Paris Watch France Rings in New Year, Still Scarred by Storms, Oil Spill By KIKI YOSHIDA	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
嵐と石油流出でフランスは大打撃 年末、ヨーロッパを大暴風雨が直撃。フランスでは91人が死亡し、一時は340万世帯が停電している状態でした。また12月中旬にはタンカーが沈没して大量の重油がフランスの海岸を汚染。ミレニアムを迎えたフランスは大変な復旧作業に直面しています。

The moment the clock struck midnight and it became Jan. 1, 2000, the Eiffel Tower turned into a magnificent monument of light celebrating the new millennium. Jubilant crowds celebrated at the site, and many people watched on television. Indeed, it was a big moment of celebration. But there were some people who spent that night without even a power supply.

During the last week of December 1999, a pair of deadly storms hit Europe, claiming more than 100 lives in floods, avalanches and other weather-related disasters. In France alone, a total of 91 people have died. Winds recorded at over 200 kph were the worst recorded in European history.

An estimated 150,000 French citizens had no power or telephone in early January. EDF (Electricite de France) hired several companies to help repair its severely damaged transmission network, and some 1,200 technicians from across Europe are now setting to the task.

At the worst point of the electricity crisis, about 3.4 million houses, which corresponds to 10 percent of EDF's users, had no power. Many customers were also left without the use of their phones when telephone lines collapsed, including about 5,000 subscribers who were still without telephone connections in mid-January.

I still remember the sound of the horrific rainstorm that night. I stayed awake in bed and had an ominous feeling. It didn't sound like an ordinary storm at all. However, I didn't know that the country had been damaged so badly until I received a call from my friend the next morning.

She asked me if everything was all right. I did not know what was going on at first, but soon I learned what she meant. When I turned on the TV, I was stunned to see what had happened.

In Paris, six people were seriously injured when they were crushed under falling walls or roofs. Three huge cranes were blown over. Nearly all commuter train services to and from the suburbs were shut down, along with seven of the city's 14 metro lines. Police barred cars and pedestrians from the Champs Elysees, warning people of the danger of collapsing roof tiles.

The storm damaged some of France's most famed monuments as well. The Notre Dame Cathedral lost six of its bell towers. And some 10,000 trees in the garden at Versailles were toppled. I heard that a pine planted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1812 was among those victims. Many other monuments dating to the French Revolution were also damaged.

The storm damaged 300 million trees in total, according to the National Forest Office. Experts estimate it will take a century to completely restore the forests.

The storm also slammed trees fiercely to the ground in Paris. When I see their bared roots, it chills me to the bone to think of the power of nature. In fact, the storm lasted only a few hours. But look at what it did!

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin unveiled an aid package worth $630 million (¥66.1 billion) aimed for the nation's quick recovery.

The storm is not the only reason for the nationwide feeling of sadness that I sense.

On Dec. 12, the oil tanker Erika broke in two in gale force winds. It was loaded with over 30,884 tons of heavy oil. When it sank, about 10,000 tons of oil spilled into the sea, and that oil hit the coast on Christmas Day.

It fouled up the French shore from the tip of Brittany southward to La Rochelle and reportedly was France's worst oil spill in the last 20 years. People continue to clean the seashore to remove the sticky black oil.

About 300,000 seabirds have been killed and roughly 30,000 rescued. Seeing the birds caught by Erika's oil on TV, I had a feeling of deja-vu, remembering news reports of the Gulf War. Birds are always victims. Environmental groups estimate at least another 100,000 birds will die. The local oyster industry was also hit hard, to say nothing of the tourism.

Destructive winds and the massive oil spill have caused not only damage to the land but also an empty feeling among people. The most important thing is how we get out of it. After trouble, especially the menacing kind, we have the chance to become wiser than before.

Every incident contains its own lesson, I believe. It is we who will find meaning and learn from it. Our living standard is surely getting better thanks to modern technology. However, we are so little, compared with nature. Anything could be destroyed in an instant.

Europe is not used to this kind of storm. Some pundits have said that it is somehow related to global warming. If so, that is due to the destruction of nature. But who's to blame?

It is stupid to forget nature's power and its influence in our daily life. Human beings have been looking for the way to live in harmony with nature for such a long time, but it seems like we haven't really found the answer.

Now we are in the year 2000. I have no doubt that coexistence is the key to a peaceful life toward the next century.

Shukan ST: Feb. 4, 2000

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