1 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hello everyone, just popping up before we start to 2 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:18,720 Speaker 1: note the debt this episode ohs to Eric Klinenberg's book 3 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,119 Speaker 1: Heat Wave, which you'll hear cited several times. It's the 4 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:25,280 Speaker 1: definitive account of the disaster we describe, and I couldn't 5 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:28,960 Speaker 1: have written this episode without it. Klinenburg helped reframe what 6 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:32,879 Speaker 1: a natural disaster actually is, and I've drawn extensively on 7 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 1: his reporting and his thesis. A revised edition of heat 8 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 1: Wave was published just a few years ago. I suggest 9 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:44,599 Speaker 1: that you pick up a copy. One hundred and nine degrees, 10 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:50,160 Speaker 1: So much for the morning jog. At half past three 11 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:54,000 Speaker 1: on a Wednesday afternoon, the twelfth of July nineteen ninety five, 12 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:59,400 Speaker 1: Chicago's branch of the National Weather Service issued an advisory 13 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 1: to get hot. The heat could be found from Omaha 14 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:10,039 Speaker 1: to no kidding, it's Chicago in July. Level of activity. 15 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:13,160 Speaker 1: As a local TV weatherman put it, we saw the 16 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 1: heat coming for some time, but you were almost ridiculed 17 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:18,880 Speaker 1: when you'd say, hey, it's really going to get hot. 18 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:24,039 Speaker 1: But it was really going to get hot. The temperature 19 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,880 Speaker 1: had already hit ninety seven degrees the next day, the 20 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:32,479 Speaker 1: Thursday was worse at Midway Airport. It was one hundred 21 00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:36,200 Speaker 1: and six degrees and it was humid, like being wrapped 22 00:01:36,240 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: in hot towels. It felt like one hundred and twenty 23 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: five degrees. To have a temperature of one hundred and 24 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:46,280 Speaker 1: four and a due point in the low eighties and 25 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,840 Speaker 1: not proper thunderstorm was pretty extraordinary, said the weather man. 26 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:53,920 Speaker 1: A thunderstorm's function in nature is to be the air conditioner. 27 00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: Nature's air conditioners weren't working that week. There was no thunderstorm, 28 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 1: nor was there a cooling breeze from Lake Michigan to 29 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: the north and east. Instead, hot wet air was slowly 30 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:14,640 Speaker 1: oozing over Chicago from the southwest. Stores sold out of 31 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:17,920 Speaker 1: air conditioners. This is the kind of weather we pray for, 32 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:22,640 Speaker 1: said one appliance manufacturer. The lucky folk who did have 33 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: air conditioners turned them up to the max. Those who 34 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:30,160 Speaker 1: didn't went to the beach or a municipal pool. People 35 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: took boat trips out onto the lake, trips which were 36 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:38,920 Speaker 1: abandoned because passengers were becoming dehydrated and ill. As neighborhood 37 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:43,320 Speaker 1: streets baked like ovens. Some people set up sprinklers, others 38 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 1: illegally opened fire hydrants to provide a little relief, and 39 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:52,120 Speaker 1: little joy less joyfully pelted workmen with rocks and bricks 40 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:55,239 Speaker 1: when they tried to shut them off. The pressure in 41 00:02:55,360 --> 00:03:02,080 Speaker 1: Chicago's water mains started to fall. The next day, Friday 42 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:05,560 Speaker 1: was still over one hundred degrees and the stress on 43 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:10,200 Speaker 1: the city was growing. Cars were breaking down roads buckling. 44 00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:14,440 Speaker 1: City crews were hosing down lifting bridges across the Chicago 45 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:18,480 Speaker 1: River to prevent them jamming as the metal expanded. But 46 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:22,480 Speaker 1: the Mayor, Richard Daily, tried to reassure people, let's not 47 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 1: blow it out of proportion. He said, it's very, very, 48 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,440 Speaker 1: very hot. But then he added it was just one 49 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: of those crazy weather days like a winter blizzard. Yes, 50 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:37,480 Speaker 1: we go to extremes in Chicago, and that's why people 51 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:41,920 Speaker 1: love Chicago. We go to extremes. But it wasn't like 52 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: a winter blizzard, which Chicago could fix by sending out 53 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:51,520 Speaker 1: the snowplows. The heat wave was subtler, more surprising, more deadly. 54 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: Even for a city of extremes, there are limits to 55 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,400 Speaker 1: what can be endured. The heat wave was about to 56 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:06,280 Speaker 1: push Chicago through those limits. I'm Tim Harford, and you're 57 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:35,080 Speaker 1: listening to cautionary tales on Friday afternoon. It was hot everywhere, 58 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:39,160 Speaker 1: but few places were hotter than the inside of Transmission 59 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:44,159 Speaker 1: Substation one one four on Addison Street in northwest Chicago. 