Why are the body counts still so low?

[Helga Scow Stern]

Are they seriously counting yet? This is very disconcerting, given the dishonesty of the Bush administration and their attempted ban of the media from this counting.

Hmmm. Where have we heard this before????

[melody]

1. They are lying

GOP SOP

[valerief]

2. Secrecy to diminish loss

Dogs, alligators, clogged body parts in drain pipes.

[yourout]

3. Can you say coverup?

[DoBotherMe]

4. I'm guessing that estimated casualty numbers from

the Pam-simulation will probably be met ... 60,000 deaths.

[billbuckhead]

6. It means something important that in 9-11 they exaggerated the body count

and in these hurricanes they coverup the body count. We need to count every body possible, as accurately as possible, it's as important as counting votes.

[Princess Turandot]

21. After the first few days, the 9-11 death estimates started dropping..

because there was a better coordinated effort taking reports. For example, there were huge numbers of foreign tourists reported as possible victims, because their family just knew they were in NYC that day and could not reach them. I recall at one point there were 100's of tourists being reported missing by foreign embassies, all of whom came off the missing list. There were abt 50,000 people working in the WTC buildings, so frankly, until reporting was centralized, there was no way of coming close to a number and high estimates were totally understandable. The most important thing in the end was that casualties were much lower than the higher estimates.

The actual official list vs press estimates was comprised of recovered bodies as well as people whose circumstances made it extremely likely that they were at the WTC on 9-11. (There are still more than a 1,000 individual DNA remains which were never matched up with submitted DNA.) And it started at the number 1, just as they are doing in NO.

One plane hitting at 8:45AM and choosing an attack date on a primary day in NYC which caused people to get to work later than usual, no doubt saved 1,000's of lives.

[Deus Irae]

5. I'm not sure

But we should be happy about it... unfortunately it's sure to increase

[Helga Scow Stern]

7. I understand that it would be good if they really were lower,

I am just trying to discern the truth.

We all are starving for the truth!

[cornermouse]

10. CNN was just speculating about a lower death number than expected.

:eyes:

[Deus Irae]

12. I'd like to find out the truth, too.

But I haven't seen anything convincing of a gov't coverup. I believe it would be harder to do than you guys think. It would also be administration suicide if it were to be found out, and I think the chances of that would be high. They might be stupid, but I don't think theyre that stupid.

[electron_blue]

8. They're using Diebold machines to count the bodies

Sorry, I couldn't stop myself.

Seriously, I hope the total count is very low. I am very suspicious that this low body count is coinciding with the military's banning press from viewing the cleanup.

Just looks s'picious to me.

[tom_paine]

9. They are being suppressed

Just the when the Nazis said "about only 3,300 prisoners have died in our Relocation Camps"

Well, different magnitude of lie, but still the same kind of lie.

[Inland]

11. Because nobody knows where anyone is, so anyone could be alive still

There will be bodies counted, but in truth there isn't going to be a count until families and friends realize that a person isn't in any of the centers and can't be found.

It'll take months to get a count.

[lynne]

13. You sound disappointed -

- I would think that the Mayor has made a mistake in his estimation. Given that many people evacuated, he had no idea of how many were in town when the flooding began nor did he have any true way to estimate how many died. I've thought all along that the threw us a high figure so that anything less would look like "gravy".

One would think the correct response would to be happy that fewer are thought dead than anticipated.

[Deus Irae]

14. I agree with you lynne.

It seems like some people here would be happier to find out about a Bush administration coverup, than to find out that not as many people are dead as some expected.

[renie408]

17. I think it is less disappointed and more skeptical.

I don't want there to be a large number of dead. But I absolutely do not trust this administration, so when I have been watching what I have been watching for the past 11 days and the government tells me that there are 300 something people dead...I am skeptical. I am afraid that they will just bald faced lie.

No, I, personally, am not disappointed. I am concerned and skeptical.

[windbreeze]

20. I know I heard on the news, that 40

bodies were found in a freezer in the convention center..and that as people died in the dome, they were stacking them on the second level...and we have 300 dead?

I don't think anyone wants there to be a large number of people who have lost their lives...or is cheering for it to be true...but something has stunk(forgive the pun) about this whole situation, right from the start.....and what also stinks is the way these people are being removed from LA altogether and spread all over the states...a hundred here, a thousand there...doesn't that make for confusion when counting bodies that are or aren't alive, and make coming to a conclusion as to how many were actually lost, next to impossible? uh huh...impossible to figure out...next question...evacuees being scattered to the four winds, on purpose to keep it confused?...

Everyone needs to consider the outrage there has been so far, over the way this was handled...what do you think would happen, if, as the computer program they ran, figured out, that upwards of 62,000 would be lost, turned out to be true...??? Do you think the powers that be, haven't taken that into consideration?
windbreeze

[kbm8795]

15. I think they want to diminish the count

because they can use it to try to cushion criticism of the death loss from their non-reaction for most of last week.

It's despicable, but then - what's new?

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. Because most of the people did get out

and an amazing number of the ones who stayed managed to survive.

It blows me away to see people who have been stranded for over a week coming out looking not much worse for the wear and tear. Most of them looked a lot better then the folks at the super dome.

[Verve]

18. Maybe it's because the local and state officials DID do their job well

by evacuating around 80% of a large city. Think of how incredible that is to get that many people out in such a short amount of time. For Bush & Co. to spin this as a failure is despicable.

[niyad]

19. they still haven't drained all the water out, for one thing. other thing

I have been wondering is how many bodies might have gotten sucked into the gulf, etc. and who knows how many bodies are in the debris?
seriously, I hope the predictions of a high casualty rate are wrong, but if the admin is saying it, with the news blackout on covering the recovery of bodies, I don't trust them at all.

[texpatriot2004]

22. No way those numbers are true. n/t