Latest news with #weatherdisaster
CBS News
4 days ago
- Climate
- CBS News
30 years later: What went wrong in the deadly 1995 Chicago heat wave, and what has changed since
The 1995 Chicago heat wave, which took place 30 years ago this week, remains the Chicago area's deadliest weather disaster. Heat indices over 100 degrees kept a hold on the city for five straight days that July. In the days and months that followed, City Hall faced intense criticism for being slow to respond. The Cook County Medical Examiner's office saw staggering numbers of heat-related deaths rising each day. Hospital emergency rooms filled up. Gov. Jim Edgar declared Cook County a disaster area. "It was terrible," said Jeffrey Foy. "There was no air over here." Foy lived in the since-demolished Rockwell Gardens public housing development on the city's West Side. Nearly 150 families there suffered like the rest of Chicago. Foy used two words to describe his old third-floor apartment. "Microwave — the oven," he said. In mid-July 1995, temperatures topped 100 degrees for five consecutive days, then stayed in the high 90's for several more. "Everybody in the building had their windows all the way up, curtains, back so they could get some kind of air in there," Foy said. Foy said the fans in the building were not of much use. "You can have the window and a door open and fan going, and you don't feel it," he said. "It was just that miserable." The heat was uncomfortable for most, but deadly for many. "We're really facing a heat-related disaster here," Cook County Medical Examiner Edmund Donoghue said at the time. "I've never seen anything like this in the history of the Cook County Medical Examiner's office." On an average night back then, the morgue received 17 bodies. Just on Friday, July 14, it received 87. The Medical Examiner's office was so overwhelmed with bodies, it had to ask the State of Illinois for refrigerated trucks to store all the extra bodies. The death toll that week topped out at 739. Most of them were elderly and who died alone, behind locked doors and sealed windows, protecting their property while jeopardizing their lives. "You can't imagine a city doing a worse job in a crisis," said Eric Klinenberg. Klinenberg criticized city leaders in his 2002 book, "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago." "The City of Chicago had a heat emergency plan on the books that summer, and they didn't even use it," Klinenberg said. "They forgot that they had it." Seventy-three percent of the heat-related deaths were residents over the age of 65. More than half lived on the West and South sides of the city. "The mayor was on vacation. The Health Department commissioner was on vacation. The Fire Department commissioner, who manages paramedics — on vacation," Klinenberg said. "So the B team was running the City of Chicago." As the death count and the temperature continued to rise, Mayor Daley faced political heat as well. A week later, he formed a commission on extreme weather conditions — putting in place a new plan to better respond to emergencies. Thirty years later, the city says practices have changed. Kaila Lariviere is manager of emergency management services at the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications — an office that was formed just months after the 1995 heat wave, and continues to be front and center in every emergency. Lariviere said if there is an emergency like the one seen in 1995, "We at OEMC start activating plans left and right. "Whether I'm talking to the Fire Department to open up hydrants, whether I'm talking to the Health Department because I need to know what the census is at certain hospitals in the area," said Lariviere, "maybe I'm talking to Salvation Army, 'Hey, can you bring a canteen with extra water and food to help bring relief?'" That collaboration with city agencies was on full display in late June 2025, as the city faced another stretch of intense heat. "Because we now have these extreme thresholds with the National Weather Service, we can act even sooner, even quicker," said Lariviere. "Those thresholds currently stand at between 100 to 105-degree heat index for three consecutive days." Lariviere was asked what the city has done to ensure something like the 1995 heat wave never happens again. "I'd like to say it's because we're ahead of the curve now, and we're able to get that messaging out right away," she said. "We're better at coordinating. We're better at talking across the hallway, and making sure that we're working with the people we need to, to save our city and to the best of our ability."
