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Pakistan city readies graves, hospitals, in case heat wave hits again
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pakistan-city-readies-graves-hospitals-case-heat-wave-090439340--finance.html?nhp=1KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistani grave digger Shahid Baloch is taking no chances.
Like many people in the port city of Karachi, he was caught out by the severity of last summer's heat wave which killed more than 1,300 people, and has hired a digger to excavate three elongated trenches big enough for 300 bodies.
"Thanks to God, we are better prepared this year," said Baloch, 28, who works with three brothers at the vast Karachi cemetery run by the charitable organisation Edhi Foundation.
When the heat wave struck in the summer of 2015, hospitals, morgues and graveyards in the city of 20 million people were overwhelmed, and drug addicts, day labourers and the elderly were the biggest victims of the searing heat.
Temperatures hit 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit), their highest since 1981 and above normal summer levels of around 37C (99F).
