Emanuel Orders Heat Report; Heat Wave Death Tally At 18
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Jul 10, 2012 7:00PM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel ordered a report to evaluate the city's response to last week's heat wave that left 18 people dead. The City's Office of Emergency Management is analyzing the distribution of resources, the coordination among departments and the geography of cooling centers and wellbeing checks. The spokeswoman says the report was requested because "extremes are now the norms," and the three-day stretch of 100-plus temperatures sure felt extreme.
It was a record-tying heat stretch, but thankfully not a record-tying death toll. It's still alarmingly high, especially considering there were 16 heat-related deaths in all of 2011. In July 1995 nearly 600 people passed away during a 4-day heat wave. Mayor Richard M. Daley spent the rest of his career trying to make up for that disaster, and the systems he put in place are the ones Emanuel can improve upon before the next heat extreme.
See the full list of heat-related deaths on CBS Chicago. A majority of those who died had conditions that left them susceptible to heat stroke.