On October 13, 2023, the capital staged a full-scale crisis exercise to deal with the future heatwaves that await us. “Paris 50°”: this is the name of the crisis exercise that the capital launched. Faced with global warming and heatwaves that are likely to multiply and intensify in the coming years, the City of Paris decided to take matters into its own hands and do everything in its power to prepare for them. Matthieu Goar discusses this drill in an article on the Le Monde website.
Paris conducts crisis drills to prepare for 50°C heat peaks
The tables are set up next to an old train. A few neon lights light up the tunnel of the Petite Ceinture, the disused railroad line that runs around Paris. Pupils from a primary school in the 13th arrondissement are poring over handouts. “Even here, we have to work,” says one. Suddenly, some of them stand up, hand to mouth, as if about to vomit. Another signals that he has a headache. The teachers, headmistress and Red Cross staff get all the students out into the open air. They suspect carbon monoxide poisoning due to a malfunctioning generator – we have to wait for the fire department. “They’re a few minutes late because of the demonstration, the Place d’Italie is right next door,” said Pénélope Komitès, Paris’s deputy mayor. A few hundred meters away, the unions are organizing a march against austerity.
In fact, none of the students are ill. They are playing a part in an exercise organized by Paris city hall on October 13. The aim is to prepare residents and emergency services for a heatwave of over 50°C. A mock TV news clip was made to recreate the feeling of a city plagued by an intense heatwave for the past 10 days. On a virtual Twitter feed, fake parent profiles worried about schools evacuating to naturally cooled “safe havens”. And unexpected events, such as the failure of a generator, are included in the scenario.
In a secluded room, a fake crisis unit calls the real secretariat general of the defense and security zone to request the transport of priority personnel, the regional express train RER B supposedly broke down due to the heat. The organization Radioamateur France has set up an antenna to ensure radio communication, in the imagined event of a failure of typical infrastructure. The civil defense, the energy company Enedis, Paris’s transport network RATP, emergency service SAMU social, retirement and nursing homes, charities and volunteer residents… In all, 142 people are mobilized on the site. “The key to crisis management is coordination: Everything is scripted, but the participants are not aware of the course of events,” explains Ziad Touat of Crisotech, the service provider who helped Paris City Hall organize the day in two arrondissements, the 19th and 13th.
Survey of air-conditioned or temperate premises
It’s a realistic scenario, and the hypothesis of a 50°C temperature peak in Paris seems increasingly likely. Although the summer of 2023 was much milder in the capital, the city already saw a maximum temperature of 42.6°C on July 25, 2019. In June 2021, areas at roughly the same latitude have already got close to this symbolic mark, for example British Columbia in Canada with temperatures of 49°C. “Temperatures over 50°C are already occasionally recorded during heat peaks, at the city’s hottest points,” wrote the “Paris at 50°C” report issued in July 2023 by a Paris Council fact-finding mission.
Since 1876, Paris has already warmed by 2.3°C, according to a regional climate change group, which predicts that the capital could experience heat waves on average 34 days a year by 2080, compared with 14 days a year in the 2010s. Paris, a city with very little vegetation and “canyon” streets (narrow and lined with uninterrupted buildings), also suffers from the phenomenon of “heat islands”. During the heatwave of 2003, for example, a difference of up to 10°C was observed between the capital and its surrounding areas. “85% of the building footprint in Paris is located in areas where the urban heat island effect causes temperatures to rise by more than 5°C, in addition to global warming,” explained Morgane Moullié, a member of a housing observatory, Observatoire de l’Immobilier, in the same report.
This day of crisis drills is part of a long-term effort by Paris city hall, which hopes to finalize its new resilience plan in June 2024. The last one dates back to 2017. By setting up themed workshops and commissioning several studies, the municipal team has explored 14 themes including solidarity, climate risks, adapting buildings and welcoming migrants. One of the main objectives in the climate and heat wave management theme is to identify all air-conditioned or temperate sites that can accommodate the public, from the most obvious, such as hospitals and other medical buildings, to more unusual places like shopping malls, tunnels, quarries, catacombs and swimming pools. “There are many places that are naturally temperate, where the temperature remains stable pretty much all year round, but there are a huge number of logistical problems to be sorted out, such as security and ease of access,” explained Komitès. Paris city hall hopes to complete the census in four to five months.
Students from the school taking part in the exercise wait in front of the tunnel. Some are pretending to breathe into oxygen masks. Not really traumatized – rather laughing – they’ve been looking forward to this day for some time. They had been told about the purpose of the exercise, and the teachers had taken the opportunity to do lessons on the consequences of climate change. Then 10 firefighters arrived to make final checks. “Wow, their outfits are just like in the movies!” could be heard from the crowd of schoolchildren, who were a little distracted but as fascinated as ever by firefighters. Something that’s unlikely to change, even in a Paris under 50°C.
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