And the French gripe at us?

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jsalcedo

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When was the last time 10,000 American civilians died in a US city due to preventable causes? Anyone?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,95571,00.html

More than 100 bodies sat in refrigerated trucks outside a city-run warehouse in the southern suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine, reports said. City officials vowed to bury them, whether families claimed them or not.

"Maybe they don't have relatives — a great-nephew or otherwise — who is interested in a burial," Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe (search) told LCI Television. "In any case, we're doing all that we can so it takes place in the most emotionally honorable conditions."

Officials were still counting the casualties — mainly among the elderly and ailing — from the record heat in the first two weeks of August when temperatures got as high as 104.

France's leading chain of undertakers estimated last week the heat wave had claimed 10,000 victims, based on a rough comparison between deaths this August and the same period last year. The government initially said that figure was probably correct, but Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin cast doubt on that Saturday, calling recent estimates unreliable.

Newspaper reports Monday said that between 300 and 400 bodies had not been claimed outside Paris.

While many opposition leaders have criticized the center-right government for an allegedly slow response to the crisis, newspapers and editorial writers faulted French citizens in general.

"These forgotten dead," wrote daily France-Soir in a front-page headline Monday.

Under the headline "French Barbarity," Renaud Girard, an editorialist for Le Figaro newspaper, wrote: "It's not up to the Father State to take care of our elderly. It's up to us."

City officials said over the weekend they have identified hundreds of bodies but have been unable to clear the backlog of corpses.

Paris authorities have decided to extend the legal time permitted between death and burial from six days to 10, to give families more time to locate the deceased.

On Sunday, city officials launched a telephone drive to reach families unaware of their loved ones' fate as the makeshift morgues in and around Paris sat filled with corpses.
 
More than 100 bodies sat in refrigerated trucks outside a city-run warehouse in the southern suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine, reports said. City officials vowed to bury them, whether families claimed them or not.
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Would I be out of line if I made a crack about the quickest way to get subsidized, emergency air-conditioning?
 
Preventable IF you're used to this sort of heat wave.

This one was unprecedented. The last time a heat wave of this magnitude hit Europe was in the 1970s, IIRC.

A lot of Europe doesn't have AC simply because they really don't need AC. When it gets bad, though, then it's a real problem.
 
Ten Years ago I lived in an un-airconditioned house in a 110 degree average summer.

There was very little airflow through the house so a few fans pointed directly at us at all times and lots of cold water kept us from dying.

I wonder if these French victims were elderly, sick and bedridden or too afraid to leave their doors and windows open?
 
That and the simple fact that you lived in a climate that was a lot more prone to high temperatures, so you were a lot more used to it, and a lot more capable of dealing with it.

If you take someone from a climate that's temperate, and drop them either into a high temp or low temp situation, they're not going to be able to deal with it nearly as well as someone who lives in that kind of climate regularly.

People in the DC area, where I live, are generally a lot better able to deal with high heat high humidity summers, but there are some stretches where even the people around here have problems dealing with it and the death toll rises.
 
"Would I be out of line if I made a crack about the quickest way to get subsidized, emergency air-conditioning?" Nope, and the obvious answer is, play dead (though you might run short on oxygen in a body bag). Little too late on the refridgeration for the folks in there though.

And yes, the article says the elderly/frail were the main victims. Dunno about them being too scared to open windows.
 
Death rates amongst the elderly increasing with the weather is not unusual. We (Britain) had a bad cold spell a couple of winters back and that filled the mortuaries up.

France is embarrassed about this because something like 500 bodies are unclaimed. Probably because relatives (if there are any) are away on their August holiday (common practice on the continent to get out of the hot cities) and have not realised their relatives are dead. Doesn't look good for a nation when the rest of the world sees this.
 
Under the headline "French Barbarity," Renaud Girard, an editorialist for Le Figaro newspaper, wrote: "It's not up to the Father State to take care of our elderly. It's up to us."
Click to expand...

See? There are Frenchmen out there who Get It.
 
During a hot spell the French may have to double-up on their once a week bath!
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Once a week is reserved for sewage workers and surgeons.

Everyone else is on the baptismal schedule.
 
A lot of Europe doesn't have AC simply because they really don't need AC. When it gets bad, though, then it's a real problem.
Click to expand...

A lot of Europe doesn't have AC because they can't afford the electricity to run it. Electricity is a whole lot cheaper over here, where we don't have radical environmental groups that are actually part of the government (as they do in Europe) who have imposed enormous taxes on electricity and electricity production, and have prevented many new plants from being built. Less supply, and more taxes = much more expensive electricity, expensive enough to price it out of the range of the elderly pensioners who are dying in this heat wave.
 
We euro's just aren't all that geared up for the heat, I am in the North of England at the moment so didn't get the worst of it, London was hitting over 100F, which may not seem like much to you guys but our usual weather pattern is about -5 to 25 degrees C - very temperate.
 
Is there any thought in anyone else’s mind that these figures might be inflated to leverage the Kyoto Treaty? In America we have 30-60 deaths during heat waves worse than theirs and we get all gushy. The news can’t stop talking about it.

I have a real problem with the veracity of the 10,000 figure. I also have a problem with the lack of reporting of similar figures in any other country -- especially those bordering France.
 
I have exchanged emails with a friend in Brussels, who tells me that most Europeans are so geared to avoiding drafts in cold weather, that they won't even sit in front of a fan if they have one.
While that was happening, I was working outside in 105 drgree heat everyday.
While I do feel sorry for those that died and their next of kin, I see something Darwinian going on there.
 
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