Cooked: Survival by Zipcode

When Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012, filmmaker Judith Helfand escaped the city and went north to Westchester County. While there, she noticed her mother had supportive friends and her brother prepared for flooding with a rubber raft, generator, and 25 gallons of fuel.  Pondering disaster preparedness, Helfand read Eric Klinenburg’s book on the scorching heat wave that struck Chicago in 1995: Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago.  Deciding to learn more about the Chicago disaster, Helfand’s speaks to numerous individuals from there, and her findings lead her to question the very definition of disaster and disaster preparedness.   From July 13 to July 16, 1995, the temperature hit 104 degrees in Chicago, and a disproportionate number of African Americans on the south side died of heat suffocation.  Fearing crime, individuals in those areas kept their windows closed, locked, and sometimes nailed shut during the extreme heat.  The chief medical examiner stated by Saturday he had so many people who had passed away, the city had to bring in refrigerated trucks to keep the bodies until they could be examined.  There was no discussion on the news about checking on these people.  Steve Whitman, Ph.D., Director of Epidemiology for the city of Chicago, gave two interrelated explanations for deaths: the individuals had pre-existing conditions or they were not able to defend themselves against the heat.  Residences lacked air conditioning, going outside was unsafe, and the neighborhoods lacked places like libraries where people could cool off. In total, 729 people died.  Mayor Daly blamed families for not looking out for each other; when that failed to resonate, he blamed the medical examiner for overreporting numbers.  There was no attempt to address the underlying conditions of poverty and racism that led to the great number of African American deaths.  Helfand notes tragedy among the poorest communities repeated itself with Hurricane Katrina. Turning to natural disaster preparedness, Helfand discovers getting ready to deal with catastrophic events is a rising industry.  Homeland Security assists the Chicago Fire Department with $250,000 to plan for a tornado disaster; yet, Helfand discovers only one individual died from a tornado in the last year.  Experts tell Helfand that Federal funds are only provided after communities make a case to FEMA that the crisis is 'not their fault'.  After attending a disaster preparedness conference and a planned disaster exercise for a massive earthquake event, Helfand concludes that the word disaster should be broadened to encompass unnatural disasters and society should begin investing in long term resilience in vulnerable communities.  With plenty of evidence to make her case, Helfand convincingly argues society should focus on the slowly developing disasters like poor health outcomes and shorter life spans in the poorest communities of America.  Recommended.  Aud: H, C. P. (T. Root)