18 Dead in Chicago From Heat

This is a retelling, in our own words, of the story reported by the Chicago press in July 2012.

Eight more deaths in Chicago over the weekend were attributed at least in part to heat-related causes, bringing the total of heat-related deaths in Cook County to 18 — surpassing the previous year's total.

Autopsies conducted by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office confirmed the toll. The victims were largely older residents, many living alone — the population that heat waves kill most reliably. The early-July 2012 heat wave that gripped the Midwest pushed Chicago temperatures toward the triple digits, and the city's emergency services urged residents to check on elderly neighbors and use cooling centers.

The count recalled Chicago's deadliest modern heat disaster, the July 1995 heat wave that killed more than 700 people in the city — a catastrophe that had reshaped the city's emergency response to extreme heat. The 2012 toll, while far smaller, illustrated the same pattern: heat kills quietly, in apartments, among the isolated, and the death count rises in the days after the peak temperatures pass.

Based on Chicago press reporting (July 2012).