[BillCompton]

Looks like I nailed this one. I predicted final death toll for New Orleans to end up at 250. The reasoning is set forth in the following post.

New Orleans Death Toll 10,000? I don't think so.

[hlmencken3]

You're closer than MSM experts. And I saw a vital stat that NOLA records about 30 death/day in normal times.

So may of the corpses are likely to be normal mortality, and not storm/flood-related.