60 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:48,560 Speaker 1: TSS one one four was a set of large transformers 61 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:52,919 Speaker 1: twenty feet high fifteen feet across, which stepped high voltage 62 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:57,520 Speaker 1: electricity down to domestic voltages. TSS one one four was 63 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:02,040 Speaker 1: hot because the transformers were operating well above their design capacity, 64 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:06,479 Speaker 1: which means they were throwing off heat. The temperature outside 65 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:10,359 Speaker 1: was well over one hundred degrees. The temperature inside the 66 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 1: substation didn't bear thinking about. At four point fifty six PM, 67 00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:19,680 Speaker 1: a safety device overheated and shut down one of a 68 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 1: set of four transformers. The other three began to work 69 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:28,000 Speaker 1: even harder. At five forty seven PM, a different safety 70 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:33,360 Speaker 1: device simply caught fire. At a second transformer fails. The 71 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:38,760 Speaker 1: third and fourth transformers didn't last long. Forty nine thousand 72 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 1: customers lost electricity the next twenty four hours, and TSS 73 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:46,800 Speaker 1: one one four was merely the most serious of more 74 00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:50,920 Speaker 1: than thirteen hundred electrical equipment failures during the heat wave. 75 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:55,279 Speaker 1: The power loss took out the air conditioning, of course, 76 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:59,200 Speaker 1: but it also took out the elevators in high rises, 77 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:02,719 Speaker 1: often the hottest buildings, and often a place where elderly 78 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:06,080 Speaker 1: people would live, and it took out the lights both 79 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:11,479 Speaker 1: inside and outside. The whole area was dark, recalled the 80 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:15,520 Speaker 1: TV Weatherman. People were walking around with flashlights. I've driven 81 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:18,160 Speaker 1: down Addison Street for I don't know how many decades. 82 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:23,839 Speaker 1: I didn't recognize it. On Friday evening, as utility workers 83 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:28,400 Speaker 1: scrambled in vain to stop the lights going out, Edwin Donahue, 84 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:32,040 Speaker 1: the chief medical examiner for the Chicago area, Cook County, 85 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:37,599 Speaker 1: received a phone call from his office. Dr Donahue, we 86 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:40,360 Speaker 1: just wanted to inform you that there are forty autopsy 87 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:44,840 Speaker 1: cases on the list of tomorrow. Forty cases. I can't 88 00:06:44,839 --> 00:06:48,240 Speaker 1: ever remember forty cases. Why. I think they're dying of 89 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: the heats. When Donahue arrived at the Morgue the next morning, 90 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:59,279 Speaker 1: there were one hundred, and the bodies kept coming. Late 91 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:03,800 Speaker 1: that morning, city health officials declared a heat emergency. Every 92 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:06,760 Speaker 1: ambulance and every paramedic in the city was called in 93 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: to work. It wasn't enough. At hospitals across the city. 94 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:27,440 Speaker 1: Overwhelmed emergency rooms began to turn people away. What gave 95 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:30,120 Speaker 1: the Chicago heat wave. The potential to be so deadly 96 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: was the combination of heat and humidity. This is measured 97 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:37,600 Speaker 1: by something called a wet bulb thermometer. A wet bulb 98 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:41,440 Speaker 1: thermometer is wrapped in damp cloth, which ordinarily would cool 99 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 1: down the thermometer a lot as the water evaporates, but 100 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:49,000 Speaker 1: in humid conditions, the water evaporates slowly and the bulb 101 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:52,840 Speaker 1: isn't cooled much. The human body is cooled by the 102 00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:56,040 Speaker 1: evaporation of sweat from the skin, so the wet bulb 103 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:59,600 Speaker 1: thermometer provides a direct measure of how well the body's 104 00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:03,240 Speaker 1: cooling system can work. At a wet bulb temperature of 105 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:08,360 Speaker 1: ninety five degrees, sweating simply cannot cool your skin. Below 106 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:13,560 Speaker 1: ninety five degrees, your body's core temperature rises, your liver fails, 107 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:19,080 Speaker 1: your muscles and other organs quickly deteriorate. Such conditions will 108 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:23,800 Speaker 1: kill pretty much anyone within hours. Even at a wet 109 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:27,840 Speaker 1: bulb temperature of eighty degrees, sweating will barely keep your 110 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:32,240 Speaker 1: core temperature stable if you're physically active. It hit eighty 111 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:35,960 Speaker 1: five degrees during the heat wave. That was a serious 112 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:39,480 Speaker 1: risk for any frail or elderly person who lacked air conditioning. 113 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:46,120 Speaker 1: By Saturday evening, there were two hundred and sixty nine 114 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:50,079 Speaker 1: bodies at the Cook County Morgue. That was more than 115 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:54,120 Speaker 1: the morgue's refrigerators could hold. What would they do with 116 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:58,760 Speaker 1: the corpses? One of the secretaries at the morgue remembered 117 00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: a role playing exercise they'd once done, imagining mass casualties 118 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:06,520 Speaker 1: as Chicago was hit by a nerve gas attack. Well, 119 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:09,679 Speaker 1: they didn't have the nerve gas, but they did have 120 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:14,640 Speaker 1: the mass casualties. During that exercise, someone had said he'd 121 00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:18,360 Speaker 1: be able to provide refrigerated trucks if the morgue's cold 122 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:23,240 Speaker 1: storage was overwhelmed. The secretary found that guy's number and 123 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:27,679 Speaker 1: made the call. Before long, a couple of refrigerated trucks 124 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:30,520 Speaker 1: rolled up in the parking lot, courtesy of a local 125 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:35,959 Speaker 1: meatpacking firm. It was a bad look, but what choice 126 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:40,640 Speaker 1: did they have. Exhausted staff began to carry the bodies 127 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:43,920 Speaker 1: through the baking heat of the parking lot and out 128 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:47,600 Speaker 1: into the cold meat trucks, but the dead were still 129 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:52,199 Speaker 1: coming in, carried by ambulances and police cars. Ed Donohue's 130 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:56,000 Speaker 1: team realized they were going to need more of those trucks. 