Australian heatwave deaths feared

The Economic Times , Saturday, January 31, 2009
Correspondent : REUTERS
SYDNEY: Authorities fear several elderly people may have died due to the heatwave baking southern Australia, after 18 "sudden deaths" in one city Friday.

"How many of them are associated with the heat is speculative, but it's obviously a high number," South Australia state Health Minister John Hill told local media.

Of the 18 people who died in Adelaide since midnight Thursday, 14 of them were elderly. Sudden deaths are those caused by medical conditions such as heart attacks and strokes, said an ambulance official who confirmed the number of deaths, adding autopsies would determine whether the deaths were heat-related.

"Normally the Ambulance Service would have just a few during a day, so this is a much higher number. So, you've got to draw the conclusion that a lot of them have something related to the effects of heat," Hill told the news.com website.

Extreme temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) have baked Victoria and South Australia states for the past three days, disrupting power and transport and leaving medical services struggling.

Weather officials say if the high temperatures continue until Sunday it will equal the worst heatwave in 100 years.

Melbourne recorded its hottest ever three-day heatwave on Friday, after the temperature hit 43.8 degrees Celsius (110.84 Fahrenheit), the third day above 43 Celsius.

About 90 trains were canceled in the city due to the heat, as crews repaired buckled rail lines, leaving thousands of commuters stranded.

With thousands of people flocking to the beach to escape the high temperatures, which are continuing in the night, lifesavers in Victoria state launched night beach patrols on Friday.

The high temperatures have led to soaring demand for power to keep air conditioners going, and caused breakdowns in transformers, resulting in outages in Victoria and South Australia, and power shedding to ease demand.

"To prevent any further rolling blackouts, we're asking people to be very careful with their use of electricity today," said Victoria Energy Minister Peter Batchelor.

More than 40,000 homes are without power in Victoria, where there are rolling one-hour blackouts to try and ease the demand on the electricity grid. In South Australia, power was cut to some 95,000 homes in load shedding.

The heatwave was stretching medical services.

"None of our systems are failing, but we are stretched to our limit and if you are not medically urgent you will be experiencing delays," said Ambulance Victoria head Greg Sassella. The South Australian health controller said hospitals were also coming under pressure to treat people with heat-related stress.

"We're getting quite a few patients coming in with effects from the heat, not so much directly with pure heat-stress, but people with chronic diseases that have flared up because of the ongoing heat," Dr Bill Griggs told local radio.

"All the hospitals are pretty full at the moment, we are coping with it, but it's certainly increased the workload."

Australian Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has said the heatwave was a sign of climate change.

Firefighters in Victoria are battling two bushfires which have burned some 2,000 hectares of forest, grassland and private pine plantation.

Fruit growers in South Australia and Victoria said they were battling to save crops in the heatwave. But so far the heatwave has remained in southern Australia and not moved north toward the country's main wheat and sugar crops.

 
SOURCE : Saturday, January 31, 2009
 


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