Anger, disbelief as Europe tots up heatwave deaths

[Guest guest]

http://www.enn.com/news/2003-08-28/s_7855.asp

 

Anger, disbelief as Europe tots up heatwave deaths

 

 

Thursday, August 28, 2003

By Catherine Bremer, Reuters

 

 

PARIS — Close to 20,000 mainly elderly people may have died in the stifling

heatwave that gripped Europe this month, latest estimates show, as anger and

disbelief over the crisis spread from Paris to Palermo.

In France, where pictures of unclaimed corpses piling up in refrigerator trucks

have shocked the nation, the government has admitted failings and appointed

experts to establish how many of an estimated 13,600 extra deaths in August were

directly caused by the hottest weather in 60 years.

 

The Italian government is investigating reports that deaths leapt 20 percent in

a summer where the mercury has been hitting a sweltering 40 degrees Celsius (104

Fahrenheit) since June.

 

A Spanish rights group alleges the scorching weather killed 2,000 in Spain,

dwarfing a government estimate of 101, and Portugal says it claimed 1,300 lives

in a summer that saw swathes of forestland destroyed by fires.

 

" We are all guilty. Even if the figures aren't definite, we know several

thousand people died, which is a tragedy, and shows the system isn't working

properly, " Jean-Louis Sanchez, head of French welfare rights group ODAS, told

LCI television. " This mostly concerned frail, often isolated, elderly people who

were very vulnerable, " he said, adding that families needed to take more

responsibility for caring for elderly relatives.

 

France has been harder hit than countries like Spain and Italy, where summers

are normally hotter and many homes have electric fans or air conditioning.

 

Even the normally mild Netherlands and Britain are counting heatwave victims.

The Dutch Health Ministry says between 500 and 1,000 died from the heat, and

Britain says there were 907 more deaths in the week to August 15 than in an

average year. Germany, which has been less humid than its neighbors to the south

and west, has no official estimate yet.

 

Guilt Sweeps France

 

While some French blame the government for failing to react fast enough to a

crisis that by mid-August had swamped hospitals and morgues, others are

guilt-stricken knowing that so many fled on holiday leaving elderly relatives to

fend for themselves. " 450 forgotten deaths. Everyone is guilty, " was the

headline of a front-page article in Le Parisien this week on the mass of

unclaimed corpses headed for temporary burials in pauper graves.

 

" In what kind of conditions are we living that we forget about our fathers,

mothers, grandparents? " Le Parisien asked.

 

Even younger Parisians suffered, many resorting to sleeping in wet clothes or

with bags of ice as they tried to get through suffocatingly hot nights without

air conditioning or fans.

 

The government and the French Red Cross have cast doubt on an estimated death

toll of 13,600, calculated by a major funeral parlor as a national projection of

its own business. But an official figure will not be available until late

September.

 

Italy, where the heatwave has also dominated the media, will also have to wait

until September for its final death toll, but Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia

has already proposed a tax that would go toward providing better services for

the elderly.

 

Meanwhile, many in France are calling for a full inquiry.

 

" Our neighbors in Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg have been subjected to the

same heatwave, and it seems the consequences in those countries have been less

severe, " said Jean-Louis Debre, national assembly president. " We need to find

out why. "