From Chicago, this is Furious City.

Chicago, where skyscrapers are built on swamp land, where parks are built on lakes, where a river is reversed.

Chicago bends nature to its will, often triumphantly, but sometimes the city

becomes helpless in the face of natural forces, and disaster sets in. And what I saw looked like

the biggest bathtub drain ever. When they say your life can change in a split second, it can. The Tribune actually called it

the alley of death and mutilation. For the next

hour, you'll hear stories about

some of those moments. Floods,

tornadoes, fires that have left

the city and the region puzzled,

destroyed, and

picking up the pieces. Coming up,

Chicago disasters, don't miss it.

This podcast is sponsored by Marshall Field & Company, now offering disaster survival kits,

especially designed for curious city listeners.

Each kit includes one lightning bug-powered lantern, a surplus first aid kit from Cook County

Hospital, shark repellent from George Lawson and Sons, a week's worth of gym shoe sandwiches,

water from the Schillerwoods well, and a crank-powered radio

permanently tuned to WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. Pick up your kit at the nearest Marshall Fields

today.

Chicago, the city that works.

The Mississippi River doesn't quite meet the Great Lakes.

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