The Washington Post | Pacific Northwest suffers through blistering temperatures →
PORTLAND, Ore. — A few years ago, Gwen Gage moved from a homeless encampment at Portland’s Laurelhurst Park into transitional housing in the city’s downtown.
But on Saturday morning, Gage, 51, returned to see friends — and seek some shade.
Her unit in the 120-year-old building has no air conditioning. So, despite freezing water bottles in advance and installing the box fans she and her neighbors received from the nonprofit that runs the housing program, she said she just couldn’t be there Saturday.
“When I looked at the weather and saw 113 degrees, I just thought, ‘This can’t be Portland,’” she said.