"has any of this been verified? Any casualty numbers from miss yet?"
Earlier today they had some coroner on the news. The reporter asked him "We understand that there have been at least 50 confirmed deaths in your city (or parish or whatever)."
The coronor said "50? That's false - I don't know who gave you that number but its false. I'm sure we'll have an increase in numbers - but 50 is wrong".
The way he said it made it seem like the number was much LESS than 50. But if you look at the actual words he used (or as best as i can recall) - he only says that the number 50 is wrong. From all the photos, etc. i have seen - I find it hard to imagine that the number of deaths would be way less than 50 for ANY size of area that a coroner would cover.
Another guy was talking in Biloxi (median income of $18,000) of how lots of folks that rented homes (and furniture) went to the owner of the furniture rental store to borrow $20. to fill up their gas tanks so they could get out of town before the storm. It didn't sound like the owner could help too many. He thought that if it hadn't been the end of the month (and paycheck) that more folks would have been able to leave and survive.
I've never had to live the paycheck to paycheck life thank God, but know good people who do (and have done). And usually it's a decesion of do you buy food or pay the electric bill. (And now is not the time to be critical of some of my friends' spending habits - although as a general warning - skip one of your monthly outings to movies to "get away from life's troubles" and put the cash in a jar so at least you can fill up the gas tank.
He didn't say "paycheck". He said government check. In other words, welfare check.