30 Years After 739 People Died in the Most Deadly Heat Wave in U.S. History
Friday, June 20, 2025
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE PEOPLE’s RESPONSE NETWORK
Once again, at this morning’s press conference, the city of Chicago, led by the Office of Emergency Management and Communication (OEMC), created in response to the deadly 1995 heat wave, failed to take any of the steps below to protect Chicago’s highest risk housed and unhoused residents, outdoor and indoor workers, seniors, African Americans living in still redlined neighborhoods and
others who will get heat related illnesses, leading to possible deaths, beginning tomorrow during the 3-5 day deadly heat wave when the heat indices will exceed 100-110.
Despite the fact that both the Chicago Health Commissioner, Dr. Olumsibo Ige, and National Weather Service Meteorologist, Brett Borchardt, explained that those at highest risk are Black, non-Latinix, men in the highest risk zip codes: 60620. 60623, 60628, 60651, and that humans lose the ability to cool when the heat index reaches 75-80, and that the most dangerous time each day is at night when our bodies will not be able to cool off because night time temperatures will not drop below 75-80 degrees, the City of Chicago once again will NOT open one single public building at night between 8 pm-9 am during the 3-5 day heat wave.
Instead, as Mayor Richard M. Daley did during the 1995 heat wave, and every Mayor since: the onus is once again put on the individuals and their families at highest risk.
Rather than hire hundreds of health, housing and social service public city workers from those neighborhoods at highest risk who could check on and work with their neighbors at highest risk, Chicago has spent $Billions on OEMC, primarily an arm of the Chicago Police Department, who are now 95% of first responders and whose stations are the only places open at night for “cooling”.
Since its creation after the 1995 heat wave, OEMC’s yearly budget has ranged between $100-$300 Million per year paying for ~1,000-2,220 staff, many of whom work for or with the Chicago Police according to the City of Chicago Employee Phone Directory 34 organizations and labor unions sent the attached letter to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and all 50 Alderpeople on September 9,
2024 and are still awaiting a response to our requests:
When the heat index is 80 or greater: open all six (6) cooling centers, all 81 libraries, air conditioned park fieldhouses, senior centers and other public facilities 24/7, send out CTA air conditioned buses to all encampments of the unhoused, those Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), Senior, Section 8 buildings and neighborhoods with the highest 1995 heat death rates, and highest poverty rates where people either do not have an air conditioner or cannot afford to turn them on, like the city & CTA did to the south side during the 2006 power outage during a heat wave.
All City of Chicago cooling facilities and CTA buses must welcome everyone, have a “no questions asked” policy, provide water and food and allow people to relax and sleep.
The City must proactively send out hundreds of Non-Police city building inspectors, health and social service workers to do wellness and heat index checks starting in CHA, Senior Buildings, Section 8 buildings, and all buildings covered by the 2022 City of Chicago Cooling Ordinance and to those neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates, and unhoused encampments with the instruments to document the deadly heat and humidity and immediately move all who are at risk to cooling centers in their own or nearby buildings and/or air-conditioned CTA buses.
END