Successful evacuations before Katrina....???

[chrisnnavarre]

Looks like the revised expected low death toll is starting to point towards sucessful evacuation efforts by local and state government. At least in the press. If the death toll due to the Hurricane is low considering the population of a major U.S. city, some credit has to go to local authorities since the federal government had not even gotten their feet on the ground yet.

It will be interesting to see how many expired in hospitals due to lack of emergency (i.e. generators) power restoration or resourses for evacuating them.

http://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=384192Coroner:

"Autopsies planned on bodies pulled from hospital

BATON ROUGE, La. A coroner says autopsies will be done on more than 40 bodies found in a flooded New Orleans hospital.

Doctor Frank Minyard of Orleans Parish says it isn't clear yet how the patients died. Other officials have said some were dead before Katrina arrived but high temperatures after the storm could have led to other deaths.

Minyard tells N-B-C the hurricane death count in New Orleans could rise significantly because searchers haven't gotten into some areas of deep flooding.

He says what they could find is a "very scary thought."

But he adds the body count -- about 300 in New Orleans -- may be a reflection of successful evacuations before Katrina.

Officials initially speculated the hurricane might have killed as many as ten-thousand people."

[x-y-no]

I'm not at all clear on how much of the lower ninth ward has been searched yet. That's the area that flooded first and fastest, and also a very poor area where more people would likely have stayed.

[Lindaloo]

You are right, Jan.

As it stands right now, we have had one fatality here in Pascagoula. There are 10 total in Jackson Cty. Most of them in the Gulf Hills area. There are rumors that there are more in the bayou cumbest area of Jackson Cty. Not confirmed. There have been so many rumors that have turned out to not be true. I am praying the numbers are significantly lower.

[x-y-no]

Yes, unfortunately rumors will be around forever regarding this storm.

As the days go by without large jumps in the death toll, I am getting more optimistic. But as I said, my impression is that some hard-hit areas may not have been searched yet, and that adds some caution to my optimism.

[simplykristi]

I hope that the death toll is much lower than expected. But, I also know that bodies could be under the tall mounds of debris in MS. I don't know how much of NO has been checked. And St. Bernard Parish has been very hard hit and I don't know the areas that have been searched since much of the parish is still underwater.

Kristi

[mf_dolphin]

Unfortunately some of the casualties may be forever listed as missing/presumed dead. I would imagine that some who decided to ride it out on the Mississippi coast my never be acocunted for.

[Mattie]

I've seen the message boards of "missing" and wonder how in the world all of these missing will be accounted for. Agreed some of these are double posts, some are in shelters and have no access, but to weed these out from missing to safe/deceased is quite a task I would imagine.

I think it will be months before all the evacuees are accounted for, as well as those who are truly missing. Since all evacuees did not end up in shelters, it will be a very very difficult process to track everyone.