Sound Familiar?
The advisories were issued as the Chicago area sweltered through a second day of heat indexes hovering at 100 degrees. It was the hottest-feeling day of the year, with O'Hare Airport hitting 90 degrees and Midway Airport 92, according to the Chicago Weather Center blog.
There may be little relief from the stifling heat the rest of July, according to the weather service. "It looks like we could see this hot weather for an extended period," said Andrew Krein, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
According to WGN Channel 9 chief meteorologist Tom Skilling, supercomputer model projections through the remaining two weeks of July indicate a steady string of 90 plus-degree days.
- This week marks the 15th anniversary of the 1995 Chicago heat wave, a five-day scorcher that was blamed for more than 700 heat-related deaths.
That week, the heat index reached 119 degrees at O'Hare and 125 degrees at Midway Airport.
About 150 people were evaluated by paramedics for heat-related ailments they suffered while waiting for a bus outside the Loop's Union Station on Thursday.
Fire personnel responded to 315 S. Canal St. about 5:15 p.m. on a report about 150 people suffering from heat exhaustion, Fire Media Affairs spokesman Quention Curtis said.
The people were standing outside Union Station awaiting a bus, Curtis said. A CTA cooling bus was sent to the scene and paramedics evaluated the people.
Labels: info for the police
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
26 Comments:
Skilling said we could hit 100 next week!!!! Calling for 95 on Wed and 98 Thur. Can't wait to see the shootings that will erupt next week.
A little background for those who might not have been around at the time --
http://www.press.uchicago.edu
/Misc/Chicago/443213in.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/1995_Chicago_heat_wave
It's not something you forget.
Will re-post this here, if SCC kindly allows, now that we have an area for the topic. Just what I went through in keeping family safe in '95, may be some ideas here for others.
-------------------------------
Folks, this is the 15th anniversary of the 1995 killer heat wave. 106 degrees and 100% humidity piled up more than 700 bodies in refrigerated trailers down at the M.E.
I was out walkin' in it. In my circumstances at the time, I found a discarded air conditioner of a brand known to me to have a good working reputation, and lugged it, walking for blocks, to a bus stop. Hea-vy!
Cleaned it up -- hosed the dirt out of the coils so's it could breathe again -- and got it into my family member's window. Had to move it again into a window closer to the outlet because the low line voltage in the older building's poor wiring was causing even a heavy-duty three-foot A/C extension cord to overheat (fewer volts=more amps). The room she slept in had no doors, just a wide doorway. I made a heavy thermal door from Army blankets and construction plastic sheeting. I covered the hot west-facing windows with aluminum foil, shiny-side-out, and hung some unzipped kids' sleeping bags, etc. inside as further insulation against the blast outside.
A block from us, an elderly woman died while waiting for her daughter to take her to the hairdresser, for God's sake. To paraphrase Carl Sandburg in his poem Anna Imroth, "It was the Hand of God and the lack of air conditioning."
Don't let this happen to anyone you know. Those 5000 BTU "Haier" A/Cs are out there by the skid, sometimes as low as $69.95, and don't forget anything else you may need to install it and block out the heat (aluminum foil, duct tape, and blue insulating foamboard cut to push into window openings from the inside once the foil is on the glass -- the two-inch stuff gives an R-value like a solid wall, and is light as a feather and cuts with a utility knife). Who cares what it looks like; it's temporary, it works, and it saves lives. Best place is to put it is in a small bedroom with a door -- and hang blankets/plastic over the door as additional insulation.
Don't forget to take care of the electric bill; you can do all this and they still won't switch it on because they are quite rightly afraid of the cost. Skip the new wheels for the Harley this year and save a life.
I'll never forget watching the TV news showing the workers at the ME's office, in their disposable pink smocks and booties, sitting outside for a minute with their heads in their hands in exhaustion. So many dead...
Another dome of hot air is moving in from the West right now, and may seal in similar conditions for some days, especially in the coming week.
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
Protect the elderly.
Signed --
A guy who went through it with little cash to spare and still got the job done.
I'm just going to throw this out there: Soylent Green is people.....
Think about it. Problem solved.
Oh...and have a stock of drinking and sanitary water. Don't have to buy it, just save up and fill clean 2-liter pop bottles, etc. Enough chlorine in city water that it keeps a while OK. Especially if you live up high, on a rise or in a tall building. Nothing worse than your faucets sucking empty while the Yuppie pricks across the alley in their townhomes mindlessly water their miserable postage-stamp lawns with the water draining down out of your building...
The poor cat was so desperate that we found him hiding in the bottom of an airless metal wardrobe to try to escape the heat. Of course, we wet him down, then got him into the a/c room.
Like I said, something you don't forget.
This incident was totally exaggerated. These people were standing outside in the sun waiting for the bus instead of going into shade right across the street. This bus they were waiting for is the one that lets you travel cross country for a dollar. So obviously these people aren't the brightest. No one was even hospitalized.
Gee, it's July and its hot...Go figure!
The best part about these folks waiting for the bus? Across the street it was nice and shady, so hundreds of people stood in the sun waiting for their bus until they got sick, called 911, had CFD and CPD come out, only to be told.... Hey, why don't you dumbasses wait across the street for your bus? IN THE SHADE SHEEPLE! A nice cooling bus was sent out for these simpletons as well.
I spent some time a few weeks ago deep in the southern part of this country. Like here, they have a summer that comes every year. The heat index was over 100 every day. No one was caught off guard by this. There were no free fan's. The police were not used to relocate people to a cooling center. The police patrolled the streets. This whole "oh it's to hot" will turn to "oh it's to cold before long. Suck it up.....
