The Chicago Heatwave: How Loneliness Added to a Disaster's Death Toll

Being alone and isolated is a common problem, but often hidden from view. A 1995 heatwave reveals something new about the dangers of loneliness.

Sometimes it takes an awful tragedy to teach us the true toll that loneliness exacts on us. To end this series of articles about feeling lonely, I want to share a story that shows that we should take the problem much more seriously - for it can be truly deadly in ways we might not notice until it's too late.

July 1995 was hot in Chicago. Mercilessly hot. Fatally hot. 

The temperature hit triple digits and stayed there for days – but though the thermometer read 106… the humidity made it feel more like 125 degrees.

The city’s physical infrastructure started to buckle in the heat. The power grid failed, the water supply ran low, and the road bridges were in danger of warping. 

And tragically, people began dying. Lots of people. 

But where these victims died in the city is worth noting. Poorer urban neighborhoods suffered worse than the richer districts (as is shamefully often the case). But some poor communities saw more deaths than others. 

In fact, the death toll in one neighborhood, North Lawndale, was ten times greater than in South Lawndale right next door. 

I heard this story on Tim Harford’s podcast Cautionary Tales (NB: My colleague Tim is an economist and his podcast is fantastic!) and I realized how much it connected to the themes of isolation that we have been exploring. 

People in North Lawndale often lived isolated and lonely lives. The social and economic infrastructure of their neighborhood had degraded to a point where residents feared leaving their homes. And even if the North Lawndale residents had felt safe to walk the streets, there were few local stores, coffee shops or community centers for them to visit. 

As a result, when the deadly heatwave hit there were too few air-conditioned communal spaces to offer vulnerable residents a refuge from the high temperatures. And if you were stuck home alone and began to feel unwell, there was often no one around to help. 

While having a pre-existing illness increased a person's chances of dying from the heat, the CDC quickly identified "living alone", "not leaving home daily" and "not having social contacts nearby" as major risk factors. 

The residents of South Lawndale were at a lower risk because they felt less fear about going outside and there were stores, restaurants and cafes to offer them shelter from the deadly heat. And so the death toll there was lower. 

The NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg wrote the definitive study of the disaster in Chicago (it's called Heat Wave). He says that Chicago "did learn from its mistakes".

"In 1999, when Chicago experienced another severe heatwave, the city ... opened cooling centers and provided free bus transportation to them, phoned elderly residents, and sent police officers and city workers door-to-door to check up on seniors who lived alone."

The result of this action was stark - the heat still claimed lives, but nowhere near the 739 people who died in just a few days in 1995. 

In his podcast, Tim argues that city administrations everywhere should take note and prioritize improvements not just to our physical infrastructure, but also to our social infrastructure. 

It’s well accepted that cities will invest money in weather-proofing roads, water supplies or electrical facilities… but the awful 1995 tragedy shows that public libraries, community cafes and drop-in centers could save many lives too (and make our neighborhoods nicer and friendlier places, no matter what the temperature). 

Other scholars have argued that we need new policy interventions to address loneliness. Social-connectedness expert Julianne Holt-Lunstad says loneliness needs to be tackled in the same way we’ve treated other public health issues. 

“I’ve been thinking about how we might have consensus guidelines around social connection, as we do around physical activity [and nutrition],” she said in 2017. “If we expect the public to take this seriously for their health it seems we need something like that so they know what to do and how well they’re doing.”

It would be great if we had proper, science-backed targets for social interaction that were as easy to understand as the CDC guidance on adding walking, jogging and weight training to our daily routines. 

Julianne suggests doctors should start asking patients about loneliness, just as they might quiz us on our consumption of alcohol or our stress levels. She also thinks social connection tips should be covered in health class in schools.

Such policy changes are important, but there are also things we can do as individuals to fight loneliness.

The US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy argues that we need to be more vigilant when it comes to loneliness. “Even if you're not feeling lonely, the likelihood is that somebody around you is. That could be a spouse, a close family member, or a friend. And those people sometimes need us to be proactive in reaching out to them.”

Vivek says that if someone in your life suddenly “drops off the radar, rather than being upset with them for ignoring you or not investing in the friendship – maybe consider that they’re struggling with loneliness and what they need is some outreach from us.”

We can also reach out to strangers to help enrich the social infrastructure in our communities. Some people who've heard me talk about the importance of social connection have signed up to befriending projects. These pair up volunteers with clients who might have few other people to talk to, or who might find it difficult to leave their homes. 

Being a volunteer is a simple role - you’re just there to offer human company and conversation. And regular visits give isolated people both a needed sense of routine and something to really look forward to. 

I’ve heard wonderful things about the friendships that have sprung out of these projects – people from very different backgrounds who are often separated by large age gaps can find so many things to talk, laugh and cry about. 

(NB. And as a befriender, you’ll benefit from the happiness boost that doing good for others has been shown to bring.) 

The story of the 1995 Chicago heatwave is dreadfully upsetting – but listening to Tim’s podcast really made me think about loneliness from a different angle. It’s a pernicious problem, but one that we can start to solve if we all put in the effort. 

So stay well, stay happy and stay cool,

Laurie