Fashion Emergency

By Hanna Aronovich in Miscellaneous on Sep 8, 2006 5:04PM

We all know high heels can be hazardous, but it seems that what you wear can actually impact your ability to respond during an emergency situation.

Yesterday, the city conducted a mass rush-hour evacuation. Nearly 3,000 participants took part in the drill, the Tribune reported. The drill took less than an hour, but emergency planning chief Cortez Trotter said things could have moved faster were it not for some pointy toed, spike-heeled hindrances.

Trotter told the Tribune several women took more than 40 flights of stairs in heels, which slowed the evacuation, not to mention hurt their feet. We know it can be hard enough just to walk normally in heels, let alone do some serious stairmastering.

"Just walking down four, five flights of stairs, you'd better have the right shoes," the always sensibly dressed Mayor Daley said.

Overall, the drill went smoothly, but many other non-footwear-related lessons were learned, such as where the stairwells and emergency exits were located. Always good to know.

Although Chicagoist is quite fond of heels, we’re even more appreciative of survival. So, the overarching message of this What Not To Wear: Emergency Evacuation edition – keep a pair of flats at your desk. Your feet, and the evacuees behind you, will thank you.