I was in the academy that summer, doing push-ups in the east parking lot in the early part of the afternoon many days that summer, under the supervision of the legendary PO Terow. We had to do the run to downtown many times also. Was it hot! I thought I was going pass out a couple of times during pt class. Those of you that remember PO Terow, know that he did those push-ups along with you in each class, every day, regardless of the heat. We were the Vertical Police, and PO Terow worked us.
As I recall 1995 and 1996 were back to back scorchers. In 1996 there were far fewer deaths and as we talked about it at dinner one evening, our brainiac daughter interjected the explanation. "Darwin took care of business last year. Not as many idiots left this year to take the dirt nap"
it was a great day for the lowly patrolman when we got out of the body hauling business--- no more toxic maggot pies to scoop up--- no more beefs with the fire department--- got a guy sitting next to you at the bar who you dislike, start telling stinker and popper stories and he won't be around for long......
I worked the wagon back then, bt1873 on mids.I must have hauled over 20 doa's that week,stinking,roting bloaded corpses.All us wagon guys earned that paycheck for that week.Morgue,city services etc totally unprepared for what hit us that week in 1995..
At least back in'95 we had an early and a late wagon. I haven't seen more than 1 up (if that) in years. I even remember when we had a wagon up in each sector.
"I'm just going to throw this out there: Soylent Green is people.....
Think about it. Problem solved.
7/16/2010 12:27:00 AM"
what about 'you are what you eat'?
scc: when it gets hot like this I'm glad I'm working midnights, it gets busy but at least it cools off a few degrees.
Just wait till shortshanks sells the ambulances to the highest bidder and lay-off all the paramedics. Cant wait to see how a bunch of medics making $12 an hour weather the storm. I got news, it wont be pretty.
Why didn't the CTA or the City distribute Cooling Umbrellas like they use in the Orient?
(Ancient Chinese Secret)!
Tuesday or Wed you'll start finding them,if it stays hot this weekend. Can't wait until the hairgels start crying,they will go NO sympathy from anyone who worked that awful summer.
Ahhh yes!
Fun, fun fun in the summer!
Up and down 16 to 20 flights of stairs(no elevator please, the cliff-dwellers would light a pissy sofa on fire and shove it down the shaft when the "woo-woo, lights-out, five-oh and whistles of warning went out that the Police were on the way) all night until 0700 hrs because "it's hot and we mad!"
"Yeah squad, tell 'em to meet us downstairs if they want Police service... Man, fuck humpin' these stairs all night!"
People die from heat related causes in high rises too.
A funky spin on Murphy's Law...
The heavier the deceased, the more rotten, swollen and fetid they are, the higher up in the building they will be, the greater probability the elevator isn't working and a stupid muthafuckah
will get the eternal, daddy-lovin' shit shot out of his dumb ass just as the Police exit the stairwell with the deceased.
Or... Funkier still...
The preceding wagon crew somehow managed to do the pooch in such fine fashion as to leave the relieving crew with 8 stiffs stacked at the hospital (and the hospital was calling the desk wondering "wtf?") awaiting transport to the Morgue. On that same night, one half of the wagon throws a shoe and the replacement, though a nice guy is 504 130lbs. One of the stiffs was 603 & 330lbs who got chopped to pieces by full auto rifle-fire on a dope-spot. The most horrible curses this side of The River Styx were uttered in profaning the watch secretary's name, parentage and pets.
Dammit! At least they could have put somebody else at least 600 & about 230 to 275 on the wagon! There were a bunch of former full-backs, linebackers and heavy weight boxers wandering around that night in blue shirts!
Oh well... Gotta laugh about it sometimes.
Stay cool and stay safe.
Hydrate! Water & Gatorade guys & gals...
Anonymous said...
I was in the academy that summer, doing push-ups in the east parking lot in the early part of the afternoon many days that summer, under the supervision of the legendary PO Terow. We had to do the run to downtown many times also. Was it hot! I thought I was going pass out a couple of times during pt class. Those of you that remember PO Terow, know that he did those push-ups along with you in each class, every day, regardless of the heat. We were the Vertical Police, and PO Terow worked us.
7/16/2010 06:48:00 AM
I had Gus Tero 10 years earlier. Remember "fight the feeling" fight that pain, we had a former Marine embassy guard in my class, he carried on a full conversation while running and didn't ever look winded or tired. Ran backwards too. Of course he was accustomed to doing it with a pack and in battle gear. We had t-shirts and shorts and were gassed.
I have never run since.
"As I recall 1995 and 1996 were back to back scorchers. In 1996 there were far fewer deaths and as we talked about it at dinner one evening, our brainiac daughter interjected the explanation. 'Darwin took care of business last year. Not as many idiots left this year to take the dirt nap'"
--7/16/2010 08:42:00 AM
How terribly sad.
"11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things."
--I Corinthians 12-14
Thank GOD I'm off this weekend, stay safe all my brothers/sisters in blue. No more bagpipes and tears!!!
Anonymous said...
"I'm just going to throw this out there: Soylent Green is people.....
Think about it. Problem solved.
7/16/2010 12:27:00 AM"
what about 'you are what you eat'?
7/16/2010 11:26:00 AM
would you like fries with that?
That was some HOT days. I also remember that it stayed in the 90's even during the nite. You wake up to go to work and it was hot humid and 90 @ 6:30 in the morning. It sure was nasty going into these homes to find what was found. What really got me is that the public was blaming the city even tho they went 3,4 and sometimes 5 days without checking on their family members. Used a lot of Vicks that week.
Not A Cop
CFD
It's always been hot in the summer. Why is it now a "heat emergency"? Use your heads morons, and you won't cook to death in this urban desert.
Darwin loves to call home the weak.
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