French heat kills 3000

p.pete · 14-08-2003 3:06pm #1

I'm hearing reports of the deaths in France, whats the story with this warm weather. Is there anything more the French government could be doing to help the situation?

raphaelS · 14-08-2003 3:15pm

Eldery peoples, on their own, dying because they are sick and weak... and they don't drink enough water.

The same ones that die during the winter when it's too cold...

The government can't do something about the weather obviously... they should add more civil servants to take care of the eldery.

My daughter is in France for the summer and she said that they stay inside most of the day because it's like having your head in the oven

Raphael

14-08-2003 3:22pm

It's set to cool down across France over the next few days.

That heat, according to a public health nurse I know caused more than a few pre mature deaths of old people in the London area.

One thing I notice about the States is , how common air conditioning systems are, whereas over here, in private houses, they are the exception rather than the rule.

AC may be more common in central and southern France than further North.
I Know three years ago I attended a wedding in Brittany in august when temperatures were in the 90's.
The locals couldn't bear it.

The French medical system as I'm aware is top class, but even it must be under strain in recent conditions.
P.Pete are you aware of any frustration amongs the public there regarding measures to help out??
mm

14-08-2003 5:38pm

Good God I've just read 3000 people have died in France due to the current heatwave

This is frightening.
mm

*edit: I have added the current death toll estimate to the title of this thread.

Ponster · 14-08-2003 11:06pm

Well I'm living in Paris at the moment (5 years now) and I have never felt heat like this before. For the past 3 weeks it's been 350C + and for 5 days in a row it got to 41°C. The worst thing is the the office has no air con so working 8 hours a day in 32°C temps is just madness but we don't have much of a choice.

Almost all of the deaths as already stated are eldrey people (as you get older the need to drink water drops) and the fact that the hospitals are just as hot as their homes don't help.

Sleeping at night when it's over 28C is pretty bad but at least it dropped to 280C during the day today and it seems to be over for the moment.

DapperGent · 18-08-2003 11:19am

Apparently the final death toll might be 5,000.

Jebus.

p.pete · 18-08-2003 11:31am

What I think is more amazing is that it doesn't really seem to be that big a news story.

On the news.google.com page it only gets a mention at the very bottom right hand corner at this stage.

DapperGent · 18-08-2003 12:06pm

Yeah I know. It only merited a small bit in the Irish Times too.

I hear they don't have enough morticians to keep up with the increased mortality rate and in some cases people are having to wait a couple of days before anyone turns up for the body.

Nasty.

French heat kills 3000

Comments