not issued until July 15, the last day of the extreme
temperatures. Because the warning was delayed, the
city’s five cooling centers were underutilized. Inade-
quate emergency services, ambulances, and hospi-
tals were severely strained and unable to respond ap-
propriately to the need. Fire engines were used as
ambulances, and many of the elderly died alone as a
result of the slow response.
In what was believed to be the largest mass grave
in Cook County’s history, on August 25, 1995, the
last victims were laid to rest. The grave, 160 feet long,
10 feet wide, and 6 feet deep, held the coffins, plain
wooden boxes with numbered brass tags and yellow
pieces of paper indicating the names. The dates of
death were never determined. No one at the
graveside knew or was related to the deceased, but
three ministers presided at the service, a representa-
tive from a local historical society was present, and
some onlookers happened by, commenting on the
tragedy of so many dying alone.
The Future of Heat Waves Although several skep-
tics believe that the numbers of dead were exagger-
ated by the medical examiner, the numbers may
have been underreported. TheAmerican Journal of
Public Healthestablished that as many as 250 deaths
were not attributed to the heat because the bodies
were buried before an autopsy was performed.
Whatever the actual numbers may have been, this
type of disaster happening again remains probable.
Chicago continues to be vulnerable to extreme heat
conditions because of the urban heat island syn-
drome and the number of low-income elderly who
live inside the city. However, numbers of deaths in
comparable situations in the future may be reduced
by having a more comprehensive approach to fore-
casting, one that considers heat-island conditions.
Also, an improved early-warning system, increased
research on heat waves, and, finally, establishing a
standard to classify heat-related deaths can avoid the
misery experienced by the city during the heat wave
of 1995.
Impact The necessity for developing a standard of
determining heat-related deaths became apparent
after this heat wave. In addition, observers would
look to this event in later disasters, such as Hurri-
cane Katrina (2005), when studying the relationship
of social class and age to a disaster.
Further Reading
Browning, Christopher R., et al. “Neighborhood So-
cial Processes, Physical Conditions, and Disaster-
Related Mortality: The Case of the 1995 Chicago
Heat Wave.”American Sociological Review71 (Au-
gust, 2006): 661-678. Study led by an Ohio State
University sociologist concludes that severe heat
waves have killed more people in run-down
neighborhoods where there are few businesses to
draw older people out of their dwellings.
Changnon, S. A., K. E. Kunkel, and B. C. Reinke.
“Impacts and Responses to the 1995 Heat Wave: A
Call to Action.”Bulletin of the American Meteorologi-
cal Society77, no. 7 (1996): 1497-1506. A meteoro-
logical perspective on the weather conditions in
Chicago in 1995 that calls for a comprehensive
approach to forecasting.
Klinenberg, Eric.Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disas-
ter in Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2002. Explores the social context of the di-
saster, looking at several factors that led to the
high death toll.
Kimberly ManningSee also Business and the economy in the United
States; Natural disasters; Perfect Storm, the; Poverty;
Recession of 1990-1991. Chick lit
Definition A genre of fiction featuring twenty-
and thirtysomething single women coping with
love and career issues in an urban environment
Chick lit’s representation of women can be said to lie in the
gap between traditional female roles and feminism. The
genre itself raised controversy among feminists because of its
glamorization of consumerism, among other issues. Never-
theless, the lucrative genre gained a strong following dur-
ing the 1990’s.
As the generation of twenty- and thirtysomething
women of the 1990’s experienced longer periods of
dating, so-called starter marriages, and more focus
on careers (delaying or foregoing marriage) than
previous generations, such lifestyle choices began to
be reflected in humorous novels by authors such as
Helen Fielding, Candace Bushnell, Melissa Bank,
and Laura Zigman. In the mid-1990’s, Bushnell and
Fielding both transformed their popular newspaperThe Nineties in America Chick lit 163