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• 1 media/EXH_RMD16_07_0091_0007_001.jpg 2020-04-14T03:07:31-05:00 Managing Emergencies 106 plain 2026-09-17T14:57:16-05:00 Like all mayors, Daley faced a number of emergencies that compelled him to make difficult decisions.

  Loop flood of 1992

  In 1992, water from the Chicago River gushed into an underground tunnel system few Chicagoans knew existed. That tunnel system ran beneath Chicago’s Loop district, and an estimated 250 million gallons of water soon flooded the basements of the city’s downtown office buildings, including City Hall.
  
  David Mosena, Daley’s chief of staff (1991-1992), remembers the flood and the mayor’s decision to swiftly create a temporary headquarters in Chicago’s “near north” area:

  Heat wave, 1995

  For one week in July 1995, Chicago suffered a heat wave. Daytime temperatures reached into the 90s and 100s, but what made this heat wave unusual was that nighttime temperatures stayed hot. High humidity and the absence of cooling winds and cloud cover kept the overnight lows in the 80s. According to the final report of Mayor Richard M. Daley's Commission on Extreme Weather Conditions, more than 500 Chicagoans died directly from the extreme heat, many of them elderly and from the city's poorest neighborhoods.

  Terry Teele, of the Mayor's Office of Inquiry and Information (1991-1996), remembers the emergency and the lessons learned [CLIP REMOVED BY UIC LIBRARY, SEPTEMBER 2026]:
  Helen Shiller, 45th ward alderman (1987-2011), discusses her memories of the heat wave:

  September 11, 2001

  On September 11, 2001, terrorists commandeered four airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center buildings in New York City, the United States Pentagon building outside of Washington, D.C., and onto a field in Pennsylvania. In the hours and days following the attack, it was uncertain whether Chicago might also be a target.

  Sheila O’Grady, Daley’s chief of staff (2000-2005), remembers how the mayor responded the morning of and weeks after the attacks:

  Ray Orozco, Chicago fire commissioner (2005-2008) and Daley’s chief of staff (2010-2011), explains the lessons the city learned from the attacks:
  

  The Great Recession

  In 2007 and 2008, a financial crisis plunged the United States economy into a deep recession that led to thousands of foreclosures and strained Chicago’s finances.
  
  One problem from the crisis was some banks' refusal to take responsibility for properties on which they had foreclosed.
  
  Ray Orozco discusses how Mayor Daley dealt with foreclosed properties:
  One tool the Daley administration thought would relieve the financial burden was to privatize management of the city parking meters.

  Paul Volpe, the mayor’s chief of staff (2008-2010), discusses Daley’s controversial decision to lease parking meters to a private firm for seventy-five years: