Experts: Katrina Death Toll Still Rising

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

Experts: Katrina Death Toll Still Rising

By MARY FOSTER (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
June 02, 2007 9:38 PM EDT

NEW ORLEANS - The bodies are no longer being dragged from houses and buildings toppled by Hurricane Katrina, but nearly two years later many in the medical community think the storm is still killing. Storm survivors are dying from the effects of both psychological and physical stress, from the dust and mold still in dwellings to financial problems to fear of crime, health experts and officials say.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Katrina is still killing our residents," Orleans Parish coroner Dr. Frank Minyard said this week. "People with pre-existing conditions that are made worse by the stress of living here after the storm. Old people who are just giving up. People who are killing themselves because they feel they can't go on," Minyard said.

Some say an in-depth federal analysis is needed, despite a new state report that found no significant increase in deaths in the New Orleans area from January 2006 through June 2006. The state Department of Health and Hospitals is still compiling figures for the last six months of 2006.

Dr. Raoult Ratard, the state epidemiologist, said "the only slight increase" in deaths was in the first three months of 2006 in Orleans Parish. But New Orleans medical officials say that jump, from 11.3 per 1,000 deaths to 14.3 per 1,000, - a leap of more than 25 percent - was anything but slight. Moreover, the report doesn't take into account evacuees who died while away from the city and were returned for burial.

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Read more: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20070602/4660eb40_3ca6_1552620070602-1394080473

[WindRavenX]

1. Worst disaster in US history

And it doesn't get nearly the attention it should :cry: :cry:

[slackmaster]

11. No, it's still a few hundred shy of the Johnstown Flood

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood

[Paranoid Pessimist]

13. But gaining on it n/t

[slackmaster]

14. I'd also note that the 1918 flu pandemic killed a whole lot more people

Something like 500,000 - 675,000 in the USA.

And the death toll from the 1900 Galveston hurricane and flood is estimated at between 6,000 and 12,000.

[silverojo]

28. A pandemic isn't a natural disaster

:)

[slackmaster]

30. Neither were Hurricane Katrina nor the Johnstown Flood

Strictly speaking.

[bdamomma]

19. this is our open sore, after two years nothing has been done to help

or get some building done in the area for the people who live there, that is their homes and their livelihoods that are being destroyed, and again this regime we have does not give a sh$t.

[babylonsister]

2. Recommend with horror and trepidation for another hurricane season

upon us. Where did Americans misplace their priorities and why? Scratch that, I lay it in the blivet's lap, all of it for being such a clueless, heartless buffoon.

[uppityperson]

3. Thanks hissyspit, k&r

[intheflow]

4. K&R. Let's not forget formaldehyde poisoning in trailers.

Not sure if anyone has died from it yet, but a whole hellova lot of people are sure sick as hell from it.

[NJCher]

21. I didn't hear about that

Was that from trailers brought in by FEMA for the Katrina survivors to live in?



Cher

[Digit]

5. Bush will never live this tragedy down

What is most telling is that they STILL are doing nothing to alleviate the suffering.

[intheflow]

7. Bush has already lived down this tragedy.

It gets play here on DU, but its been mostly forgotten by the rest of the country and the world.

[tiptoe]

9. The goal is privatization of gov't services: This requires "Government" be shown "unreliable"...by

deliberate "non-responsiveness" and "incompetency" and "inability to solve problems". (O'Reilly has lectured "reported" on the theme of "unreliability of government".)

*Co engages Machiavellian, inhumane pragmatics in the use of (indeed, if necessary, promotion of) disasters and chaos in the U.S. in order to achieve a radical political goal: Privatization of all government services.

One pre-condition for *Co "'heckuva-job' successes": Cutbacks on fundings of programs (*-FEMA, *-SBA, *-IRS, *-FDA, *-EPA, etc). How achieved? Perpetual war(s) and annual tax cuts for wealthy with goal of continuous drain on the U.S. treasury (Norquist radical fiscal policies).

A quick "military win" in Iraq (legal issues aside) was precluded by Rumsfeld's 1) 'underestimate' of size of force needed (He's not really that stupid...and the platitude he gave -- 'you go to war with the army you have' -- conveniently ignores that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and no WMDs had been found), and 2) promotion of a sustainable enemy by ignoring to secure Saddam's explosives bunkers against 'looting', the munitions acquired being the continuing source for Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) killing and maiming soldiers and civilians (He wasn't uninformed: Targeting info was well-developed and available during Shock-and-Awe precision bombing phase).

