Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield signs executive order detailing city's response to heat wave

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield signed an executive order on Wednesday directing city employees to take additional steps to assist city residents amid an extreme heat warning. 

The National Weather Service issued an extreme heat warning that went into effect Tuesday. The alert is expected to continue through Thursday evening. Local services and programs affected by the weather included some office closings and even limitations on waterpark hours. 

Wednesday and Thursday are expected to be the peak of the dangerous weather, with heat indices reaching an excess of 100 degrees. 

Sheffield said many of the steps taken by city officials actually began on Tuesday. 

"The first responsibility of any government is the safety and wellbeing of its citizens and during this extreme heat, both are at risk," she said. "Ensuring that our residents are safe and have relief from the heat is a community-wide responsibility. This executive order lays out what city government will do and we ask members of the public who are able, to also check on their family members, friends and neighbors to make sure they are okay, and if not, to let us know." 

The executive order includes the following: 

• Extreme heat guidelines will be distributed to all city employees, particularly those whose duties are outside, such as police officers, firefighters, medics, road workers and water department workers. 
• Extending cooling center services as appropriate to the conditions, with the Building Safety, Engineering & Environmental Department urged to prioritize all requests for temperature-related needs at designated cooling centers.   
• Prohibiting water service shutoffs by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department unless requested by the customer or to fix a broken water main. 
• Making on-site visits to senior residential buildings by the Office of Senior Citizen Affairs to check on the residents.