Wouldn’t this type of event happening in 1896 really spit in the face of the idea that the current spate of heat waves is related to human-related climate change and or the idea that we can do anything to actually prevent this class of issue?
Sounds that these things happen and the only solution is setup cooling stations just as we do warning stations for indigents in the winter months?
Wouldn’t the rain today spit in the idea of so-called “summer”?
If a thing that used to be a 1 in 100 year event starts happening every 10 years and all the science says it's because of man made climate change then yeah we can totally do things to make it go back to happening once every 100 years again.
> A majority of the deaths were of working-class men in their twenties who performed manual labor.
Seems like in this case most of the mortality was due to young men who had no choice but to work in those conditions. This event, among many other work-related disasters of the time, probably helped spur the push for better working conditions during the Progressive Era.
> "This was 10 days [with temperatures reaching] 90 degrees at street level and 90 percent humidity, with temperatures not even dropping at night,"
https://www.npr.org/2010/08/11/129127924/the-heat-wave-of-18...
It wasn't necessarily a wake-up call then. But it may have at least been the crisis that spurred one guy...