The thermometer rises another notch on Sunday July 12 and France sinks a little deeper into the furnace for this new episode of heatwave that the country has suffered since July 4, the third in two months. 26 million French people – a third of the population – are now placed under “red vigilance”, the maximum alert level extended to 37 mainland departments by Météo France.
To the entire Paris region, Brittany, Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val de Loire – 24 departments – already affected, have been added 13 others stretching from Burgundy to the South. Almost the entire rest of the country – 59 departments – is placed on orange alert and only around ten departments in the South-East and Corsica are, for the moment, spared from this stifling heat wave which is expected to persist until the middle of the coming week.
An Orsec extreme heat plan
It is difficult, for the moment, to measure the health impact due to lack of data, but estimates from previous episodes raise fears of a human toll which could become even worse. During the first heatwave, at the end of May, the French Public Health agency reported excess mortality of around 300 deaths. At least 2,000 additional deaths were recorded by the health agency during the heatwave at the end of June, an increase of 30 to 35% in mortality.
“At the national level, hospital activity indicators and the volume of Samu calls are up slightly this weekend, as are the number of visits to the emergency room and SOS doctor consultations,” recognized the Ministry of Health following an interministerial crisis meeting held on Friday July 10.
In the process, the government announced the triggering of an “Orsec extreme heat plan” in the departments placed on red alert. The system provides for the opening, under the supervision of prefects in conjunction with local authorities, of “refreshment centers” to protect vulnerable people, particularly the elderly.
More than 25,000 hectares gone up in smoke
To adapt health establishments – 60% of which are dilapidated and not air-conditioned – the government has also released an envelope of 100 million euros and promised the installation of 30,000 air conditioners. “Nearly 6,000 have already been delivered, we will have double that number on July 15 and 21,000 on July 25,” committed the Minister of Health, Stéphanie Rist.
If almost all of the 7,500 retirement homes have at least one air-conditioned room for their residents, nursing homes also warn of the lack of human resources available to them to properly care for the elderly who require more attention than usual. “We know how to do it, but we lack the hands,” underlines Pierre Roux, president of the association of directors of retirement homes and home services (AD-PA) who is demanding financial assistance from the State to hire summer reinforcements.
Another subject of concern for the authorities: the increase in fires, particularly in the Pyrénées-Orientales or in the Drôme. According to the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, 17,000 hectares have already burned. A consequence of drought but also of human malice or recklessness in nine out of ten cases of fire outbreaks.
The suffocating Eiffel Tower
These extraordinary temperatures are seriously disrupting all activities, starting with agriculture, construction and, in general, all workers exposed outdoors or confined to non-air-conditioned places. Those who took the holiday route for the first big weekend of departures faced the blazing sun and the 900 kilometers of traffic jams which led Bison futé to classify Saturday as black in the West, the North and the Center-East, particularly the Rhône valley.
For its part, the SNCF assures that it will be able to ensure its high-speed service during the July 14 bridge, with 3,700 TGVs initially planned for the weekend, but intends to eliminate one in three Intercités trains during hot times which will be replaced by coaches.
Even the Eiffel Tower is suffocating, leading the operator of the iconic Parisian and national monument to bring forward the closure to 4 p.m. instead of past midnight. And Météo France’s forecasts are hardly encouraging. “The heatwave is expected to persist until at least mid-week, shifting eastward. The relative and gradual drop in temperatures will first affect the West as storms pass, but remains to be clarified in the coming days,” we can read on its website.
