more direct action that will support Oregonians in being safe and healthy as climate events like this increase,” she said.