1,840 still listed as missing after Katrina

[funkybutt]

PRESUMED MISSING
Six months after the storm, some family members hold out hope their loved ones will be found.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1141545589263750.xml

Officials expect the list to shrink further. Some names will be assigned to remains still on the grounds of the emergency morgue that operated for several months at Carville. Many others belong to people who simply have failed to check in with the Find Family National Call Center in Baton Rouge.


-snip-

State medical examiner Dr. Louis Cataldie has estimated that some 500 people never will be found.

"Bodies quite possibly could have been washed out into marshes, into the Gulf," said Bob Johannessen, the state Department of Health and Hospitals spokesman. "And when you figure in the time that has passed since then, it makes all the sense in the world that some bodies are just not going to be recovered."

In another category, "there are a significant number of people who went missing during the storm and who intend to remain missing," Johannessen said, referring to those who saw the chaos in Katrina's wake as an opportunity to cast off the troubles of an old life and start fresh in a new town.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. "there are a significant number of people"

That is a significant load of bullshit intended to deflect the obvious conclusion that the death toll from Katrina was more like 3-4,000 people than 1500.

[Auntie Bush]

2. I don't think the bush* government is looking very hard because

heaven forbid they find them and make the number of killed during Katrina larger than those killed during 9/11...and guess who is responsible for that catastrophe? He also wants to be able to repeat ad nausea that 9/11 was our greatest disaster. He doesn't want to go down in history as the one responsible for our country's greatest disaster...even though he is. He wants to rewrite history.

[oldcoot]

11. Are any of the missing people foreigners?

Perhaps if any of these individuals are foreign born, perhaps their nations could launch a boycott of the United States similar to the one some Americans (including some politicians) launched against Aruba. Such a boycott might embarrass some of our leaders (except for Bush, because you cannot embarrass him).

[geomon666]

3. So they expect to find over 60% of missing persons?

"Bodies quite possibly could have been washed out into marshes, into the Gulf," said Bob Johannessen, the state Department of Health and Hospitals spokesman.

Don't forget the ones that made it into the belly of the gators, also the ones that are probably still buried in mud or still rotting under rubble. Also those that will never be counted because they died of 'natural causes', like a baby who died of sun stroke because he and his mother were left to stand out in the summer heat for days with very little food and water.

[BattyDem]

4. Give it a couple of months

as soon all the birth records become completely off-limits to the public, these people will no longer be missing. In fact, they will have never existed. :eyes:

[sarcasmo]

5. Does anyone have an official number of dead to add to this missing #.

I mean this is a much bigger death toll than 9/11 and many of the deaths could have been prevented with a stronger leader.

[baldguy]

6. "Offically" there will never be a final tally.

As long as it remains less than that of 9/11.

[sarcasmo]

7. When the Dem's control the House and Senate then and only then

will you get close to the real numbers. Just a wild guess, the numbers are probably around 4,000 if you add the original dead totals with these numbers.

[pitohui]

12. death toll as of feb 10 per newsweek magazine over 1,300

The remains of 1,079 people have been recovered in Louisiana; an additional 231 were found in Mississippi

this is an undercount because it is doesn't include storm dead in alabama and florida (around a dozen or so) but also because it doesn't count those who were evacuated and then died of their injuries in other states

for example a report said that around 70 evacuees died in the houston astrodome, so they died in texas not louisiana or mississippi, and that is only one location

do you remember the last man rescued alive from the 9th word, the 70-odd year old veteran? he died of dehydration after being evacuated to california, so he didn't die in louisiana or mississippi to make that list but he's dead as doornails from katrina just the same

state of georgia actually refused state of louisiana's request to tell us how many evacuees died in georgia, they say they don't keep those records, yet we know many people were evacuated to atlanta and other georgia towns

so there is undercounting right there of the dead -- and those folks are not even missing persons, the families know they died, but they are just not on the official count

the storm disproportionately took a toll of the elderly and i suspect that there are more folks missing than we will ever know, for years

why is this? well, the sad truth is that social security is now paid by direct deposit, i think some families, in desperation, will not report their missing because quite frankly they will feel they need the money to start over

yes, what i'm saying is that, by this point, i believe the list of missing persons is almost certainly an undercount NOT an overcount

over and over again, you hear it -- the storm took a disproportionate toll on the elderly, these elders are not going to alaska to start over boning fish in a fish factory at the age of 80, nope, if they're not around, if they're not collecting their social, it's because they're dead, jim

oh, and let us never forget, that sheriff harry lee of jefferson parish took 100 names of jefferson parish katrina dead (all elders) and "re-classified" them to claim they had died before the storm and were in storage, the evil freak, anything to make jeff parish look better in its complete failure to protect the citizens of that parish

[Minstrel Boy]

8. "a significant number...intend to remain missing"

"an opportunity to cast off the troubles of an old life"

So they weren't victims, they were shiftless opportunists. And America has no need to mourn the nameless black faces because they really aren't dead, they're just faking it.

Best thing that ever happened to them, I hear Barbara Bush say.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. About a month ago, the number was 5300....what's changed?

[pitohui]

13. the louisiana coroner has tried to fast-track the most likely

cataldie has tried to do an analysis by location of folks who had no transportation and who were in especially low-lying areas and who were known to have been in the area immediately before katrina

there are 300-400 candidates in the 9th ward area alone that he feels meet this criteria and have a huge huge probability of being dead

apparently he has now identified more in other neighborhoods and there are also a few hundred in mississippi that meet this category of being in a place where they were almost certainly destroyed by the storm surge

keep in mind that biloxi/gulfport etc. is actually right there on the ocean, those people are just not going to be found, but it is still worth looking under rubble that exists in greater new orleans area

the list of 5,000 to 7,000 names may include family members where the person is not certainly known to have been in the area immediately before the storm, not all families are close, for instance, say i have a brother that i know lived in gulfport and i have not been able to contact him since katrina, now i know his apartment complex was destroyed, so being unable to track him down, he MAY have evacuated yet i may have no option to report him missing since i can't just call his house, his job is gone, etc. some of these people in this situation can eventually be tracked down, because they DO have social security numbers and they are either working somewhere or banking somewhere or going to be drawing social security somewhere...but to me, my brother might still be missing even though he's alive...well, those people are slowly being found and put back in contact...but it's a slow process because social security numbers are for good reason not public information so once the thread of contact is broken it just takes time

i don't think there are 5,000 MORE dead but, yes, i wouldn't be surprised if there are around 3,000 to 5,000 dead including those already found, those dead who never fully recovered from dehydration after being evacuated into other states, etc.

[oldcoot]

10. Dear Mainstream Media

I am sure that at least some of those missing individuals were young, pretty, blond women. Certainly, you could give this story the same attention that you have given to Natalee Holloway. Thank you.

[daleo]

14. I don't think many people are "missing on purpose"

Given the chance, how many people would really just abandon their families, friends, careers, etc.? I doubt it would be more than one person in ten thousand. Even given the numbers of people displaced by the storm that would explain only a small proportion of the missing 1800.

And how easy would it be to establish a new identity in the post 911 world? I think it would be very difficult, especially for people who just did it opportunistically as a result of Katrina.

This is just smoke and mirrors, meant to obscure the fact that the storm and the government negligence killed many more people than they are willing to admit to.

[funkybutt]

15. The Family Members of those Missing

Need to get organized...like the 9-11 families. The front of the Times Picayune this morning had a list of names in their graphic that went along with this article. Seems a group of willing volunteers could get the list of names. Then begin advertising for those related to the missing to come forward.

The "Presumed Missing" need a voice.

[lovuian]

16. what a disaster... So sad

may they find peace.......