The NOLA body count is under 200?

[dalaigh lllama]

My husband just saw a streamer on CNN that said death toll in NO was about 160.
The past two weeks we're hearing about bodies in the convention center, the superdome, the hospitals, the nursing homes; we're seeing bodies floating down all the streets...and they've got less than 200 casualties in New Orleans?
I read that the coroner stated they were only counting deaths caused by the hurricane in the toll... so are they only counting the bodies found in the tops of trees? Drowning doesn't count? Dehydration doesn't count? Gunshot wounds don't count?
Is "someone" (let me think, who could it be?) purposely keeping the numbers low to cover their sorry political ass?
I can't find much about this on the net -- does anyone else have some reliable sources on this?

[notadmblnd]

1. no way!

nt

[KyndCulture]

2. and the Iraq death toll is just under 2000, mmm hmmm.

bullshit as usual.

[Massacure]

15. The U.S. Iraq death count is just below 2000.

The only number game they are playing with that is not mentioning the wounded - More than 10,000 who have had their lives turned upside down.

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

3. I was wondering about that count, too. I SUSPECT that they don't count

until identified, which is a huge hurl. So, I think there are 160 ID'd bodies... and thousands not. :cry:

[TomInTib]

10. You are right....

There are a lot of qualifiers to be met before a "body" becomes part of the "count".
The day AFTER 100 were found in a warehouse and another 30+ were found in a nursing home the official "count" was 89.

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

16. I've heard interviews with Pathologists down there. The ID'ing is such a

monumentally different task than 9/11 or warzones or anything.

Unreal. And we'll never get a real count.

[Delphinus]

4. Someone on another thread

explained that they're only counting those who died from the wind of Katrina - not those who died from flooding, starvation, etc.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

5. Those murdered by Bush won't be counted

[benburch]

6. Seriously?

I'd be real happy if only 200 people died.

But REAL unhappy if they are fucking with the numbers to make Bush** look good.

[babylonsister]

7. How would they know the difference? That's an odd

speculation though I put nothing past this admin!

[Delphinus]

19. Here's the thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1771652&mesg_id=1772631

[babylonsister]

21. Thanks, Delphinus; I hadn't seen this. nt

[dalaigh lllama]

11. Do you know where they found the info on that? n/t

[Delphinus]

18. Here's the thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1771652&mesg_id=1772631

[dalaigh lllama]

24. Thanks, Delphinus. n/t

[Lost-in-FL]

8. What is the number of unaccounted people of NO

That might be a better way to account for the deaths. We do not know how many corpses were eaten by rats, gators or dogs (I know, sounds graphic. But somebody has to say it)

[crikkett]

9. spin spin spin

Rumplestiltzkin...

[rsmith6621]

13. Audit The Body Bags

I think that a commision should be formed to audit the unused body bags leftover after the recovery effort is done......if there is a large discrepency between the released count and bags then I think heads should roll.....after all a bag cost about $50.00 each.....

[geckosfeet]

12. Pray for low body count. This mess was bad enough. As much as

bush and his criminal cronies need to be taken down, the deaths of many innocents won't help. They can't speak. Its up to us.

[Clarkie1]

14. It's good news it doesn't seem to be as bad a death toll as feared.

I suspect it is more than 160, but let's hope it is not in the thousands.

[Inland]

17. They haven't even started counting.

Right now, it's rescue. They haven't been systematically collecting bodies.

Moreover, the only real count will be an inference from the number of people that haven't turned up somewhere. That means that first, we have to catalog each and every refugee, compare it to all the people living in the areas afflicted, look for persons unaccounted for...and give up.

It'll be months.

[riverwalker]

20. they mean death certificates

First they take GPS reading of where body was found, then autopsy, then fingerprints (which takes time, they have to inject saline etc), then take photographs, then DNA samples, then dental xrays, examine for tattoos, scars, type of clothing, anything to help identify, then a death certificate.
It's a slow, slow process.

[babylonsister]

22. Sadly, per an ME on KO, there won't be much

externally to identify (scars, tattoos, etc.) if these victims have been ignored for so long and left to the elements.

[lateo]

23. You can't have it both ways...either the Gov fucked up...

and no one evacuated NO as the wingnuts believe or the Gov evacuated everyone and there is a low body count.

[lindisfarne]

25. The rest underwent resurrection. n/t

[applegrove]

26. Good. n/t

[rfkrfk]

27. some corpses can't be reanimated as zombies

some have been dead too, or are otherwise unsuitable

these unsuitables, show up in the body count

[renie408]

28. Just got this from the New York Times..

>>"I don't know how fast things could have gone, but it's going well now," Mr. Berry said Saturday, adding that in the three days that the crews had been working at full strength they had recovered every body whose location had been provided by search and rescue teams.

In response to questions about the rate of recovery, Mr. Zuniga said that resources had first been directed toward rescuing the living and were only now being refocused on collecting the dead.

The slow pace of retrieval partly explains the relatively low death toll so far. As of Sunday, the number of confirmed deaths stood at 214 in Mississippi and 197 in Louisiana, although officials say it will be far higher when the final count is made.<<


They think it is going to be much less than the 10,000 than Nagin mentioned, but way more than the 200 they have now.