Archive, 1987: hundreds die in Greek heatwave | Greece

Hundreds die in Greek heatwave

From: Florica Kyriacopoulos
27 July 1987
Dateline: Athens

A deadly week-long heatwave continued in Greece yesterday, claiming document deaths and preserving the nation in a state of emergency.

More than 650 folks have died in Athens and its neighborhood for the reason that blistering warmth gripped the nation on 22 July. While the variety of deaths straight attributable to the warmth will not be but clear, officers have indicated that final week’s loss of life toll was almost thrice larger than regular.

In Athens’ main hospital, Evangelismos, the traditional day by day loss of life toll of seven has risen to twenty. Greek newspapers yesterday put the full variety of victims at between 650 and 900, most of them aged folks affected by respiratory and coronary heart issues.

Last Friday the federal government declared a state of emergency to take care of the unprecedented disaster. All hospitals and army clinics have been placed on alert and makeshift morgues have been arrange in army hospitals to retailer the rising numbers of useless.

Hospitals in Athens, Piraeus, Thessaloniki and different main cities are in a state of chaos. The state-run first assist centre, which has been receiving 6,000 requires assist a day, introduced over the weekend that it may solely reply to emergency circumstances. Army helicopters and autos have additionally been mobilised.

Burials passed off all through the weekend and gravediggers and undertakers have needed to work extra time. Mr Philippos Koutsaftis, a coroner who normally performs 4 to 5 autopsies a day, said he needed to take care of 80 circumstances final Friday.

The highest temperature in Attica yesterday was 106F (41C), whereas in the islands and mainland shoreline it hovered between 95F and 101F. Throughout the week, mainland temperatures have ranged from 103F to 112F.

Greater Athens, the place almost half the nation’s inhabitants resides, has suffered most. Repeated and extended cuts in water provide, apparently attributable to a 30 per cent improve in consumption, has made life actually insufferable for many of its inhabitants.

The unprecedented warmth has been attributed to excessive barometric pressures and the absence of the sturdy summer time winds that usually blow between May and September.

Hellenic heatwave beckons sodden Brits: travel brokers report a late reserving growth as Greece blisters

By Peter Beaumont
28 July 1987

Broiling temperatures in the week-long Greek heatwave that has already claimed an estimated 700 lives haven’t deterred Britons dashing to e book last-minute journeys to flee the moist summer time at dwelling.

Travel brokers and tour corporations say they’re experiencing a growth in late bookings as would-be holidaymakers scramble to affix the exodus of two million British vacationers anticipated to travel to Greece this yr.

This is regardless of the declaration of a state of emergency by the Greek authorities, harrowing reviews of overcrowded morgues and of gravediggers working around the clock to bury the victims of the warmth.

With temperatures in the virtually abandoned streets of Athens reaching 110F, 18 levels above the common seasonal excessive, the principle tour corporations have instructed their representatives to temporary incoming holidaymakers on the chance of extended publicity to the solar.

Horizon says that for the reason that heatwave began all their accessible holidays to Greece have now been purchased. ‘We couldn’t give you something in any respect in the following 5 days,’ a spokesman said. Thomas Cook can be experiencing a rush for holidays each in Greece and the remainder of the Mediterranean. ‘People just want to get away from the weather here. They’re phoning in the morning to fly out the identical night time. ‘

Meanwhile, those heading out for the Greek sun could be in for a surprise. The London Weather Centre, which says winds blowing down from Central Asia are responsible for the hot weather in Greece, says that the weather could break within 48 hours to be replaced by thunderstorms coming from Yugoslavia.

Greek heatwave kills two Britons

By Maev Kennedy
28 July 1987

Two British women are among more than 700 people killed by the week-long heatwave which has been declared a national emergency by the Greek Government.

In the US, seven people have died in a similar heatwave. In France last night, over 800 firefighters, backed by water dumping planes, were trying to contain a huge forest fire, which closed the motorway from Marseille to Toulon for much of the day, and covered nearly 5,000 acres.

British tourists returning from Athens yesterday described soaking towels and bedsheets in cold water in their attempts to get to sleep. However, pensioner Mr Alfred Turner, from Enfield, Middlesex, said the weather was ‘beautiful – just what I paid for.’

Cemeteries in Greece have been working extra time making an attempt to deal with the casualties, variously estimated at between 600 and 1,000. More than 1,700 folks, largely aged, have been admitted to hospital. At the Athens port of Piraeus, gravediggers had been working across the clock, whereas the coroner’s assistant on the morgue said coffins containing our bodies had been piling up exterior in the solar as a result of there was solely room for seven our bodies in chilly storage.