Then-Mayor Richard M. Daley offered common sense, and stated the obvious. "It's hot. It's hot out there. We all walk out there. It's very, very, very hot," he said. But the heat continued, becoming not just a nuisance but a full-fledged killer. The Cook County Morgue started overflowing with bodies and refrigerator trucks had to be brought in to store the dead. Workers averaged 13 autopsies an hour, but the bodies kept coming. In the end, the heat wave was blamed for 739 deaths.

 

How did so many people die in a heat wave? When people started to review the official reports and files about those who died, they found a consistent theme: social isolation. The people who died were often elderly and living alone.

 

In contrast, four years later in 1999, Chicago experienced another heat wave, this one slightly less severe than the 1995 heat wave. By this time, people had stopped denying that heat presented a problem for people living alone. The city responded aggressively to ensure the safety of its residents with strongly-worded warnings, and city workers went door-to-door to check on seniors and other vulnerable people and kept cooling centers open. Due to these outreach efforts only 125 people died in the '99 heat wave.

 

What are the implications of these two events?  I believe that people NEED other people, and the isolation and loneliness (no matter what time of the year,) plays a huge part in the way things play out for people.  

 

"and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love."  2 Peter 1:7

May I challenge you to check in on someone today?  Just give them a call, see how they're doing, and offer what comfort you can.  It's hot out there (in most areas of the U.S.) but we can bring rays of hope into the lives of the elderly and sick that may be struggling in that heatwave.

 

 

Have a great day and God bless!

 

 

 

Pastor Mike / The Open Word