How many customers are there who have stopped paying their utility bills and HAVE NOT CALLED in to explain why?
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A lot of the pre-existing utilities are gone.
The corporation owners of these utilities that had accounts with the people who used the destroyed utilities will be tracking who is paying and who is not! Follow the money or the lack of collections of the moneys and you will get a notion as to who might be dead or missing. You look for the owners of the accounts not showing activity. It is inexact but a welfare check could be done to ascertain the whereabouts of the owners of such accounts. Many of the living who have utility accounts they can no longer use, will have called these utility corporations to cancel their accounts, especially if there were on going direct bank withdrawals going on monthly.
Besides I mentioned other methods that can be used in concert together to ascertain the numbers of dead or missing.
Federal agencies like the IRS and the Social Security Admin could set up a “proof of life” hot line..were they competently led for those suspected of being dead, to call in to establish proof of life.