Posted on 09/15/2005 10:47:02 AM PDT by LikeLight
New Orleans - The death toll from Hurricane Katrina shot up past 700 on Wednesday, as New Orleans's mayor said much of the population could return next week.
Still reeling from the devastation of the August 29 storm, the United States braced for a second hit in barely two weeks as Hurricane Ophelia lashed the east coast state of North Carolina.
The official death toll rose to 708 after Louisiana state confirmed another 51 deaths. State officials said 474 people were now known to have been killed in Louisiana.
As the troops and police stepped up the searched of empty houses as floodwaters quickly receded the rise in the toll is now expected to accelerated though officials have said initial predictions of 10 000 dead were over-pessimistic.
Another 218 deaths have been recorded in Mississippi, two in Alabama and 14 in Florida.
(Excerpt) Read more at news24.com ...
I fear the storm surge might have washed some out to sea forever in Mississippi and along the coast..Missing persons verified as truly missing might have to be done to assess the real lost in the storm count..That will take time.
I am still amazed at the height and destruction of the surge.
There are many things we'll never know about the toll of this storm . . . I also wonder if we'll ever be able to get a breakdown as between actual storm deaths and those killed by post-storm criminal activity . . .
when does the Blanco, Nagin trial begin!
Deaths by natural causes and murder go on daily in every big city...The deaths by natural causes may spike because of the storm...Those already weak from disease or age..but someone says it then settles down overall because those would have died later, died sooner..I doubt the actual murder toll statistically will show much different than normal in NO.
Accountability is an arbitrary thing . . . dependent mostly on who has the political power . . . some who did wrong will be formally charged, others will just have to carry it on their consciences . . .
Anyone know if there is a reliable and updated death toll count being actively maintained somewhere on the Net? It's like pulling teeth finding accurate, current info on this.
Nothing today.
I'm waiting for Nightline to devote a show to reading the names of all the dead, just like all the dead in Iraq. You know it's only a matter of time.
Here's what I think happened.
Camille, the previous benchmark for surge along the Gulf Coast, was a compact storm. The high surge was in a limited area because the windfield was over a limited area.
Katrina was a huge storm AND a Cat 5. It had a large fetch - or stretch of ocean over which it could generate waves and storms. That is why N'oreasters generate such high waves disproportionate to their wind intensity - they are typically very large storms and have a long fetch.
And even though Katrina weakened slightly before landfall, the water had already been put in motion, and wasn't going to slow down in relation to the drop in wind speed.
We've never had a storm with this combination of strength and size hit the US in recent history. Andrew, Camille and the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane were all fairly compact systems. So forecasters really didn't have much in the way of history to model against.
I'm not trying to come at this issue from a political angle, just curious about what the real toll is. If we must view the death toll through a political lens, I don't think it hurts Bush anyway - most people on the ground seem to understand that it was their local/state officials who let them down. And, quite frankly, I do want to see names published, just like with 9/11 and any aircraft accident - it helps to have names and faces to truly appreciate and grieve over the human impact of an event like this.
Excellent explanation. Makes a ton of sense. An unprecedented storm.
Here's a link to today's FR thread on how this isn't "sticking" to Bush in a negative way...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1485585/posts
Thanks, dirtboy.
...The official death toll from Hurricane Katrina was 812 in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida...
Thanks
There were also some suggestions in that article or another one I read today that the searchers in N.O. are now getting into the areas of the worst flooding, so are finding more bodies . . . expect the toll to keep rising . . .
I read that,too.
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