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CNN Live At Daybreak
French Heat Toll: Government Criticized for Handling of Crisis
Aired August 21, 2003 - 06:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's head to France now. There is no doubt that the summer heat wave has contributed to hundreds, perhaps thousands and thousands of deaths. But controversy remains over the exact toll and how the government is handling the crisis.
Let's go live to Paris and Chris Burns.
We had word earlier this morning that 13,000 could have died from the heat.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it's enough to make your head spin, really. As you said, it was in the hundreds, then the thousands. And you might even look at some of the shock in the newspapers today. Here is the "France Soir (ph)," one of the leading newspapers in France, talking about a humanitarian catastrophe. And look at all those coffins there in the picture.
Look at this other one, "Libiatso (ph)," the leftist newspaper, criticizing the conservative government of President Jacques Chirac. Saying Chirac counting the dead. Showing him pointing the blame to his Prime Minister who is in turn pointing the blame to his Health Minister. The left opposition is demanding the resignation of the Health Minister.
These numbers, the latest numbers, that came out from General Funeral Services. That's a company that represents about one-fourth of the undertakers in the country. And they have estimated that up to 10,600 people died, perhaps from the heat wave, during the heat wave for the entire month. It could be over 13,000.
I have with me somebody who is with the General Funeral Services, Jean Anuvu (ph), who is the head of the crematoriums.
This is a rather macabre sort of thing to talk about, but how are you dealing with this huge wave of bodies coming to deal with?
JEAN ANUVU, GENERAL FUNERAL SERVICES: Two main problems. First, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) males -- men's so which means that we were to -- we had to organize special places. We have repritrated (ph) camps and repritrated warehouses, especially (UNINTELLIGIBLE) where we have at the present time about 150 bodies.
BURNS: Now this is overflow because you couldn't fit them in the funeral parlors across the country.
ANUVU: That was not possible because as opposed to set up (ph) and it was like having airplane crash of 20 airplanes happening in about three days.
BURNS: And how are the families doing? How are you helping the families deal with this?
ANUVU: So we're trying to do our best to help the families. It's not always...
BURNS: You built temporary funeral parlors, actually.
ANUVU: Temporary funeral parlors and we try to maintain a certain quality of service. There's a problem of also manpower problem. So we had to call back people on holidays and we had to call back also recent retired people.
BURNS: Who do you think is to blame for this?
ANUVU: Blame, there is probably a lack of organization somewhere because the warning system was not really efficient over the first four days. And in this kind of situation, you have to react within 24, 48 hours maximum.
BURNS: Mr. Anuvu, thank you very much, with the General Funeral Services.
So the burials continue. We will be watching some of those today. Again, the blame game, the left is demanding that the Health Minister resign. President Jacques Chirac just coming back from vacation facing a lot of heat in this country.
Back to you.
COSTELLO: No pun intended. Chris Burns live from Paris this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Crisis>
Aired August 21, 2003 - 06:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's head to France now. There is no doubt that the summer heat wave has contributed to hundreds, perhaps thousands and thousands of deaths. But controversy remains over the exact toll and how the government is handling the crisis.
Let's go live to Paris and Chris Burns.
We had word earlier this morning that 13,000 could have died from the heat.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it's enough to make your head spin, really. As you said, it was in the hundreds, then the thousands. And you might even look at some of the shock in the newspapers today. Here is the "France Soir (ph)," one of the leading newspapers in France, talking about a humanitarian catastrophe. And look at all those coffins there in the picture.
Look at this other one, "Libiatso (ph)," the leftist newspaper, criticizing the conservative government of President Jacques Chirac. Saying Chirac counting the dead. Showing him pointing the blame to his Prime Minister who is in turn pointing the blame to his Health Minister. The left opposition is demanding the resignation of the Health Minister.
These numbers, the latest numbers, that came out from General Funeral Services. That's a company that represents about one-fourth of the undertakers in the country. And they have estimated that up to 10,600 people died, perhaps from the heat wave, during the heat wave for the entire month. It could be over 13,000.
I have with me somebody who is with the General Funeral Services, Jean Anuvu (ph), who is the head of the crematoriums.
This is a rather macabre sort of thing to talk about, but how are you dealing with this huge wave of bodies coming to deal with?
JEAN ANUVU, GENERAL FUNERAL SERVICES: Two main problems. First, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) males -- men's so which means that we were to -- we had to organize special places. We have repritrated (ph) camps and repritrated warehouses, especially (UNINTELLIGIBLE) where we have at the present time about 150 bodies.
BURNS: Now this is overflow because you couldn't fit them in the funeral parlors across the country.
ANUVU: That was not possible because as opposed to set up (ph) and it was like having airplane crash of 20 airplanes happening in about three days.
BURNS: And how are the families doing? How are you helping the families deal with this?
ANUVU: So we're trying to do our best to help the families. It's not always...
BURNS: You built temporary funeral parlors, actually.
ANUVU: Temporary funeral parlors and we try to maintain a certain quality of service. There's a problem of also manpower problem. So we had to call back people on holidays and we had to call back also recent retired people.
BURNS: Who do you think is to blame for this?
ANUVU: Blame, there is probably a lack of organization somewhere because the warning system was not really efficient over the first four days. And in this kind of situation, you have to react within 24, 48 hours maximum.
BURNS: Mr. Anuvu, thank you very much, with the General Funeral Services.
So the burials continue. We will be watching some of those today. Again, the blame game, the left is demanding that the Health Minister resign. President Jacques Chirac just coming back from vacation facing a lot of heat in this country.
Back to you.
COSTELLO: No pun intended. Chris Burns live from Paris this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Crisis>
