A look back at Chicago's deadly 1995 heat wave - Chicago Sun-Times
And they kept going up. Mid-day readings at Midway Airport that day hit 106 degrees. According to the heat index — measuring the effects of temperature and humidity — it actually felt like 126 degrees to an average, healthy human. Nighttime would only bring temperatures in the 80s. Unbeknownst to Chicagoans and to their city government, the city was beginning a descent into a hellish oven from which it wouldn’t emerge for three days. Today recognized as potential natural disasters, cities have developed stringent heat emergency preparedness and response plans that include tending to their most vulnerable citizens. “We’re far more prepared now than we were back then, physically, technologically, operationally,” says Gary Schenkel, executive director of the Chicago Office of Emergency Management & Communications. Though created in 1995, OEMC became the city’s one-stop shop for emergency response after the 9/11 bombings. “The history of 1995, going forward, certainly dictated the level of alarm and concern for the whole city in periods of heat concern,” Schenkel says. “The most dramatic difference,” Schenkel says, “is that we’ve been able to develop a collaborative program integrating all city departments, with. Source: chicago.suntimes.com
