Chicago heatwave screed. (freeper Katrina debate tactic.)

[skids]

Apparently this is the latest screed that freepers are parroting in various discussion forums. The meme tracking history and partial rebuttal is courtesy of an able2know forum user named joefromchicago and includes some hyperlinks which you can read in the original thread here:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/about59427-0-asc-20.html

mysteryman wrote:
I dont recall any of you demanding the resignation of the FEMA head when they allowed 1000 people to die in Chicago in 1995. Why didnt you?

I read that and said to myself: "that's a rather odd statement, even considering the source" Surely anyone could figure out the differences between a hurricane and a heatwave, and why the response to the former would be radically different from the response to the latter (one example: during the Chicago heatwave, there was no looting).

A quick Google search, however, resolved any questions I might have had regarding the comparison. It seems that the conservative blogosphere has been raising the 1995 heatwave as a means of deflecting criticism from Bush and redirecting it (per usual) to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The comparisons may have actually started as early as Sept. 2, when Slate.com published a "history lesson" on the Chicago heatwave. That got picked up by conservative bloggers who couldn't help but notice that Clinton was in office during the 1995 event. One blogger asked: "Hillary Clinton has called for a 'Katrina Commission.' How come she never called for a commission to investigate why at least 1,000 Americans died in a 1995 heat wave when her husband was president?" That post was linked to the National Review Online site on Sept. 9. From that point on, we can say that this particular meme was "released to the general public." Mysteryman posted his version of it on Sept. 12.

A few things to know about the 1995 heatwave: the Cook County medical examiner attributed to the heat wave both the deaths that were directly linked to heat-related causes and also those "excess deaths" that were above the average. There were 739 "excess deaths" during the heatwave, and so that's the number that people usually cite when they try to measure the number of people killed by the killer heatwave. Is that the correct figure? Well, we don't know. It might have been more, it might have been less. There was, at the time, no standard for determining what constituted a "heat-related death," so we're not even sure if the definition that the medical examiner used was correct.

What is free from doubt, however, is that the mayor of Chicago and state officials did not ask for federal relief or request a state of emergency or national disaster area designation from the federal government. FEMA had no involvement in the 1995 heatwave.

[Inland]

1. Favorite Freeper tactic--the false analogy.

"Lincoln was unpopular during the Civil War, ergo, Bush is Lincoln"

"WWII was a war, ergo, Bush is FDR and Saddam was Hitler and you-all are traitors."

"The Chicago heat wave was an unpredicted disaster, ergo, hurricanes are also never predicted"

"Chicago devised a plan for getting old people to cooling shelters that didn't involve FEMA, ergo, you are all fucking on your own, get used to dying in the next terror attack or hurricane."

[linazelle]

2. I was there.

No relation to Katrina whatsoever. In a heatwave, there is no clear and present containable danger--like rancid flood waters, lack of water or shelter or lack of food. You don't evacuate an entire city because of it. There were cooling centers, people knocking on doors of the eldlerly and the ill. In a heatwave, who knows who will perish? Food and water were available. FEMA's presence would have been inconsequential--they wouldn't have been able to do anything either.

The only similarity between the two events is that they were both byproducts of global warming--and harbingers of what's to come.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Who unlocked the asylum doors and let all these insane people out?

[mcscajun]

5. I think that was Reagan.

:)

[BrklynLiberal]

8. I think you may be right.He sure was the one who first loosened the locks.

[xxqqqzme]

4. there WAS an actual

mini (compared 2 NO) disaster in '94 however. The 'Northridge Earthquake' damaged homes, killed people in their beds & collapsed overpasses. FEMA was on the spot B4 the day was out, The recovery was fairly quick, as disasters go. I remember for many nights, the local news showed people sleeping in tents in the parks because either their homes were destroyed or they were fearful of sleeping indoors. The portion of the Santa Monica Freeway heavily damaged was repaired w/i 6 months (even B4 the '89 Oakland freeway collapse which was still undergoing repairs). (That I know is a little off the mark because some of the Oakland repair involved redirecting the road)

'94 - earthquake - Big Dog - worked it
'89 - earthquake - george I - feeble

[annabanana]

6. sure... Remember the "Chicago evacuations"

And meteorologists hollaring that Chicago had to put funds into shoring up the, um, ice cubes?

[KharmaTrain]

7. They Didn't Mention The Chicago Flood Of 1990?

I was there during the heatwave as well.

As duly noted, the heatwave is far different than a hurricane. City officials were more accustomed to handling cold weather, not hot weather problems...and that "conventional wisdom" was, if it's too hot, open a window. Or at least that's what we thought.

The real impact of that heatwave didn't hit until two days or so later when the number of heat victims led to a search for others that turned up even more. An EMT worker who was involved in some of the work remarked that once the city was aware of a problem it was handled immediately.

Now do these goons dare to mention the real culprit? Commonwealthy Edison...who charges some of the highest rates in the country yet allowed the infrastructure to deteriorate so that the heat wave snapped old cables and transformers in some of the worst parts of town. Of course they didn't.

Lastly, this open another pandora's box...and maybe worthy of a DU string...and that's the care of the elderly and how many view the aged as a financial and space burden. They want 'em out of sight out of mind and the terrible care the elderly poor...black and white...face in this country.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Gee..how come they didn't mention the fire and Mrs. O'Leary's cow?

[BrklynLiberal]

10. .