131 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:05,679 Speaker 1: Mayor Daily had said that people love Chicago because we 132 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:10,520 Speaker 1: go to extremes. Now, Chicago's hospitals were being tested to 133 00:10:10,559 --> 00:10:14,199 Speaker 1: the extreme. So was the water system drained of pressure 134 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:17,920 Speaker 1: by the sprinklers and the hydrants. So was its electricity 135 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:21,720 Speaker 1: supply pressed beyond the limit. As every air conditioning unit 136 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:26,240 Speaker 1: in the city was cranked up. Pauline Jankovitz was being 137 00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:31,920 Speaker 1: tested to the extreme. Two Pauline's malfunctioning air conditioner wasn't 138 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:35,720 Speaker 1: much use, and her apartment was turning into a sauna. 139 00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:40,480 Speaker 1: She wasn't too tempted to go outside. However, Pauline's neighborhood 140 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:45,120 Speaker 1: scared her. Chicago is just a shooting gallery, she said, 141 00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:50,920 Speaker 1: I'm a moving target because I walked so slowly. Pauline 142 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:54,920 Speaker 1: lived up on the third floor by choice. If I 143 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:57,480 Speaker 1: were on the first floor, I'd be even more vulnerable 144 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:02,719 Speaker 1: to a Breaknen, who was in her eighties, suffered from 145 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:06,760 Speaker 1: both a weak bladder and a weak leg. Straying far 146 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:11,200 Speaker 1: from the toilet felt risky and embarrassing. She had to 147 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,200 Speaker 1: walk with a crutch, and, as she said, she couldn't 148 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:18,800 Speaker 1: move fast. The simple act of getting down several flights 149 00:11:18,800 --> 00:11:21,400 Speaker 1: of stairs to street level and then back up again 150 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:27,120 Speaker 1: was an ordeal. She didn't do it often, but Pauline 151 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:31,640 Speaker 1: wasn't completely isolated. She had friends she could call any 152 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:36,120 Speaker 1: time she wanted to talk. As the temperature rose, Pauline 153 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:38,680 Speaker 1: spoke to one of those friends, who urged her to 154 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:41,920 Speaker 1: get out of the steam room atmosphere of her apartment 155 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:45,400 Speaker 1: if it got too hot. On what proved to be 156 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:48,880 Speaker 1: the hottest day of the year, Pauline resolved to do 157 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:52,800 Speaker 1: just what her friend had said. She rose early and 158 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:59,719 Speaker 1: slowly quietly limped down the stairs. The sheer effort was 159 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:03,840 Speaker 1: exhaust She was tempted to turn around and head back 160 00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:07,600 Speaker 1: to the apartment, but she gathered herself and stepped out 161 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:12,040 Speaker 1: onto the street. She waited for a city bus, which 162 00:12:12,080 --> 00:12:15,520 Speaker 1: took her to a local store. It was an oasis, 163 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:21,000 Speaker 1: fully air conditioned. Pauline took her time, leaning against her 164 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:26,079 Speaker 1: shopping cart. Revitalized by the cool air, she bought some cherries, 165 00:12:26,240 --> 00:12:31,439 Speaker 1: her favorite treat. Then, having built her strength, she slowly 166 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 1: walked back to the bus stop, then rode the bus 167 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:41,840 Speaker 1: until she got back to her apartment building. It was 168 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:45,640 Speaker 1: almost impossible to get back up the stairs her age, 169 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,640 Speaker 1: her wheat leg, and above all, the heat made those 170 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:56,559 Speaker 1: few flights an almost insuperable obstacle. Back in the steaming apartment, 171 00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:00,560 Speaker 1: there was no escape from the heat. Sweat beaded on 172 00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:04,720 Speaker 1: her skin but did not evaporate. The air conditioning unit 173 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:10,840 Speaker 1: sputtered ineffectually. Pauline called her friend again. She was getting dizzy. 174 00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:14,560 Speaker 1: She said she could see her hands were swelling up, 175 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:19,760 Speaker 1: they felt numb, and that sensation was spreading. Her friend 176 00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:24,480 Speaker 1: kept talking to her. Then Pauline said, I'm just going 177 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:26,960 Speaker 1: to dunk my head in some water, maybe get some 178 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:32,079 Speaker 1: wet towels. Just stay on the line for me. Pauline's 179 00:13:32,120 --> 00:13:35,840 Speaker 1: friend waited and listened down the phone line. She could 180 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:40,080 Speaker 1: hear the water running. Then she could hear Pauline shuffling 181 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:44,600 Speaker 1: slowly around the apartment. Was that the whir of a fan? 182 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:55,160 Speaker 1: She waited and waited. The fan kept whirring, but there 183 00:13:55,200 --> 00:14:06,440 Speaker 1: was no longer any sound from Pauline. Cautionary tales will 184 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:18,640 Speaker 1: return after the break. As the bodies began to pile 185 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:22,200 Speaker 1: up at the Cook County Morgue, the Chief Medical Examiner, 186 00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:26,880 Speaker 1: Edmund Donahue, started to raise the alarm. The heat wave 187 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:30,800 Speaker 1: was much more than an inconvenience. It was killing people, 188 00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:37,200 Speaker 1: hundreds of people with ambulances, overwhelmed hospitals, turning people away, 189 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:40,960 Speaker 1: and the elderly far more vulnerable than the young. It 190 