Summer heatwave caused more than 2,000 deaths in Portugal

[senorpepr]

LISBON (AFP) - The death toll in Portugal from August's record heat wave totalled more than 2,000, nearly 700 more than an initial estimate, according to official figures.

There were 9,962 deaths in August according to national statistics institute (INE) figures obtained by Diario de Noticias newspaper, 2,007 more than the average recorded for that month during the previous 12 years when temperatures were not as high.

By comparison a preliminary report issued by the health ministry at the end of August estimated 1,316 mostly elderly people had died during that month's heatwave.

This report was based on the rise in the number of death certificates issued in August when compared to the same month in 2002, with the difference blamed on the scorching temperatures which ravaged much of Portugal that month.

However a National Health Service examination of the death certificates has since concluded only 15 of those deaths could be confirmed so far as being directly heat-related.

Health Minister Luis Filipe Pereira cautioned the figures reported in the media were neither official nor final.

A final health ministry report into the number of deaths caused by the scorching temperatures is expected by April.

"When we have definitive data we will make it available to the media and general public," he said.

Records for water and electricity consumption were shattered in August as temperatures regularly soared above 40 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout much of the country during the first two weeks of that month.

The heatwave was the longest and hottest in Portugal since records started in 1856 and was part of a wider spell of extremely hot weather that gripped much of Europe.

The dry heat sparked a rash of wildfires which caused over one billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) in damage and claimed 20 lives, including that of two firefighters.

The centre-right government of Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso came in for criticism in the aftermath of the heatwave for allegedly not doing enough to prevent the wildfires and heat-related deaths among the elderly.