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Old 01-24-2009, 02:19 PM
 
Location: Eureka CA
9,519 posts, read 14,736,406 times
Reputation: 15068

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I hate to admit I watch The Weather Channel but yesterday I caught most of a documentary they ran called "Deadly Heat"about the 1995 heat wave in Chicago that killed 700 people. I thought they did a pretty good job, compared it to Katrina, but I would love to hear your opinions. It's part of a series called When Weather Changed History or similar. It described how the different neighborhoods were affected, the anger against the Mayor etc. TWC is running the show again today at 6pm our (California time) time but I think they run their shows several times. If any of you see it I would love to hear your comments, especially if you lived through it. Best,
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Old 01-24-2009, 02:36 PM
 
Location: Chicago
15,586 posts, read 27,597,919 times
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Here is a bit I posted on that summer in another thread in the past:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Avengerfire View Post
Yeah it was. I was working outside in the city for Streets and San all summer. BRUTAL.
On top of that my brother and I did not have AC. We lived on the 2nd floor.
I got deathly ill from Salmonella via food poisoning. That 10 days or so of illness was pure and utter hell....
Also a friend of mine that is a cop had to help retrieve many bodies of people that died from the heat.

One was a 400-500 pound woman that had died a few days or maybe a week before she was found in her apartment. It was so hot in there and she was so large (combined with the amount of time the body had been decomposing) her body had SPLIT IN HALF. I was told that was one of the most disgusting and jarring things he had ever seen.

Last edited by Avengerfire; 01-24-2009 at 03:00 PM..
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Old 01-24-2009, 02:42 PM
 
Location: Oak Park, IL
5,525 posts, read 13,944,069 times
Reputation: 3907
I vividly remember that heat wave. I didn't have AC in my apartment so I ended up sleeping at work in my office.
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Old 01-24-2009, 02:48 PM
 
3,674 posts, read 8,658,751 times
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I remember that summer. It changed how I view summer-- you don't ever think of heat as "bad", or summer as "bad". Winter is what kills, right? Icy roads, the frigid temperatures taking out power and harming the elderly...

That was also the summer I realized that there was no way I could ever stand to live down south. Coldwine's previous plans had been to flee to Florida ASAP.

Chicago really has a very inhospitable climate.
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Old 01-24-2009, 02:59 PM
 
Location: Chicago
15,586 posts, read 27,597,919 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by coldwine View Post
...Chicago really has a very inhospitable climate.
You really had to throw that in there didn't you? Christ you are like a broken record.
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Old 01-24-2009, 03:01 PM
 
3,674 posts, read 8,658,751 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Avengerfire View Post
You really had to throw that in there didn't you? Christ you are like a broken record.
Extreme summers and extreme winters make for an extreme climate, Avenger. What else do you want me to say? I didn't complain about the weather, I just stated that it has extreme lows and extreme highs.

How many cities really need to be built for both?
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Old 01-24-2009, 03:03 PM
 
Location: Chicago
15,586 posts, read 27,597,919 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by coldwine View Post
Extreme summers and extreme winters make for an extreme climate, Avenger. What else do you want me to say? I didn't complain about the weather, I just stated that it has extreme lows and extreme highs.

How many cities really need to be built for both?
No. It is more like Chicago is a city that CAN (AND HAS HAD) have really extreme weather. It is not like every single year we have an extreme summer AND an extreme winter. Some years we do not have an extreme summer or an extreme winter for that matter.

Yeah the odds are stacked in favor of at least having an extreme winter or an extreme summer (or both) in maybe 75% of the years, but we do not have an extreme winter and summer in the same year very often.

We did have an extreme summer in 1995 and an extreme winter in 95/96. Something like that probably happens 5-10 years out of a hundred.
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Old 01-24-2009, 03:05 PM
 
Location: Chicago- Lawrence and Kedzie/Maywood
2,242 posts, read 6,238,078 times
Reputation: 741
I slept in the second floor porches at night.

During the day I played in the sprinklers at the playground.

I was a little kid.
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Old 01-24-2009, 03:15 PM
 
1,251 posts, read 2,512,756 times
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Ha, I remember taking bags of frozen peas and other food and wrapping them around my head with a sock every time I went outside. T'was nuts!
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Old 01-24-2009, 04:07 PM
 
Location: Chicago--Bucktown
425 posts, read 1,436,386 times
Reputation: 178
How hot was it? I've never heard anything about that, but growing up in Louisiana we always laughed at the news reports talking about 90 degree "heat waves" in Chicago, New York, etc.
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