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:45,480 Speaker 1: was an eerie glimpse of more recent health crises, and so, 191 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:50,680 Speaker 1: of course, the political heat was rising too. Politicians complained 192 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:54,760 Speaker 1: that when medics such as Edmund Donahue wrongly attributed natural 193 00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:58,760 Speaker 1: deaths to the heatwave, they were playing politics and exaggerating 194 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:04,040 Speaker 1: the crisis. Mayor Daily protested, you cannot claim that everybody 195 00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:06,880 Speaker 1: who's died in the last eight or nine days dies 196 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 1: of heat, then everybody in the summer that dies will 197 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:15,000 Speaker 1: die of heat. But Donahue wasn't claiming that everyone who 198 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:19,040 Speaker 1: showed up at the Cook County Morgue had died of heat, 199 00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:23,400 Speaker 1: just that a large number of them had. Otherwise, why 200 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,920 Speaker 1: had the death rates spiked so dramatically? Why were there 201 00:15:26,960 --> 00:15:31,360 Speaker 1: now nine, count them, nine huge meat trucks lined up 202 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:35,200 Speaker 1: in the morgue's parking lot, each full of bodies. And 203 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:39,000 Speaker 1: despite the haunting sight of those trucks, there were also 204 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:42,960 Speaker 1: grumbles that the whole thing was a media concoction. Did 205 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:46,360 Speaker 1: people die of the heat or just in the heat, 206 00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:50,960 Speaker 1: and some commentators observed that those who had died, generally 207 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:55,760 Speaker 1: elderly and also often black and poor, would have died 208 00:15:55,840 --> 00:16:01,520 Speaker 1: soon anyway. The near legendary local calmness Mike Royko wrote 209 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:05,720 Speaker 1: a piece titled Killer heat Wave or a Media Event. 210 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: Roiko argued that Chicago had always had heat waves. What 211 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:14,400 Speaker 1: was special about this one? He wrote, When poor Gramps 212 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:17,080 Speaker 1: croaked in those days, nobody got to see him being 213 00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: wheeled into the morgue on the ten o'clock news. He added, 214 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:25,160 Speaker 1: Old people inevitably die of one thing or another. For 215 00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 1: some of them, the weather just speeds up the process. 216 00:16:29,160 --> 00:16:33,240 Speaker 1: In other words, it's perfectly natural for old people to die, 217 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:38,720 Speaker 1: and the media were making a fuss about nothing. Sound familiar. 218 00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:45,120 Speaker 1: And yet while Roiko's argument has the ring of plausibility 219 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:48,160 Speaker 1: about it, he's turned the truth on its head, hasn't he? 220 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:52,520 Speaker 1: The media yawn at heat waves. They're much more interested 221 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:57,480 Speaker 1: in tornadoes or volcanoes or terrorist attacks, something that looks 222 00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:01,880 Speaker 1: good on film. Just to add that a plane had crashed 223 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:05,240 Speaker 1: at O'Hare Airport, killing a couple of one hundred people, 224 00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:08,639 Speaker 1: it would have been a huge news event. The reporters 225 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:11,080 Speaker 1: and the cameras would have rushed to the scene immediately. 226 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:16,080 Speaker 1: Veterans at the Cook County Morgue didn't need to imagine 227 00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:21,200 Speaker 1: that scenario. They could remember it. Sixteen years earlier, a 228 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,959 Speaker 1: passenger jet had crashed at O'Hair and two hundred and 229 00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:29,439 Speaker 1: seventy three people had died. To the morgue workers, the 230 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,720 Speaker 1: situation they faced in the heat wave wasn't much different. 231 00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:36,639 Speaker 1: Two hundred and seventy three victims of the plane crash, 232 00:17:37,119 --> 00:17:40,280 Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty nine corpses at the morgue by 233 00:17:40,359 --> 00:17:44,720 Speaker 1: Saturday night, and for the Cook County Morgue, things got 234 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:49,000 Speaker 1: worse because people kept coming in for day after day 235 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:53,560 Speaker 1: after day. Eventually the heat would kill nearly three times 236 00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:56,600 Speaker 1: as many people as the plane crash. It was as 237 00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,639 Speaker 1: though an airliner had crashed on the Friday. Moorg workers 238 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:04,320 Speaker 1: in the emergency services had worked heroically for twenty four hours, 239 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:08,840 Speaker 1: and then the call came in there's been another crash. 240 00:18:09,359 --> 00:18:13,280 Speaker 1: Expect another two or three hundred casualties, and a day 241 00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:16,320 Speaker 1: or so later. You won't believe it, but there's been 242 00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:20,080 Speaker 1: a third catastrophe at O'Hare, a triple plane crash with 243 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:24,720 Speaker 1: more than seven hundred fatalities would have been almost unthinkable. 