French Heatwave Death Toll Up To 21 - No Relief Yet In Sight

[hatrack]

A HEATWAVE in France has killed 21 people, including a 15-month-old baby. The deaths came as Europe sweltered, with no sign of temperatures dropping.

"Desert London", a headline in Britain's Evening Standard newspaper said over a photograph of a parched Hyde Park. "This is not the Sahara or Serengeti — these remarkable pictures show how London's parks have been turned dry, brown and dusty by the drought," the newspaper said. A severe drought, said to be the worst in a century in the south of England, became more evident as temperatures hit a July record of 36.3 degrees last week.

In Spain, a sunbather died in Barcelona from the heat, and a 37-year-old man died in hospital after collapsing from heat exhaustion while working in a greenhouse. Six people were reported dead from heat-related problems so far this Spanish summer.

As in the last major heatwave, in 2003, which in France lasted less than a month but killed about 15,000 people, most of the victims were elderly. A Health Ministry official said a baby died in Paris, where temperatures hit 37 last week. Among the other victims, 10 were aged 80 or over, four collapsed at work and two died playing sport.

EDIT

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/killer-heat-hits-the-north/2006/07/22/1153166632837.html

[napi21]

1. I don't want to minimize this, but don't they have air conditioning in

France? I understand those who dies playing sports. hey were just unaware of hydrating and the effects of heat exaustion, but 15,000 people??????? WHY?

[ananda]

2. here in Houston..

.. the state has ordered the power company to keep providing service to everyone, no matter what, for the next two months. In other words, power cannot be turned off to anyone, period. After the two months, the power company has to allow people to make arrangements to pay their bills over a five month period, if needed.

Sue

[napi21]

3. So you think the 15,000 who died in France died because thir AC

was shut off?

I have no idea, but that really sounds brutal by the French Gov't.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. Generally, they just don't have a/c

Limits the options for keeping cool - especially for the very young and old who don't, as a rule, have good body temp regulation. :(

[Odin2005]

8. Euros generally don't need A/C because of thier normally mild climate.

English summer hight temps are usually in the 60's and 70's, IIRC.

[madaboutharry]

4. I just finished a conversation with someone in France

less than an hour ago. She lives in Provence and no they do not have air conditioning in their homes. Maybe a few do, but the houses aren't even built for air conditioning systems. They are really suffering.

[napi21]

7. WOW! I always thought everyone, at least in the westernized

world had access to A/C. I'm sorry for them that they have to suffer through this heat!

[fedsron2us]

6. Temperatures have been persistently high in Continental Europe

but much of the press coverage about the UK 'drought' is hype. There has been much more rainfall than in the famous summer of 1976 when the taps did literally run dry. One of the reasons the parks in London are so parched is because Thames Water the private utility company will not allow the councils to water them. Ostensibly, this is to preserve supplies over a hot dry summer but in reality much of the problem is caused by the fact that the Thames water pipe infrastructure is in such a poor state of repair that billions of gallons simply leak away every year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-5966489,00.html

As for the temperature in Britain it was very hot for one day last week when a particularly warm mass of air moved over the country from France but most of the week it hovered between 27-31 degrees Celsius. Today there has been heavy rain over quite a lot of central and southern England.