Chicago Heat Wave Research Paper

In this paper I will discuss whether the Chicago Heat Wave as written about in Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago by Eric Klinenberg, is best defined as a social or natural disaster. Klinenberg talks about each as a possible explanation for the Chicago Heat Wave. Like Klinenberg I believe that the Chicago Heat Wave was a natural disaster, there were record temperatures and the city could do little in defense when faced with situations like this. However, this explanation does not account for why so many people died or why some areas or sorts of people had higher rates than others, for this reason I believe the Heat Wave is better defined as a social disaster. The Chicago Heat Wave was a social disaster due to the city’s structure, who was dying and why, as well as how city officials and the media handled the situation. During and after the disaster experts analyzed where and why people were dying, they looked at neighborhoods, age, race, etc. They found that elderly people were more at risk than young people as well as many of the people who …show more content…
However, this explanation does not account for the amount of deaths that took place or why some sorts of people were much more likely to die than others, this is why the Chicago Heat Wave should be categorized as a social disaster. It raises the question of the relative importance of these neighborhoods activities, in the case of the two neighborhoods compared, South Lawndale (Little Village) and North Lawndale. In this case the lively and inviting neighborhood of Little Village is credited with saving its residents lives, while the city gets the blame for the deaths. So the question is should the city of Chicago be blamed for the massive amount of deaths that occurred with this disaster or should they be chalked up as just a casualty of the