244 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:31,159 Speaker 1: Can you imagine the headlines. Eventually, journalists started to catch 245 00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:34,760 Speaker 1: on to the heatwave, and TV helicopters flew over the 246 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:39,439 Speaker 1: Cook County Morgues parking lot, capturing that ghoulish footage of 247 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:43,879 Speaker 1: the line of refrigerated trucks. But other disasters of the 248 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: same era received far more coverage. For example, the Loamer 249 00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:52,960 Speaker 1: Preator earthquake, which in nineteen eighty nine killed sixty nine 250 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:58,639 Speaker 1: people in San Francisco and Oakland. Sixty nine deaths is 251 00:18:58,680 --> 00:19:02,960 Speaker 1: a disaster, of course, but the eventual death toll in 252 00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:12,199 Speaker 1: Chicago was seven hundred and thirty nine. After trying to 253 00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:17,359 Speaker 1: blame Dr Donahue, city authorities tried a different tack, blame 254 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:21,879 Speaker 1: the victims. The problem, said one city official, was that 255 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:26,199 Speaker 1: people didn't look after themselves and didn't accept help. We 256 00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:30,160 Speaker 1: did everything possible, he said, but some people didn't want 257 00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:33,720 Speaker 1: to open their doors to us. That was a clever 258 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:37,000 Speaker 1: attempt to imply that city workers were knocking on the 259 00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:42,480 Speaker 1: door of every vulnerable person. They weren't. Researchers from the 260 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:46,320 Speaker 1: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later concluded that 261 00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:51,800 Speaker 1: the city government didn't deploy enough street level workers. Still, 262 00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:57,040 Speaker 1: the victim blaming excuse touches on an important truth. A 263 00:19:57,080 --> 00:19:59,800 Speaker 1: lot of people didn't want to open their doors, whether 264 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:04,320 Speaker 1: to city workers or to their neighbors. One survivor, an 265 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:09,040 Speaker 1: elderly resident named Bob Greblow, explained, if someone comes to 266 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:12,000 Speaker 1: the door, I won't open it. I'll talk through the 267 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:17,199 Speaker 1: door because you never know. You never know. At the 268 00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:20,520 Speaker 1: Friday peak of the heat wave, the local news channel 269 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:25,119 Speaker 1: had led its evening broadcast with a warning not of 270 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:29,480 Speaker 1: the deadly heat, but that opening your window might allow 271 00:20:29,640 --> 00:20:34,480 Speaker 1: thieves to break into your apartment. Bob wouldn't go out either. 272 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:38,480 Speaker 1: That was risking both himself and the apartment he left behind. 273 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:41,480 Speaker 1: Young people are on the streets. When I go to 274 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,880 Speaker 1: the currency exchange to get my check, there's robbers every day. 275 00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:48,120 Speaker 1: It's too dangerous out there, even during the day. That's 276 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:50,320 Speaker 1: when they get you. You know, when you go get 277 00:20:50,320 --> 00:20:52,800 Speaker 1: your money. It's scary, but you got to do it. 278 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:56,200 Speaker 1: What else are you going to do? Anyway? I don't 279 00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:59,120 Speaker 1: bother other people, and I don't want to be bothered 280 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:02,359 Speaker 1: by other people. That's just my way. I've nowhere that 281 00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:07,120 Speaker 1: I want to go easy for city officials to complain 282 00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:10,960 Speaker 1: that people wouldn't open their doors, but people like Bob 283 00:21:11,080 --> 00:21:15,480 Speaker 1: had good reason to fear the outside world, As the 284 00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:20,560 Speaker 1: great urban observer Jane Jacobs told the Chicago Sometimes back then, 285 00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:25,200 Speaker 1: it took a lot of effort to make people this isolated. 286 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:32,679 Speaker 1: Of course, not everyone was isolated. Chicago's are buzzing city. 287 00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:37,720 Speaker 1: Here are longtime residents singing its praises. People stay here 288 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:40,359 Speaker 1: because they like walking to the stores. They can get 289 00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:43,680 Speaker 1: their food here, they can go to the bakery. Kids 290 00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:46,880 Speaker 1: are out, old people are out, people are shopping. There's 291 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:49,400 Speaker 1: really no need to get in the car and go anywhere. 292 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:52,680 Speaker 1: You can certainly do things within walking distance, and people 293 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:58,320 Speaker 1: do this. Bustling city was full of air conditioned spaces, 294 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:01,760 Speaker 1: many of them such as ibraries and shops, open to 295 00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:06,399 Speaker 1: anyone free of charge. They could and did make space 296 00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:09,320 Speaker 1: for the frail and the elderly to take shelter from 297 00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:14,119 Speaker 1: the heat. So why didn't vulnerable people just stroll to 298 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:17,119 Speaker 1: the local store and hang out there where it was cool. 299 00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:22,680 Speaker 1: Bob Greblow could tell you, it's too dangerous out there. 300 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:28,679 Speaker 1: I've nowhere that I want to go. In the years 301 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:33,800 Speaker 1: after the heat wave, a young sociologist named Eric Klinenburg 302 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:38,679 Speaker 1: spent time with vulnerable people in Chicago communities, examined the 303 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:41,840 Speaker 1: statistics on the death toll, and interviewed people with a 304 00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:47,159 Speaker 1: wide variety of perspectives. His book, Heat Wave is the 305 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:51,080 Speaker 1: definitive account of what went wrong under the surface of 306 00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:55,639 Speaker 1: the catastrophe. The most striking thing Kinnenburg did was to 307 00:22:55,640 --> 00:23:02,679 Speaker 1: contrast two adjacent Chicago neighborhoods, South Lawndale and North Lawndale. 308 00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:06,800 Speaker 1: On paper, both neighbourhoods had looked vulnerable, with lots of 309 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:11,879 Speaker 1: impoverished elderly people living alone. Both were mostly non white, 310 00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:18,520 Speaker 1: another possible indicator of vulnerability, and yet North Lawndale had 311 00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:25,119 Speaker 1: a heat wave death rate ten times higher than South Lawndale. 