Getting your player ready...
TUCSON — An unusually wet winter in Arizona this year has been lethal for illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico into the United States, with nine people dying from hypothermia since November.
The same number of immigrants died of hypothermia during the previous three winters combined. “When you are wet, your risk is a lot higher,” said Dr. Bruce Parks, chief medical examiner at the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office. “Wet clothing takes the heat away from the body. You’ve lost that insulation — your body can’t react.”
The 2.1 inches of rain that fell in Tucson in January made it the eighth-wettest January in Arizona’s recorded history, and the wettest since 1993, according to the National Weather Service.
