Lee reports on deaths in Jefferson

[markus]

Here: http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09_10.html#078783

Saturday, September 10, 2005



Lee reports on deaths in Jefferson

Friday, 10:05 p.m.

Sheriff Harry Lee said Saturday night that the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s office had processed 152 bodies, but only 20 of those were deaths related to Hurricane Katrina. He said the coroner’s office was picking up bodies that are reported lying in the street and handling them to FEMA’s specifications. He also said that body count does not include bodies that may have been taken to the morgue in St. Gabriel.


This is the entire article, but it's so brief it defies summarization.

How can you be among the dead found in the flooded or wind-ravaged city--or in it's streets--and not be a flood victim.

More of my thoughts here: wetbankguide.blogspot.com.

I have to go to the lake and pull my boat out today, and I'm having trouble finding FEMA's definition of a storm casualty. If anyone knows, or can find it on their non-dial-up, please post is here, or send it to me at [e-mail], or post it as a comment on the blog.

Thanx.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. That was my first thought. Are they not counting

starvation, dehydration, or heat stroke as Katrina deaths?

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[booksenkatz]

5. Only deaths that were caused directly by wind will count

The ones you mentioned will never count. Anyone who died for any reason AFTER the eye of Katrina passed by will not count. That's the same numbers game they play with casualties in Iraq. It's breathtaking!
:cry:

[Delphinus]

14. How can they get away with this??

Really - I need someone to explain to me how they can get away with not counting EVERY SINGLE SOUL who died.

[hippiechick]

2. No shit !

If he had 132 'casualties' in his jurisdiction 'just because' over the last couple weeks ... that wouldn't make him too nifty of a sheriff ... would it ??

:wtf:

[PuraVidaDreamin]

3. If They are not doing autopsies, they will never have an accurate count

[Spazito]

4. I wonder if they have made the criteria for defining who died

as a result of the hurricane so narrow that it is only those who died as a result of their homes being destroyed and is not including those who drowned? That is the only thing that would make any sense to me otherwise it defies credibility, imo.

[chaz4jazz]

6. This ties in with what Insurers want

If the deaths are NOT attributed nor counted as resulting from the hurricane then the hurricane WASN'T responsible for the deaths - therefore, and other collatoral damage that contributed to the death also couldn't be attributed to the hurricane - ergo - the insurers are off the hook as they only pay out for hurricane damage, not flood damage.

I wouldn't be surprised if the insurance lobby had been pounding down FEMA'S doors and presenting their case and asking that people who died other than being torn apart by high winds (or collapsing structures) NOT be attributed nor counted as hurricane victims

[lyonn]

12. This definitely makes sense

Still, with all the money the insurance companies will save with this dubious count it will not keep them from increasing Our insurance due to the cost of this hurricane. sarcasm

I believe they are using this same thinking for homes all along the coast.

Edit for I hope more clarity.

[ktowntennesseedem]

7. From the glass-half-full point of view, however,

the fact that only 20 deaths can be directly attributed to the hurricane means that the remaining 132 deaths can be attributed to the slow and inadequate gov't response. We need to keep total numbers kicked, so that when they spin lower numbers actually killed by Katrina, we can spin the remaining deaths as those the gov't allowed to die.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. That's exactly why they are keeping separate counts

The deaths from the hurricane itself are an act of god.

The deaths from the flood are an act of George Bush.

[goddess40]

10. well put

They rest on bush's head - although there are so many dead attributable to these sorry excuse for a human that I'm sure he feels what's a few more. As long as Delay's house gets rebuilt everything will be ok for the bushies.

[Igel]

16. That doesn't follow logically.

Unless you can say that the only causes for death in NOLA for the time period were either direct effects of Katrina or FEMA/government response. This would be an unprecedented kind of assertion.

Some cases will be hard to attribute: strokes, old age, terminal cancer, violence, falling down stairs. That'll have to be determined statistically, if they record the relevant information.

[ktowntennesseedem]

17. Still, those deaths not directly caused by the hurricane

are lives that MIGHT have been saved had the gov't had their act together. Sure, some of them might have perished no matter how fast or efficient the response, but even one unnecessary death is too many. And this is even more damning given the past four years worth of slogans and rhetoric to assure us that we are safer from and better prepared for catastrphies just like this.

[tsuki]

18. Gee, those were the deaths they were trying to link to the hurricanes

in Florida in 2004. Now they don't want them linked? They need a consistent policy.

[54anickel]

8. I posted that in response to another thread on the CNN court win

last night.

They are trying to split hairs on the death count attributable to Katrina. This could backfire on them - if they weren't killed by the hurricane, what did they die from? It may become obvious that the "other cause of death" was the incompetence of the government's response. That will lead to passing the buck - local, state or federal.

I think this re-definition of storm casualties was a knee-jerk reaction when their plan to block the media coverage failed.

Next up, bodies will be quietly "disappeared" to some area that will be labeled as too dangerous or contaminated to venture into. Then Hellaburnin will fill that area with earth and concrete creating a hidden mass grave. I don't put anything past these bastards.

Lots of "missing persons" - surviving family will have to fight for death certificates to get any insurance or government death benefits. Many will be too poor fight the red-tape.

[BOHICA06]

11. Think out side the box ... or coffin!

Perhaps we are seeing the phenomenon of caskets erupting from the ground or crypts in response to the flooding.

Old Joke .... A single engine Cessna crashed into a local cemetery this afternoon .... officials say 132 bodies recovered, no survivors.

[markus]

13. FEMA: There was no holocaust

I found the definition on T-P/NOLA.com. Thanx to the DUer who sent the FEMA material. I will review that shortly, and expand as required.

"Although body-recovery operations were still under way, the death toll represents the number of bodies that have been counted where the deaths were a result of Katrina’s winds, rains or floodwaters, or those who died as a result of medical equipment that became inoperable during the hurricane."

These victims will be Officialy Dead, but I would offer this: if your body is lying in a flooded or demolished home, or out on the public street, in what sense would you not have died as a result of the storm?

If you perished in the Chalmette Slip or the New Orleans Convention Center, or shortly after your evacuation days late from these locations, in what sense would you not have died as a result of the storm?

If you were shot by an armed person rioting in the street because of lawlessness, in what sense would you note have died as a result of the storm? If you were shot by the police or National Guard while trying to find food or water or medice for yourself or your family, in what sense would you not have died as a result of the storm?

If you were among those who died in St. Rita's or Bethany nursing homes (the latter when my father spent all but his very last days), and you were were abandoned by the staff to your fate as the waters rose? In what sense would you not have died as a result of the storm?

If you were elderly and trapped in your home (and we will find so many were the elderly and the week) and your suffered a heart attack or a fatal stroke or other medical malady because of the stres you were under, in what sense would you not have died as a result of the storm?

This is not much different than arguing that the death camp victims died of poisoning by Zyklon gas and not of hate. Or trying to pretend they did not die at all.

Are we reduced to a government of delusional holocaust deniers? Is that what we've come to?

More here: wetbankguide.blogspot.com

[daleo]

15. So 132 people just died of natural causes in the street?

Convenient timing, those are.