How can this happen?

[Warthog]

How on earth can 3k people die from a heat wave

It gets much hotter in areas of the US than any 'heat wave' in France...

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe...ave/index.html

oooh a 35hr work week...oooooh

[ClubMed]

I don't think the parties should be arguing with each other, it's useless to blame one another for abnormal weather conditions. Europe is facing one of the hottest summers ever, in some parts of Europe temperatures have hit highs that were never reached in hundreds of years (add to that forest fires, that’s completely new to us here).

In the case of France, the weather killed many elderly people. In Europe we don't usually expect summer-crises so there were not enough preparations.

I don’t understand this remark you made though:

It gets much hotter in areas of the US than any 'heat wave' in France...

Does that mean these elderly people should have been ‘stronger’ and not died because European summers (according to you) can never be hot ‘enough’ ??

Illogical

[Mntsnow]

Guess thats why they call it "Survival of the fittest"

It is to bad to lose that many due to unpreparedness

[Redwolf]

Forest Fires new in Europe? Geez. We get them even here (North Carolina, East Coast) sometimes. I remember one day I thought the smoke was just a light fog until I went outside and smelled it.

The elderly are always the ones at risk ina heat wave, especially a 'new' one like this. Not fun to die of a heat stroke.

[Gomer]

It gets much hotter in areas of the US than any 'heat wave' in France..

in major population centers that lack AC?

Do you recall the heat wave of '95 where over 500 people died in Chicago?

what was the intent of this statement?

oooh a 35hr work week...oooooh

Did you even understand the article or are you just using it for a springboard to bash the French?

[Redwolf]

Chicago was in the same situtation Europe is in. Look at a map and you will see two things: Chicago is way up north (closer to Canada), and LA is way down south (close to mexico). We don't hear too much about people dying in Calif over a heat wave (although it happens sometimes). Mainly becuase the heat waves there are not too extreme. Like 107 from 95 or so (okay, a little high).

[Warthog]

lol, it could've been any country. Lets not do the whole anti-French BS.

Maybe it doesn't make it into the major news...I never hear about many people being heat casualties here.

It just seemed ridiculous that so many people should die of something like heat stroke.

Mainly becuase the heat waves there are not too extreme. Like 107 from 95 or so (okay, a little high).

Ahh, there's my answer. Around here, a "heat wave" is going from normal temps around 80 to the mid-90s or so, not as big of a deal, really.

[no1_vern]

I think a good part of the reason so many people in europe are affected is because they dont have the air conditioning that almost everyone here has. What little I remember of France was that there was only heating in the hotels I stayed in. No way to cool anyone.

Older people just dont have the ability to handle the extremes in heat/cold younger people have. Not to mention that "drinking" over there generally means a chardonay with the fish. To handle the heat people need to drink what they lose in sweating or else they will have problems.

[Warthog]

I think a good part of the reason so many people in europe are affected is because they dont have the air conditioning that almost everyone here has. What little I remember of France was that there was only heating in the hotels I stayed in. No way to cool anyone.

Why? Any reason? I simply don't get it.

[Gomer]

Google is your friend wart
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ed...ning+in+france