312 00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:29,000 Speaker 1: We go to extremes, the mayor had said, And this 313 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:34,480 Speaker 1: difference truly was extreme. So why had South Lawndale, so 314 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:39,640 Speaker 1: similar on paper, been largely spared when North Lawndale had 315 00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:44,880 Speaker 1: suffered so badly. But talking to local people about their lives, 316 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:50,320 Speaker 1: the explanation was clear. North Lawndale, where Bob Greblow lived, 317 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:55,280 Speaker 1: was depopulated. It was an urban desert pock marked with 318 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:59,159 Speaker 1: vacant lots. Gangs used it as a convenient place to 319 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:03,560 Speaker 1: sell drugs. One resident had remembered his neighbours hanging out 320 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,000 Speaker 1: on sweltering nights in the nineteen fifties. We used to 321 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:11,359 Speaker 1: sit outside all night and just talk, but that wasn't 322 00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:15,760 Speaker 1: possible in nineteen ninety five, not with bullets flying. Big 323 00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:20,840 Speaker 1: employers such as International Harvester, Sears, Roebuck, and Western Electric 324 00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:25,040 Speaker 1: had moved away, and shops had closed. The Streets of 325 00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:29,920 Speaker 1: North Lawndale felt deserted. Elderly people were afraid of being 326 00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:32,800 Speaker 1: robbed when they went out, and afraid that their homes 327 00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:36,720 Speaker 1: would be ransacked in their absence. They weren't used to 328 00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:39,919 Speaker 1: walking to local shops, and there weren't many local shops 329 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:45,240 Speaker 1: to walk to. South Lawndale was equally poor, but it 330 00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:50,119 Speaker 1: was overcrowded rather than deserted. As a result, it felt 331 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:55,040 Speaker 1: bustling and safe. You could step outside your door anytime 332 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:59,960 Speaker 1: and there would be folk around. Those happy Chicago residents 333 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,800 Speaker 1: we heard from a couple of minutes ago walking around 334 00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:07,879 Speaker 1: visiting the bakery they lived in South Lawndale. South Lawndale 335 00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:11,439 Speaker 1: resident Frank Crook spent his whole life there. I'm not 336 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:14,119 Speaker 1: afraid in my neighborhood said Frank, we walk in the 337 00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:16,240 Speaker 1: streets in the middle of the night when we come home. 338 00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:20,879 Speaker 1: He sounds so different to Bob or Pauline, doesn't he. 339 00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:25,399 Speaker 1: When the heat waves struck, of course, Frank and the 340 00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:27,960 Speaker 1: other old timers were happy to walk into an air 341 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,160 Speaker 1: conditioned store nearby and hang out. They felt safe leaving 342 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:36,000 Speaker 1: an empty apartment behind. When at home, they felt safe 343 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:38,040 Speaker 1: opening their doors to the people who came to check 344 00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:43,840 Speaker 1: on them in a heat wave. Lively streets save lives. 345 00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:50,000 Speaker 1: When the Great Jane Jacobs summarized Eric Clinenburg's findings, she 346 00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:55,280 Speaker 1: highlighted something so mundane that it's easy to overlook. In 347 00:25:55,359 --> 00:26:01,080 Speaker 1: each neighborhood. When the crisis struck, people kept behaving as 348 00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:06,000 Speaker 1: they had before. North Lawndale didn't have a functioning community. 349 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:11,760 Speaker 1: South Lawndale did when the crisis came. That meant that 350 00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:16,159 Speaker 1: ten times as many people died in desolate North Lawndale 351 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:19,240 Speaker 1: than they did in the bustling neighborhood to the south. 352 00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:42,760 Speaker 1: Cautionary tales will return in a moment. Recovering the bodies 353 00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:48,520 Speaker 1: was a horrific job. One of the hundreds of victims 354 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,240 Speaker 1: was found when the police got his door open on 355 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:55,240 Speaker 1: the nineteenth of July, a week after the first heat warnings, 356 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:01,879 Speaker 1: male age seventy nine, Black victim did not respond to 357 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:05,720 Speaker 1: phone calls or knocks on victim's door since Sunday, sixteenth 358 00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:10,280 Speaker 1: July ninety five. Victim was known as quiet to himself 359 00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:15,240 Speaker 1: and at times not to answer the door. What was 360 00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:19,000 Speaker 1: that seventy nine year old thinking before he passed out 361 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:22,080 Speaker 1: in the heat. Did he think of the outside world 362 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:26,040 Speaker 1: like Bob Greblow did. If someone comes to the door, 363 00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:28,520 Speaker 1: I won't open it. I'll talk through the door because 364 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:33,400 Speaker 1: you never know. Did he fondly remember the nineteen fifties 365 00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:37,000 Speaker 1: when people could hang out with their neighbors. We used 366 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:41,280 Speaker 1: to sit outside all night and just talk. We can 367 00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:45,040 Speaker 1: only guess, like many of the seven hundred and thirty 368 00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:51,000 Speaker 1: nine people who died, he was voiceless and alone. The 369 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:56,119 Speaker 1: police report continues, landlord does not have any information to 370 00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:00,320 Speaker 1: any relatives to victim. Jane was on doorp the bonding 371 00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:03,720 Speaker 1: officer was able to see victim on sofa, with flies 372 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,880 Speaker 1: on victim and a very strong odor of decay and decomposing. 