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I hope you are right.

But -

Officials from a single county in MS are making statements indicating that they already think 200 to 300 is a reasonable expectation for the toll in their county.

40,000 homes in St. Bernard Parish were flooded to the rooftops.

The lower half of Plaquemines Parish no longer exists.

More than 3000 people have been plucked from rooftops in NO. And rescuers have consistently reported cries for help from other homes.

Large swaths of St. Tammany parish are destroyed. I know you saw the officer in Slidell - standing on dry ground. Well, we know now that the western side of Slidell faired relatively well. We also know that downtown Slidell is underwater, and large subdivisions were completely destroyed.

Bay St. Louis is largely destroyed. Same with Waveland. Same with Pass Christian.

And MFH's post is not the first report I've heard of bodies in trees.

The upshot of all this, IMHO, is that you seem to be going out of your way to challenge the specifics of MFH's post, but acknowledge yourself, in a guess, that we could have 1500 dead. There is no more reporting to support that guess than there is to support a contention of 'thousands' being dead. But, nonetheless, you view it as a reasonable guess. Why wouldn't 2500 be a reasonable guess? Or 3500?

Bay St. Louis is largely destroyed. Same with Waveland. Same with Pass Christian.

Granted. But many of you assume relatively low evacuation rates. I see no reason to think so. Actually, I think the number of deaths on all sides is exaggerated as we've seen in many other news stories over the years (initial reporting on 9/11, AIDS deaths, etc.). By and large, the MSM and governments greatly exaggerate these things.

The upshot of all this, IMHO, is that you seem to be going out of your way to challenge the specifics of MFH's post, but acknowledge yourself, in a guess, that we could have 1500 dead. There is no more reporting to support that guess than there is to support a contention of 'thousands' being dead. But, nonetheless, you view it as a reasonable guess.

As I said plainly, it's a wild guess. Actually, I'll be surprised if the count hits 1,000.

"And rescuers have consistently reported cries for help from other homes."

I've been thinking about that since Monday. Not many can hack through if the decking is 3/4" plywood, or swim down and get out through an openning. Too bad all those able bodied looters couldn't do some search and rescue.