Abstract
France does not commonly have very hot summers, particularly in the northern areas, but seven days with temperatures of more than 40 °C were recorded in Paris between July and August 2003. Because of the usually relatively mild summers, most people did not know how to react to very high temperatures (for instance, with respect to dehydration), and most single-family homes and residential facilities built in the last 50 years were not equipped with air conditioning. These reasons allow understanding why there were 14,802 heat-related deaths (mostly among the elderly) during the heat wave, according to the French National Institute of Health. But that shortcomings of the nation's health system raise the question why the administrations do not succeed to prevent such a death-toll ?
Firstly, we will see if there was a complete failure in the crisis management and then we will analyze what could be the causes of such a failure.