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
'Lives are at stake:' Deadly Texas storms put spotlight on Trump's weather agency cuts
Deadly storms over the 4 July holiday ravaged Texas' Hill Country with several months' worth of rain in a few hours, leaving behind mangled trees, swaths of deep mud and heartbreak over hundreds lost or missing. They also renewed focus on the US government's ability to warn and protect residents from weather catastrophes. The intense rainfall and flash floods are the deadliest weather disaster in the US since President Donald Trump's administration conducted mass staff cuts at two key weather and climate agencies: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organisation (NOAA) and its subsidiary, the National Weather Service (NWS). While experts say the National Weather Service issued alerts in a timely manner over the weekend, the deadly incident carries warnings about what could happen if the NWS and NOAA are not properly staffed and funded in the future. "The Weather Service did a good job with the information you had here. I don't think the staffing cuts contributed to this," said Andy Hazelton, a climate scientist who was laid off from NOAA where he modelled hurricane paths. "But this is the kind of event we can see more of if the cuts to NOAA continue, if you make the models worse or have the staffing levels lower." The agency already has taken a significant hit. Since February, the weather service has lost about 600 staff through a combination of firings, early retirements, and deferred resignations, said Tom Fahy, legislative director of the National Weather Service Employees Organisation. Those cuts struck every corner of the agency, said Mr Fahy, from meteorologists to technical specialists to hydrologists, who specialise in flooding. "We lost a full spectrum of the employees and the brainpower for the National Weather Services," he said. Several offices nationally are operating far below traditional staffing levels for meteorologists, Mr Fahy told the BBC. Typically, an NWS office has at least 13 such scientists on their staff, he said. Yet offices in Goodland, Kansas and Hanford, California each have a 61.5% vacancy rate for meteorologists, according to the NWSEO union data. The office in Amarillo, Texas, has a 30.77% vacancy rate for meteorologists, and Rapid City, South Dakota was at 46.15%. "Staffing has to be increased, we have to do this across the country, we need more individuals to do this," Mr Fahy said. "You can't run a weather forecast office on a bare bones operation. Too many things are at stake, too many lives at are at stake." The San Antonio office, which played a leading role in forecasting last week's deadly rainstorms, has about a 22% total vacancy rate, according to a tally of open roles on its website. But it had "additional forecasters on duty during the catastrophic flooding event", NWS spokeswoman Erica Grow Cei said in a statement. Limited staffing would not immediately spell disaster anyhow, according to a volunteer who works with the San Antonio weather office to disseminate alerts in his community. 'Hero' dad, twin girls and riverside campers among Texas flood victims Did US government cuts contribute to the Texas tragedy? "They're used to doing a lot with so little already," said the volunteer, who asked for anonymity because he feared retaliation. "But I do think that they might not be publicly saying anything, they would probably love to have those people back." The volunteer pointed to one notable exit: Paul Yura, a warning coordination meteorologist who took the Trump administration's early retirement offer in April, according to local media. The role is a vital weather service and community liaison, coordinating with local emergency responders and volunteers to help prepare for severe weather. "He was our mentor, he was our guy we would talk to," the volunteer said, explaining that without Mr Yura, volunteers did not have a designated point person during emergencies. In June, the Trump administration said it would allow the NWS to hire more than 100 new positions despite the federal hiring freeze. More cuts are potentially on the way, however. NOAA has proposed cutting its budget by about $1.8bn for the 2026 fiscal year, according to a report it submitted to US Congress, and planned to reduce staff by about 17%, according to Federal News Network. The proposed budget states that, "NWS continues to produce operational forecasts, warnings, impact-based decision support services and other life-saving products and services to the emergency management community and public as they prepare for and respond to increasingly frequent severe weather and water events". Yet the proposal also "eliminates all funding for climate, weather, and ocean Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes" at NOAA. Mr Hazelton, who now works at the University of Miami, said it is essential for public safety that NOAA continues to invest in research into more accurate weather and climate models. For example, higher resolution weather models predicted extreme pockets of rainfall in Texas ahead of the storms – but pinpointing location and timing on such events is notoriously difficult. Questions have swirled in the wake of the disaster about how residents in the flood's path could have been warned faster. "That's why we need continued investment and research in NOAA, so we can predict these extreme events," Mr Hazelton said. He also emphasised the need to fully staff NWS offices so that meteorologists and scientists don't burn out, particularly during the US hurricane season. The prospect of future cuts also worries the NWS volunteer - who lives in a flood-prone area. "Mother Nature is a tricky deal. She'll do whatever she wants, and it's bad enough that you don't have that advantage to begin with. And now you're just tying their hands more." Texas floods death toll climbs to at least 107 'Hero' dad, twin girls and riverside campers among Texas flood victims What early warnings did flood-hit Texas receive?
