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| Many a Chicago schoolchild has seen this diorama depiction at the Chicago History Museum of the greatest disaster to impact our city -- the Great Fire of 1871. Photographs by Gregory Tejeda |
A
LAND WHERE we don’t get hurricanes and the possibility of being impacted by an
earthquake would be a geological anomaly of historic proportions.
We
in the Midwest, of course, always face the possibility of tornadoes causing
death and destruction. Yet we in Chicago have only 13 tornadoes known to touchdown within the city limits during its not-quite-two-century history.
And
only one of those, back on May 6, 1876, hit the area now considered our city’s
downtown. Two died and 35 were injured in that incident that damaged the
then-Cook County Hospital, along with the Palmer House Hotel.
Coming
just five years after the incident that, to this date, is the most significant
disaster to impact Chicago – the Great Fire of 1871 – maybe it seemed at that
point in time that Chicago was a doomed site.
ONE
COULD ARGUE, of course, that the Fire shouldn’t be counted. Is it really a
disaster the equivalent of Mother Nature having a hissy fit to have much of the
city destroyed by a fire caused by (depending on which account you want to
believe) that damned cow kicking over a lamp or some guy named “Peg Leg.”
Besides,
we’ve managed to go another 140 years without significant devastation to our
city.
We
haven’t had a significant tornado touchdown in Chicago since 1967, and that one
did most of its damage (33 dead, more than 500 injured) in suburban Oak Lawn –
with some damage managing to cross over into the Southwest Side near Midway
Airport.
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| Maybe it's a sign of how fortunate Chicago has been to be spared natural disasters that we can name a shopping center for one of the few structures NOT damaged in the Great Fire |
BUT
THAT ONE lies on the fringe of what could be called the Chicago-area. My point
being that we in the city truly have been fortunate. One of the screwiest-type “flood”
incidents we had was in 1992 when the Chicago River sprung a leak into the sub-basements
that exist beneath downtown buildings.
That
one can’t be blamed on nature – that one was pure man-made technical error. Or carelessness, if you prefer to think of it that way.
My
point is that in watching these news reports of recent days, I can’t help but
feel fortunate about where I live. It’s almost as though I was fortunate enough
to be born and raised in one of the safest places in existence – something to
keep in mind the next time some political crackpot wants to go off on a rage
about the homicide rate of Chicago and exaggerate it into us being the
deadliest place on the planet.
It
makes me wonder about actress Jennifer Lawrence, who recently made comments about
“Mother Nature’s Rage and Wrath” against the people who backed Donald J. Trump
for president and who question the legitimacy of “global warming.”
WHICH
IS A blatantly absurd thought to have. Although my understanding of the context
was that she was trying to mock the individuals who go around thinking of
natural disasters as “God’s punishment” against society for tolerating
homosexuality.
That
is a blatantly ignorant thing to say or think, and is a thought worthy of being
mocked.
So
what does it say that Mother Nature doesn’t seem to get all that upset about
Chicago? Does she love that we don’t try to fool her that often?
-30-
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