France's Heatwave May have Claimed 5,000 Lives

August 14, 2003

(Paris-WABC) — France's worst heat wave on record is turning into a national disaster that may have taken as many as 5,000 lives. The government there is accused of not acting fast enough to save people from the heat.

The rate people are dying at shot up this week, with 180 deaths in a single day in Paris, all of them linked to the heat that's smothering parts of Europe.

It's also been devastating for livestock, and it's fanning fires that have eaten up tens of thousands of acres.

There've been complaints for days now that the government wasn't acting fast enough to help people. Wednesday it launched a crisis management plan usually only seen in cases of epidemics, terror attacks and other such catastrophes.

Morgues and funeral directors say their services are under enormous demand since the heatwave started. General Funeral Services, France's largest undertaker, said it handled some 3,230 deaths between August sixth and the 12th, up from 2,300 on an average week in the year. That marks a 37 percent jump.

Critics call the emergency measures too little, too late in a week when temperatures are routinely hitting the 98 degree mark in a country unaccustomed to such hot weather.

"We said, 'Watch out, something's happening. There are a lot of people arriving' - but no one listened," said Patrick Pelloux, head of France's emergency physicians' association. He called the heatwave a nationwide catastrophe, 'The likes of which we've never seen."

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_081403_franceheatwave.html