For Neocons, the ends justify the means...and "wars" and "disasters" aren't primarily needed-for-winning-or-addressing...in order for them to 'make progress' in their ultimate radical/extreme goals.

(BTW, one of the first *Co "responses" to the Katrina disaster: Bush Uses Disaster to Ram Through Low-Wage Work) ( google search results)

[slackmaster]

15. I don't care who is in charge, I have never trusted nor will I ever trust government

To come to my aid in a timely manner in a major disaster situation.

[annabanana]

16. The Coast Guard, (less compromised by the administration,)

did good work in Katrina's aftermath.

[Canuckistanian]

6. Boy, the Katrina disaster sure is history judging by news reports

Good job keeping it out of the papers and TV reports, Mr. Lieberman.

[Morgana LaFey]

8. This is heartbreaking

Bush is such an ultra-destructive human being. How do you kill a whole damn city? Bush shows the way (with a little help from a natural disaster).

[Solly Mack]

10. I have so much anger and disgust for how the survivors

(and those that should have survived) have been treated by their own country - their own government.

but I guess "no one could have anticipated..."

That should be written upon America's headstone

Here Lies America
"No one could have anticipated..."

[NOLALady]

12. Thankfully

I did not lose any friends or family during the storm although my sister lost her Father in Law who was at the VA Hospital for a non life threathning illness.
But, I have been going to funerals seemingly non stop. Many elderly family and friends
evacuated to live with children. They evacuated with seemingly less trauma to their loving families. The next thing we know, they're gone. I've been calling it the broken heart syndrome.

Then there are the younger ones who had to come back and forth to take care of business. Six months later they are diagnosed with cancer or something fatal.

The first time I went to the city was about 6 months after the storm. It was during the March from Mobile to New Orleans (I met Cindy Sheehan!) Anyway, I went home sick. I wore a mask, but still the air was in my lungs, I could taste it. My throat was sore and I felt weak. I developed what they called the "Katrina Cough". This was only one day of exposure 6 months after the storm.
I cannot begin to imagine the health problems of the people who are living there.

[NJCher]

23. Katrina cough

I developed what they called the "Katrina Cough". This was only one day of exposure 6 months after the storm.

That is indeed frightening and your story adds a dimension to the news story cited by the OP.

How long did the cough last? What do you think it was caused by?



Cher

[bamacrat]

17. What makes this possibly the worst disaster in US history...

is the governments response. Or lack there of.

[Xenotime]

18. New Orleans should be rebuilt by now...

Where's all this disaster aid?

[bdamomma]

20. even though I never have been to New Orleans what a tragedy

for this to happen to such a beautiful and diverse community, this is our Iraq.

[StateRed]

24. what in the heck does the phrase

"this is our Iraq" mean???? Illogical captain.

[bdamomma]

25. New Orleans is our open sore, not trying to be confrontational with you

[StateRed]

26. yep, me neither

I just wondered what you meant, because I just don't see it. What are, 2 tragedies that happened in the last 5 years?

[DemBones DemBones]

29. The disaster aid is in the same place as all the $$$ NYC was promised.

And the money promised to Darfur, All Children Left Behind, etc.

[lonestarnot]

22. Any damned old way to keep the body count down.

[KamaAina]

27. 4,081 -- and counting

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=16035414&postID=6711570962273927889

In an effort to debunk this study showing 4,081 victims of Katrina including excess mortality (deaths beyond typical averages) among those who died following the evacuation, State epidemiologist Raoult Ratard appears to suggest that people put false death notices in the New Orleans Times-Picayune obituary section.
"Obituaries are a voluntary notice that is put in the newspaper by the families," Ratard . "You can see that there are all kind of things that can influence that."The nut of the mattter is this: Dr. Kevin Stephens, Sr., Director pf the New Orleans Health Department, used the Theory of Excess Mortality to ascribe a large spike in obituary notices to the impact of Hurricane Katrina and the Federal Flood. Ratard prefers to rely only on death certificates issued in New Orleans, disregarding the disbursement of half the city's population elsewhere and clear evidence in the obituaries of a significant spike--2,358--in deaths reported in the newspaper over just a six month period in 2006.

Of course it's not clear evidence if, as Ratard suggests, people were for example just making up obituaries for fun. I've stared at the story from earlier this week for half and hour and can't for the life of me think of anything else Ratard could be suggesting by the quote above.

[EFerrari]

31. kick

:mad: