1918 Flu Epidemic A.K.A. Spanish Flu in Philadelphia

Top city officials knew it was a matter of time, before the Flu arrived in Philadelphia. It  was already in Boston. However, city officials dropped the ball when they failed to list the flu as a reportable disease.

The flu arrived in September of 1918 at a time when most medical personnel where overseas fighting in WWI. 75% of Philadelphia Hospital's doctors were in the war. Then came a sense of profound overconfidence or stupidity when on September 28, 1918, 200,000 people gathered together to fund the war effort. Two days later, 635 people came down with the flu.

Churches, schools, theaters and all public meeting places were ordered closed. By the middle of October, hospitals were full, so church parish houses and state armories became make-shift hospitals and 4500 people were reported dead, while approximately 200,000 more people were sick.

Some undertakers took advantage of the family's dead loved ones by doubling their prices to bury their dead. Piles of corpes began to rot. The city begged the federal government to send embalmers.

By November of 1918, 13,000 Philadelphia citizens were dead as a result of the flu.