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10,000 heat wave deaths in France

The heat wave in Europe has cost over ten thousand lives in France alone:

The French funeral directors association said 10,416 had died during the first three weeks of August because of the heat wave and projected the death toll for the month from the heat wave would be 13,632.

The French government admitted Thursday as many as 10,000 people may have died in the heat wave.

Ten thousand. That’s an incredibly staggering figure. How to even contemplate it, let alone explain it? And the fact that this is happening in a supposedly modern, Westernized country with plenty of water and medical care makes it all the the worse. How could the health authorities have been so slow to react?

{ 6 comments… add one }
  • Me 08.23.03, 5:01 PM

    Good questions segacs, and here’s another.

    If ten thousand people could perish in the heat in a “supposedly modern, Westernized country with plenty of water and medical care,” how many could lose their lives in a bombed and broken country with minimal water, electricity and medical care?

    Of course, Iraq is not quite ‘Westernized’…but that’s another debate.

  • David H 08.23.03, 7:48 PM

    A good point “Me”… the health care disaster in a developing country would have been far deadlier. Luckily for the Iraqis though, with their personal despot removed from power they have a chance to improve their standard of living.

    If only other countries could be granted that opportunity.

  • Me 08.25.03, 12:46 AM

    personal despot out; impersonal despot in…oh happy days!

  • Sigivald 08.27.03, 11:39 PM

    Me: Iraqis, unlike Frenchmen, are used to extreme heat.

    And, well, the French heatwave is mostly killing the old and infirm (and first reports indicate often the old left alone). I imagine most of the old and infirm in Iraq are either 1) dead already from years of living under Hussein’s rule or 2) not left alone.

  • Me 08.28.03, 2:08 AM

    One of the ways one becomes ‘used to’ living in extreme heat is with the aid of an air conditioner, which is powered by electricity, of which service is no longer dependable where it’s even available.

    Another is by consuming copious amounts of water, which one can’t do when the infrastructure to deliver it has been destroyed, and which one can’t drink without it being purified due to lack of electricity (not to mention chemicals blocked as a result of ten years of sanctions).

    How’s this for logic: Canadians, unlike Hawaiians, are used to extreme cold, therefore having no electricity during winter shouldn’t bother them too much.

    If you think that works — being ‘used to’ the environment and so not being harmed due to a lack of electricity, think a bit about how the recent one-day blackout on the east coast of North America affected people ‘used to’ living in that environemnt.

    And I guess Iraqi cities having had their vital infrastructure bombed and broken in the ongoing invasion haven’t done any harm to their citizens’ health?

  • Sharon 08.31.03, 12:32 AM

    Look, a few years ago, some French “scientist” proclaimed that A/C was bad for everyone’s health. So, they yanked A/C out of the buildings.

    In any event, this heat wave has been going on for quite awhile. Doesn’t anyone over there know how to buy an air conditioner?

    Or is the U.S. supposed to bail them out of this one, too? Let their peace loving Moslem friends help them.

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