Horrific Heat Wave Blamed for Multiple Deaths in Europe
Pastor Dale Morgan
Horrific Heat Wave Blamed for Multiple Deaths in Europe*
Saturday June 23, 2007 3:16 AM
By JOHN F.L. ROSS
Associated Press Writer
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Southeastern Europe baked under soaring
temperatures Friday, with nearly 30 deaths across the region blamed on
the year's first major heat wave. Electricity supplies, particularly in
Greece and Albania, were strained as air conditioning use spiked.
Temperatures reached 104 degrees in Athens on Friday, with a top
recorded temperature of 113 degrees on the island of Rhodes, according
to state NET television.
Romania was particularly hard hit. Nineteen people have died of
heat-related causes in the past few days, including 14 in the capital,
Bucharest, the country's Health Ministry said.
In Serbia, doctors said at least seven people had died in recent days of
heat-related causes. In neighboring Macedonia, officials said they had
fielded numerous calls from elderly people suffering cardiac and asthma
problems.
To the south in Albania, at least three people died due to heat,
including a 43-year-old mother of four who collapsed while tending her
fields. Hundreds of children in Kucove, 70 miles south of the capital,
Tirana, were taken to health care units, while the Health Ministry
ordered air conditioned emergency rooms to be set up around the country.
Parts of Tirana have also suffered nine-hour power cuts this week, as
hydroelectric reservoir levels remain low after a parched winter.
Evangelos Lekatsas, who oversees Greece's electrical grid, said Greece
had increased electricity exports to Albania to help it cope.
But Greece itself faced power problems, with parts of the country
suffering blackouts for the fourth day running. The state power company
appealed to the public to limit electricity use.
Temperatures in parts of the country are expected to reach 109.4 degrees
this weekend, some of the highest temperatures since the record-breaking
summer of 1987, when hundreds of people died due to the heat.
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Associated Press writers in Tirana, Skopje, Bucharest and Belgrade
contributed to this story.