Fatal Isolation: The Devastating Paris Heat Wave of 2003

by Richard C. Keller

In a cemetery on the southern outskirts of Paris lie the bodies of nearly a hundred of what some have called the first casualties of global climate change. They were the so-called abandoned victims of the worst natural disaster in French history, the devastating heat wave that struck in August 2003, leaving 15,000 dead. They died alone in Paris and its suburbs, and were then buried at public expense, their bodies unclaimed. They died, and to a great extent lived, unnoticed by their neighbors--their bodies undiscovered in some cases until weeks after their deaths.

Fatal Isolation tells the stories of these victims and the catastrophe that took their lives. It explores the multiple narratives of disaster--the official story of the crisis and its aftermath, as presented by the media and the state; the life stories of the individual victims, which both illuminate and challenge the ways we typically perceive natural disasters; and the scientific understandings of disaster and its management. Fatal Isolation is both a social history of risk and vulnerability in the urban landscape and a story of how a city copes with emerging threats and sudden, dramatic change.

Genres: Science, History, France

240 pages, Hardcover

First published May 7, 2015

Reviews

[Timothy]

A brilliant examination of the disaster caused by the European Heat Wave of 2003 which killed 70,000 people. The author, a medical historian, does more than weave together a conventional story of the death of over 15,000 people in France. He provides the context for the event and disestablishes the official or public version of the event. The book ranges from moving stories of the victims, to a wider examination of how in the 21st century this tragedy could occur. He gives us insight into how the built environment of Paris made it inhospitable for the elderly, how the construction of the aged in French society may have exacerbated the risk for the elderly, an examination of the vulnerable and at-risk populations, the role of the media in constructing the disaster, and a deep dive into demographics, and perceptive gleanings from the likes of Michel Foucalt. Reading this was a moving and enriching experience.

[Charlotte Osborn-bensaada]

I picked this book up because I had a friend that returned from Paris in the fall of 2003 with stories of how difficult heat was that summer. Also as I am finishing this book news reports are reporting annual heat averages breaking records accross the country. The long and short heat is going to be our future and if we don't learn from heat events like the 2003 heat wave that likely took at least 14,000 lives in France and many more thousands across Europe, those at the margins will continue to suffer disproportionately. Keller's book is more of a focus on how one's social status, gender, age, disabilities increased vulnerability but also how narritives form that obscure who is or is not vulnerable. Not sure I would reccomend as general audience but it was a reminder of how climate change will exacerbate these fractures.

[Melinda]

Richard Keller's account of the 2003 heat wave in Paris was interesting, but seemed to me to be overly focused on the subset of Parisians who died during the heat wave with no family to claim their body and bury them.