Cold-related deaths continue to rise as winter approaches. In Cook County, Ill. alone, eight people have died this season for reasons related to the cold.
An African American man between 30 and 40 years of age was found frozen to the ground under a bridge on Chicago’s west side. The eighth cold-related death recorded was an unidentified African American man in his 40s, found on Chicago’s south side after he died of cold exposure and a complication from diabetes.
In the northeast, hundreds of thousands of people lost power due to snow and ice storms. At the height of the outages, more than 200,000 people in upstate New York were without power. One New Hampshire resident described seeing her breath inside her city apartment before heading for a warming center in a local middle school.
In the richest country in the world, deaths from cold are entirely preventable. The government’s criminal neglect leads to approximately 14,380 cold-related deaths in the United States annually.
