Bennie Warren had just finished a lunch at the senior center of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans and was about to get started on an afternoon session of dominoes with his table buddies when the subject of the weather came up.
Warren, 84, talked about the grind of living when he had no air conditioning, leading the listener to think he was about to say the heat didn't bother him much these days.
"When I was a kid coming up, we were out cutting pulpwood and it'd be 112 degrees," he said. "And then I went to the Marines and I could take their punishment."
He paused, as if letting go of the memories of his youthful exuberance from years ago.
"But now we go from an air-conditioned house to an air conditioned car to an air conditioned building," he said. "If they cut the air off now, I'd be in trouble. We have to have it. If we didn't, it'd kill us."
Warren comes to the Area Agency on Aging's Senior Citizens Center in Pine Bluff most days of the week. He sat across the table from a couple of youngsters: Margaret Davis and Gary Lipsitz, both 78. The three, all self-confessed "dominoes addicts," said they head to the center for some fellowship, to get out of the hot temps, and, as they all said, the food's good.
They are three of hundreds of senior citizens and disabled people across southeast Arkansas who avail themselves of what Area Agency on Aging offers in the way of aid and relief. And this time of the year, when seniors can be more susceptible to being harmed by the upper-90s and triple-digit temperatures, the agency is even more tuned in to their clientele.
"We do extra checks on them," said Regina Coulter, case manager supervisor. "Instead of once a month, we'll go two times a month, and if they live alone, we'll contact them more often to make sure they're OK. Even if they aren't a client, we'll look for ways to help them."
Coulter oversees 14 case managers who, themselves, oversee some 700 clients, helping those individuals maintain their lives in the ways they have become accustomed.
"When we check on them, we make sure they are receiving all the services they should be getting in an effort to keep them in their homes and prevent them from being institutionalized," she said.
The agency is perfectly positioned to keep up with so many individuals because of the reach it has. Aisha Madison, director of senior center operations, said the agency services 14 senior centers across southeast Arkansas where a hot meal is provided five days a week.
The agency also has a fleet of drivers who deliver meals to people in their homes.
"We knock on the doors of all of the clients and check on them and make sure they're OK," she said before praising the people who make that happen.
"I have the best drivers, I really do. They take the driving seriously and treat the clients like family. It could be me or you or our mother or our father. Sometimes we tend to forget about the elderly, but that's our passion -- making sure they're OK."
With the hot weather, the agency is also looking for ways to make people more comfortable, and they do that by providing fans and, on occasion, window unit air conditioners.
Carolyn Ferguson, officer of community services, said the agency has been conducting fan drives for decades and getting those fans out to where they are needed. The fans come from donations from various organizations, businesses and utility companies. In Jefferson County, 123 fans -- 75 of which came from Car-Mart -- and two air conditioners have been distributed, with the window units going to people with serious health conditions.
The city of Warren also offers assistance.
"They are the only city in the region that helps with this, and they've been doing it for years," Coulter said. "They used to give $200, but they said that wasn't enough and now they give us $2,000 a year, and we've been getting that for years. We are very appreciative."
With that money, the agency bought 125 fans, but the need always outstrips the supply.
"I can always use more fans," Ferguson said.
A related issue is that, even though the elderly may have fans and air conditioners, they are sometimes hesitant to use them.
"They're thinking about their electric bills," Ferguson said. "But we tell them to turn on the fans and turn on the air conditioners and that we can help them with their utility bills."
Coulter echoed that sentiment.
"We'd rather them run those appliances than have a heat stroke," she said. "We don't want that."
Asked if the agency was getting more calls from people needing heat-related help, Coulter was quick to answer.
"Oh, my, yes," she said. "It's a big uptick."
So how hot has it been?
From a meteorological standpoint, this summer, so far, hasn't gotten any weather exclamation points.
"There have been a lot of upper-90s, but Pine Bluff has not set any records," said Joe Goudsward, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in North Little Rock. "There have only been two days when the temperature hit at least 100."
Making it seem hotter, perhaps, is the lack of rain. The typical forecast for a summer day is hot with a 20% chance of thunderstorms. Occasionally, those happen, but they are spotty, Goudsward said.
"It's hit-or-miss-type stuff," he said.
Mostly, however, it's been a "miss" for the area. Goudsward said that, as of Wednesday, the month of July was close to three inches below normal, although Pine Bluff got a little rainy reprieve on Wednesday afternoon.
As for the heat, he said, "it's just been hot fairly recently, since about the middle of June to now."
The heat, however, has been intense enough to send people to the hospital. Tim McClure, medical director of the Emergency Department at Jefferson Regional, said it was not unusual to see two or three people a day show up at the emergency room who needed to be admitted.
McClure said their problems can be serious. When the body is dehydrated and overheats, he said, muscle tissue can break down, leading to stress on a person's kidneys.
"It can be an acute event," he said, "but it can lead to chronic kidney problems. Sometimes the kidneys respond with fluid hydration, but sometimes it can lead to kidney injury."
McClure said the problem is more associated with younger rather than older people.
"It's usually younger men, those who are out working in the heat," he said, "and they're not hydrating or taking breaks."
But older people definitely are at risk, he said, considering that the older body does not handle heat stress like a younger body can.
"There was one older lady who came in," McClure said. "She didn't have an air conditioner, and it was hotter inside her house than it was outside."
McClure advised those who have to get out in the heat to use caution.
"If you have to be outside, definitely do it early or late and not during the middle of the day," he said. "Take breaks to cool down and hydrate with water or drinks like Gatorade or Powerade. And watch for signs of symptoms of heat exhaustion."
Those, McClure said, are muscle cramps, lightheadedness and the lack of sweating.
"I always ask how the person is feeling," McClure said, "and about 100% of the time, they say they felt like they were not sweating anymore."
Chronic health conditions also exacerbate issues regarding hot weather, he said.
"You've got to be careful," he said. "I love to work out in the yard, but sometimes it's just too hot. You've got to listen to your body."
And never leave any living thing in a parked car, even for a short time, says Fire Chief Shauwn Howell.
"Temperatures can rise to life-threatening levels in a matter of minutes," he said.