Book summaries "Heat Wave"

Heat wave that hit Chicago in 1995 resulted in damage and dysfunction of some public facilities, twisted railroad tracks, power blackouts in rotation, some roads can not even use. Hot air temperature reaches 100 degrees in the daytime, at night 80 degrees, and humidity approaching 100%. But what most people do not remember is the terrible human deaths during that time. More than 700 people died in a heat wave that lasted nearly a week in Chicago. But while the writer saw a deep horror of this natural disaster, he mainly concentrated with precision in several separate areas:

1. Heat waves kill more people each year than all types of natural disasters that occur when combined. But the heat wave disaster received little public attention because of the damage caused to property is not too large and images published are not as interesting as other disasters.
2. Most of the people who died were elderly and poor, who died at home, with windows closed, or even often nailed to prevent the rampant crime in their area. They heat with no air conditioning because they can not afford, and little access to social assistance because of their economic situation.
   

The author also saw how the city of Chicago is not ready to accept what has happened until the heat wave ended, and for the prosperous social structure which has sufficient protection from natural disasters such big, old people, less vulnerable and likely to remain unprotected. And when dealing with the result that much more expensive, the government did not choose to prepare themselves with the social programs are often referred to as government waste.

Very interesting, the book well written. Also contains many pictures, some of which appear is if it is taken from a place like Somalia. Eric Klinenberg is a professor of sociology at Northwestern University.