Heat Wave - A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago by Eric Klinenberg

I have just finished reading a fascinating study of a disaster that I knew next to nothing about.  IN 1995 521 died when Chicago suffered from a severe weather event predicted to become more common place as Climate Changes take effect in the 21st Century.  The book is a serious sociological study and not a quick or easy read but it contains several lessons for us all who are concerned about Societal Security and Resilience.

Eric Klinenberg identifies five key problems:

1. The increasing delegation of health and social services to emergency services organisations such as the Fire and Police, organisations that attract people of a quite different nature and that have differing priorities;
2. The idea that those who need help are active consumers of public services able to make choices and demand social protection - a fallacy where those in most need are least able to ask for help, or even to know that they can ask for help and who they should ask;
3. A separation between the political establishment and the people they serve such that political machines no longer understand the needs of the constituents that they should be serving - where public organisations employ CEOs and social services are increasingly delivered by private firms and voluntary agencies, the gap between the experience of the political elite and the poor, elderly and in need becomes wider;
4. Governmental use of public relations to shape news stories to ensure that good news is emphasised and criticism is deflected can lead to a lack of understanding of the reality of the situation on the ground and therefore an inability to respond effectively;
5. News institutions have changed completely and so stories are tailored to make news more entertaining, and to segment audiences such that the same story is expressed in different ways to different audiences.  The result is that those who might be able to effect change are not given information that allows them to understand the gravity of the situation, those who understand lack the power to change the situation.

One is struck in reading this that the current UK drive towards the "Big Society" has the seeds of a similar disaster inherent within it.  Whilst a greater community spirit would perhaps alleviate the effects of such a disaster, the trend towards dependence on charities and volunteers to providing social needs is a concern.  In Chicago similar organisations had taken on work which they found they did not have the resources to deliver as they "bid too low" for the work, a common tendency when bidding for public contracts, and that as a result they could not provide when needed most.  They then lacked the leverage and ability to engage with the political machine to obtain further help when faced with a crisis.

Much of the official follow-up focussed on the failure of the power supply, and hence the lack of air conditioning for many people.  The practice of opening fire hydrants to obtain water to keep cool also reduced water supplies in some areas to nothing.  Lest we forget, in the UK flooding in Tewksbury, power supplies were lost and threatened whilst in Northern Ireland only weeks ago, we saw people queuing for water where supplies were lost for days.

It is an interesting tale, and one which is rooted in the US socio-political landscape, but there are certainly lessons for others here too.  Whether the US has learned the lessons is doubtful.  In Chicago a further heat wave struck within weeks, but this time the reaction was different and effective.  However the recent tragedy was still fresh and whether a repeat in the coming years would result in the same issues one can only speculate.  More generally in the US, one only has to reflect on Hurricane Katrina where the poor, black residents were once again those who suffered most, to wonder if the US is destined to simply repeat these errors, I highly recommend Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke" as an audio-visual autopsy of that disaster 10 years after Chicago.