373 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:14,040 Speaker 1: Responding officer cut chain per permission of landlord, called medical examiner, 374 00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:22,960 Speaker 1: who authorized removal. No known relatives at this time. Remember 375 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,199 Speaker 1: what Jane Jacobs had said, It took a lot of 376 00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:33,360 Speaker 1: effort to make people this isolated. As the heat wave hit, 377 00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:38,080 Speaker 1: it was easy to see the physical infrastructure failing, the 378 00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:41,920 Speaker 1: power cuts, the cracking roads, the trickling water mains, and 379 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:46,440 Speaker 1: the buckling bridges. But the physical infrastructure was straining all 380 00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:50,080 Speaker 1: over the city. It doesn't explain the difference between people 381 00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:54,000 Speaker 1: like the nameless seventy nine year old far from neighborhood stores, 382 00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:57,040 Speaker 1: too frightened to open the door, and people such as 383 00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:00,240 Speaker 1: Frank Crook, who had neighbours checking in on them and 384 00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:02,880 Speaker 1: who thought nothing of strolling out to cool down in 385 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:07,240 Speaker 1: a local grocery store. Remember that the death rate in 386 00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:10,880 Speaker 1: North Lawndale was ten times as high as the death 387 00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:15,320 Speaker 1: rate in South Lawndale. The North Lawndale residents who died 388 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,720 Speaker 1: weren't killed by a failure of physical infrastructure around them, 389 00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:24,160 Speaker 1: but by a failure of the social infrastructure. That's much 390 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:29,160 Speaker 1: harder to see, to measure or to fix. But the 391 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:34,200 Speaker 1: failure was all around them, constraining every single day of 392 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:44,200 Speaker 1: their lives. Heat continues to be a killer. The World 393 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:48,640 Speaker 1: Health Organization estimates that between nineteen ninety eight and twenty seventeen, 394 00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:52,760 Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty six thousand people died owing to 395 00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:56,360 Speaker 1: heat waves, yet they rarely get the attention that we 396 00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:59,800 Speaker 1: would devote to a volcano, a tsunami, or a wildfire. 397 00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,720 Speaker 1: And because the global climate is changing, extreme heat waves 398 00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:08,440 Speaker 1: are becoming much more common. Events that we might expect 399 00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:12,160 Speaker 1: once in fifty thousand years we might now see every 400 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:15,560 Speaker 1: decade or so. So we're going to have to get 401 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:20,400 Speaker 1: used to scorching temperatures and smothering humidity, and that makes 402 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:23,400 Speaker 1: it all the more important to understand what happened in 403 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:27,880 Speaker 1: Chicago a quarter of a century ago. We can't prevent 404 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:30,480 Speaker 1: heat waves, but there's a lot we can do to 405 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:34,680 Speaker 1: make them less dangerous. The physical shape of neighborhoods can 406 00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:38,680 Speaker 1: make them heatwave prone or heat wave resistant. A city 407 00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:43,160 Speaker 1: block with tarmac and concrete, little shade and rapid drainage 408 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,480 Speaker 1: of water can be several degrees hotter than one with 409 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:50,200 Speaker 1: a shade of trees or patches of vegetation that catch 410 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:54,560 Speaker 1: water and let it evaporate. Leafy neighborhoods tend to be 411 00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,280 Speaker 1: a great deal cooler, and it will surprise nobody to 412 00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:02,720 Speaker 1: hear that leafy neighborhoods also tend to be richer. A 413 00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:06,720 Speaker 1: recent study in the journal Climate found that historically red 414 00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:10,640 Speaker 1: lined areas in US cities are an average of four 415 00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:16,840 Speaker 1: point five degrees fahrenheit warmer. These areas are mostly African American, 416 00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:21,680 Speaker 1: denied federal mortgage support in the nineteen thirties and long 417 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:29,560 Speaker 1: marginalized afterwards. North Lawndale is one of them. But while 418 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:34,480 Speaker 1: this is all so depressing, doesn't it also offer some hope. 419 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:38,160 Speaker 1: When we think about adapting to climate change, we often 420 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:41,800 Speaker 1: think of expensive defenses, such as dikes and flood barriers, 421 00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:45,959 Speaker 1: or waterproofing power and transport infrastructure so that it copes 422 00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:50,360 Speaker 1: better with extreme conditions. For some places, that's a cost 423 00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:54,000 Speaker 1: we're going to have to swallow. But the experience of 424 00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:58,400 Speaker 1: Chicago suggests that there's another kind of adaptation, another kind 425 00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:03,920 Speaker 1: of weather proofing, supporting vibrant neighborhoods, planting trees and laying 426 00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:09,680 Speaker 1: out parks, reducing crime and encouraging local businesses, funding libraries 427 00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:13,600 Speaker 1: and community centers. I'm not saying it's easy to turn 428 00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:17,040 Speaker 1: a failing neighborhood into a thriving one, but I am 429 00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:19,480 Speaker 1: saying that it's the kind of thing we'd want to 430 00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:25,120 Speaker 1: do anyway. The flourishing community of South Lawndale protected its 431 00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:28,719 Speaker 1: vulnerable residents in a way that the threadbare community of 432 00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:34,960 Speaker 1: North Lawndale just couldn't. But that wasn't some expensive precaution 433 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:37,920 Speaker 1: that paid off only in a crisis. It was a 434 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,960 Speaker 1: natural consequence of the way South Lawndale worked every hour 435 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:46,880 Speaker 1: of every day, making it a far happier, healthier, safer 436 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:54,080 Speaker 1: place to live. Pauline Jankovitch remember, was isolated and afraid, 437 00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:57,880 Speaker 1: but she had a friend she could call. When we 438 00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:01,400 Speaker 1: left Pauline, she'd gone quiet. Her friend was on the 439 00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:08,240 Speaker 1: other end of the telephone, waiting, increasingly anxious. At last, 440 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:12,640 Speaker 1: Pauline came back on the line. She was okay. Pauline 441 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:15,760 Speaker 1: had been dipping her head in water, then brought wet 442 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:18,520 Speaker 1: towels back to the bed. She turned on her fan 443 00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:21,240 Speaker 1: and lay down under the towels with the fan blowing 444 00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:24,600 Speaker 1: over her. She lost track of time a bit, then 445 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:28,240 Speaker 1: remembered that her friend was still on the line. Thanks 446 00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:30,720 Speaker 1: for waiting for me. I feel a lot better now. 447 00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:33,000 Speaker 1: I'm going to keep using the towels and the fan. 448 00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:38,400 Speaker 1: It's working, and it was working. Pauline hung up, lay 449 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:42,720 Speaker 1: down again, and waited to regain her strength. Looking back, 450 00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:47,160 Speaker 1: she laughed about it. She told the sociologist Eric Klinenburg. 451 00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:50,040 Speaker 1: I have a special way to beat the heat. I 452 00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:53,160 Speaker 1: like to go on a Caribbean cruise. I get several 453 00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:56,040 Speaker 1: washcloths and dip them in cold water, but I placed 454 00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:58,760 Speaker 1: them over my eyes so that I can't see. I 455 00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:02,400 Speaker 1: lie down and set them fan directly on me. The 456 00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:04,760 Speaker 1: wet towels and the wind from the fan give a 457 00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:09,880 Speaker 1: cool breeze. I imagine myself on a cruise around the islands, 458 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:14,200 Speaker 1: even in the humidity. The towels and the fan help, 459 00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:18,719 Speaker 1: But so do the friends. My friends know about my 460 00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:21,439 Speaker 1: cruises too, so when they call me on hot days, 461 00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:24,880 Speaker 1: they all say, Hi, Pauline, how was your trip? We 462 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:29,799 Speaker 1: laugh about it, but it keeps me alive. But what 463 00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:33,920 Speaker 1: if the virtual cruise hadn't worked. What if Pauline had 464 00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:37,640 Speaker 1: passed out her friend was still on the line. She'd 465 00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:40,080 Speaker 1: have called the ambulance. Don't just knock on the door, 466 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:42,680 Speaker 1: She'd have said, break it down. I know she's in there. 467 00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:47,040 Speaker 1: I was talking to her when she stopped responding. Pauline 468 00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:52,040 Speaker 1: was vulnerable, and she was isolated, but she had someone 469 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:57,080 Speaker 1: looking out for her, someone she could trust. Everybody should, 470 00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:07,919 Speaker 1: but in Chicago, not everybody did. The last forty one 471 00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:11,680 Speaker 1: victims of the Chicago heat wave were buried six weeks 472 00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:15,879 Speaker 1: later in a mass grave one hundred and sixty feet long. 473 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:21,080 Speaker 1: They were so alone that even after death, nobody came 474 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:26,040 Speaker 1: to claim them. Forty one simple pine boxes were laid 475 00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:29,360 Speaker 1: side by side in the six foot deep trench. Each 476 00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:34,839 Speaker 1: had a brass tag with a number. County investigators had 477 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:37,480 Speaker 1: tried to track down the families of each victim for 478 00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:42,000 Speaker 1: them to arrange a funeral. Often they had succeeded. These 479 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:46,240 Speaker 1: forty one were the ones who were left Edward Hoffman, 480 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:54,880 Speaker 1: Leonard Heimer, Lisa Kimberly, Paul Ozyenshevich, Lydia Payne, Thomas Randall, 481 00:35:55,680 --> 00:36:04,000 Speaker 1: William Reidsville, Robert Yankovich, Ethel Young. Sometimes no family member 482 00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:07,960 Speaker 1: could be found, Sometimes the family didn't want to get involved. 483 00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:13,279 Speaker 1: A few people had shown up to bear witness during 484 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:19,960 Speaker 1: the brief service. Some were solemn, some angry, some were 485 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:24,640 Speaker 1: simply sobbing. If any of these living knew any of 486 00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:47,640 Speaker 1: the dead, they did not admit it. Eric Klindenburg's book 487 00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:51,080 Speaker 1: is heat Wave for a full list of our sources 488 00:36:51,280 --> 00:37:03,800 Speaker 1: see Timharford dot com. Cautionary Tales is written by me 489 00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:08,160 Speaker 1: Tim Harford with Andrew Wright. It's produced by Ryan Dilley 490 00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:12,200 Speaker 1: with support from Courtney Gerino and Emily Vaughan. The sound 491 00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:15,680 Speaker 1: design and original music is the work of Pascal Wise. 492 00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:19,480 Speaker 1: It features the voice talents of Ben Crow, Melanie Guttridge, 493 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:23,759 Speaker 1: Stella Harford, and Rufus Wright. The show also wouldn't have 494 00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:27,360 Speaker 1: been possible without the work of Mea LaBelle, Jacob Weisberg, 495 00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:32,720 Speaker 1: Heather Fane, John Schnaz, Julia Barton, Carlie mcgliori, Eric Sandler, 496 00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:38,560 Speaker 1: Royston Baserv, Maggie Taylor, Nicol Morano, Daniel Lacahan, and Maya Kanig. 497 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:43,320 Speaker 1: Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. 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