Deadly heat wave 20 years ago taught valuable lessons

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Twenty years ago this week, a deadly heat wave claimed hundreds of lives in Chicago and the lessons learned in that sad chapter of local history have served the city well.

We could see the buckled pavement and stuck bridges, but we couldn't see what the relentless high heat and humidity were doing indoors. Like many others, the mayor didn't see it.

"We all have our little problems, but let's not blow it out of proportion," Mayor Richard Daley said in July 1995.

It was not out of proportion when the bodies began to pile up - 40, 100, 300. The morgue was so overwhelmed that refrigerated trucks were lined up to handle the dead.

Most of the victims were seniors living alone, black and white, poor with underlying medical conditions. They died in their homes unaware of the risk, unable or unwilling to seek help. Ultimately, over 730 deaths were blamed fully or in part on the heat.

"It was just so overwhelming that no one could really comprehend it until it was over," said Joyce Gallagher, Chicago Area Agency on Aging.

When it was over, there were lessons learned in abundance.

"There's an old saying, 'You don't want to meet your partner in the foxhole in the middle of a firefight,'" said Gary Schenkel, Office of Emergency Management and Communication. "We work together on a regular basis on all kinds of different events, whether they be large or small."

For years now the city has used its joint command center to bring all agencies to the table in the same room, a coordinated effort with a playbook that did not exist 20 years ago. And a much more focused outreach to those who may be at greatest risk, but arguably, the most valuable lesson being that government cannot be everywhere, so check on your neighbor which today seems more commonplace.

"A few years ago it really came to the fore when an individual passed away in Norwood Park and the neighbors didn't say, 'Where was the city?'" Gallagher said. "The sayd, 'Where were we?'"

This wasn't a tornado or a flood, or some other calamitous event of nature that you could reach out and touch, so it took a while for everyone, including the government and media, to connect the dots.

There was a lot of finger pointing in the blame game 20 years ago, but the lessons learned then have served well since.