Only 1000?

[Orrex]

Certainly I would be glad to learn that Katrina killed far fewer than originally estimated. I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me, but I recall that in the first days of the hurricane, Biloxi, MS alone had upwards of 80 fatalities. Are we to believe that in the entire zone of destruction there weren’t more than 13 or so similar pockets of death? How could Katrina cut such a wide swath while leaving such an allegedly low body count?

For that matter, how the hell can we ever get anything like an accurate death toll? I live in Pittsburgh, and if, say, 8,000 random people vanished from the city tomorrow, I’d have a heck of a time accounting for more than maybe 100 missing. If a concerted effort were made to suppress an accurate tally, I’d never get near even that small number. :tinfoilhat:

By the way, I heard that insipid song “Walkin’ on Sunshine” yesterday. It’s terrible song, and I’ve always hated it, but the band’s name now seems particularly unpleasant IMO.

[Inland]

1. They have no idea how many have died.

They won't know until people are missed, a search is done, the search is completed.

It'll take months.

It'll take months for find the families of children isolated by Katrina. It'll certainly take months to figure out the families or children are gone.

[Orrex]

2. That's kind of my point

I keep hearing headlines like "Katrina's Death Toll Far Lower Than Feared," as if they have a comprehensive grasp of the destruction.

If they'd simply report the facts (pretty much exactly as your post spelled them out) the news media would provide a much greater service for the public.

[electropop]

3. Thanks for ruining my favorite song for me...

by associating the band with catastrophe. Nicely done though. ;-)

[rkc3]

4. Sending tens of thousands of people around the country

certainly helps to cause enough confusion to ever really get true numbers.

How will some family members ever know that others in their family are dead or missing? If you get shipped to Des Moines and don't where your mother is and have no access to a good database of evacuees, how will you ever know if your mother is dead or alive?

You won't, and that's how you can hide bodies.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Actually, dispersal will fuel conspiracy theorists.

But solid database work will sort it out, not all of it, but enough of it to get a reasonably good picture. Every dead person was a person and therefore has a name and records.

[rkc3]

6. You are correct, good database work will solve these problems.

I'm just not sure if everyone was processed before they got on busses or that the people on the margins of society were on some sort of database - if they are dead or missing now, this might not be known for months to come. Some may be missing on purpose as well.

But I can see how conspiracy theorists would be thrilled by this prospect.

For the record, I didn't realize I didn't have my tinfoil hat this morning. It was a long three day weekend and I may have lost it.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Good points, but when people are missing, people notice.

Who is organizing the databases?

Doesn't matter if people were "processed" before getting on busses. If there is a well-publicized list of names and addresses and old phone numbers, etc., people who haven't heard from old friends will start adding to the list and helping fill it out, or will balance entries with new addresses and phone numbers, etc.

The principle of the database is that once a name is on it is marked "missing" or "found", but not removed.

Look at it this way: activists will want to make the list as inclusive as possible. The government will want to make the list as "found" as possible. Between the two interests, the database will become quite an accurate record.

[NV Whino]

7. They'll figure it out when

8,000 or so people don't file income tax reports.

I think it's really short sighted of the repugnants to fail to rescue these people. After all they are the ones who pay income tax and support the rich.

[Corgigal]

8. still being reported that 2000 kids

are still missing family members. Seems like a long time for each other to be found at this point.

Methinks..someone is lying.

[SouthernDem2004]

10. Actually they are pockets of death.

The deaths happened in residential areas that were hit by storm surge. In Biloxi we had three areas that had alot of deaths. Unfortunatley I lived in one of those areas.

We have massive destruction in Biloxi but alot of the areas hit were not residential or had been evacuated.

[Orrex]

11. That's good news and bad...

I'm sorry to hear that you were so directly touched by the disaster.

But I'm relieved to hear that further death and destruction appears to have been prevented!

Thanks for the information.