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The Creation Story

The Big Blowup and the Century It Built

By Seth D. Carrington— May 12, 2026

Feature image for article: The Big Blowup and the Century It Built

The Creation Story

The Big Blowup and the Century It Built

By Seth D. Carrington— May 12, 2026

The Echo

The Summer the Right Answer Lost Again

The Echo

The Summer the Right Answer Lost Again

TAKE NOTE

The Dissenter

An Interview with the Forester Who Called It a Ghastly Mistake and Was Overruled by Ninety Years of Fire

The Dissenter

An Interview with the Forester Who Called It a Ghastly Mistake and Was Overruled by Ninety Years of Fire

Visible Success

The Locked Doors

After 739 people died in Chicago's July 1995 heat wave, the city built one of the most effective heat emergency systems in the country. When nearly identical conditions returned four years later, cooling centers opened immediately, outreach workers fanned across neighborhoods, and deaths dropped by 85 percent. Thirty years later, the map of who dies in extreme heat still tracks the map of segregation.

Visible Success

Forty-Nine Feet

Grand Forks, North Dakota prepared for a 49-foot flood in 1997 and got 54. Afterward, FEMA bought out more than 800 properties. The city converted its floodplain into 2,200 acres of parkland and built levees to 60 feet. When the river rose again, the Greenway absorbed it as designed. A majority of the Red River's worst recorded floods have occurred since.

Visible Success

The Locked Doors

After 739 people died in Chicago's July 1995 heat wave, the city built one of the most effective heat emergency systems in the country. When nearly identical conditions returned four years later, cooling centers opened immediately, outreach workers fanned across neighborhoods, and deaths dropped by 85 percent. Thirty years later, the map of who dies in extreme heat still tracks the map of segregation.

Visible Success

Forty-Nine Feet

Grand Forks, North Dakota prepared for a 49-foot flood in 1997 and got 54. Afterward, FEMA bought out more than 800 properties. The city converted its floodplain into 2,200 acres of parkland and built levees to 60 feet. When the river rose again, the Greenway absorbed it as designed. A majority of the Red River's worst recorded floods have occurred since.

Visible Success

The Locked Doors

After 739 people died in Chicago's July 1995 heat wave, the city built one of the most effective heat emergency systems in the country. When nearly identical conditions returned four years later, cooling centers opened immediately, outreach workers fanned across neighborhoods, and deaths dropped by 85 percent. Thirty years later, the map of who dies in extreme heat still tracks the map of segregation.

Visible Success

Forty-Nine Feet

Grand Forks, North Dakota prepared for a 49-foot flood in 1997 and got 54. Afterward, FEMA bought out more than 800 properties. The city converted its floodplain into 2,200 acres of parkland and built levees to 60 feet. When the river rose again, the Greenway absorbed it as designed. A majority of the Red River's worst recorded floods have occurred since.