Hurricane Katrina Death Toll Revised Upward- by 281 Friday to 1,577

[The Straight Story]

Hurricane Katrina Death Toll Revised Upward

POSTED: 4:59 pm CDT May 19, 2006

NEW ORLEANS -- Louisiana raised its Hurricane Katrina death toll by 281 Friday to 1,577 after including more out-of-state evacuees whose deaths were deemed related to the storm or its grueling aftermath.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals decided that if residents' deaths were hastened by the stress and trauma associated with relocating -- or even an accidental injury during travel -- those deaths should be counted in the toll.

"Katrina was a tragedy like no other, and the human toll of the tragedy extends further than our traditional definition of a storm-related death," said Dr. Louis Cataldie, medical incident commander for Louisiana.

Louisiana officials asked other states to classify evacuees' deaths as storm-related if they occurred between Aug. 27 -- two days before the storm hit -- and Oct. 1 and met several general requirements.

http://www.ksat.com/weather/9247291/detail.html

[MadMaddie]

1. It is sad but it is good that some are trying to get the numbers

accurate....we have no idea how many bodies washed out to shore....how many bodies Halliburton got hold of....and the list goes on....

[uppityperson]

2. NOLA link here

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1148020620117480.xml&coll=1
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2294956&mesg_id=2294956

The first stories of death came quickly and immediately: New Orleans area residents drowning in fetid floodwaters, succumbing in sweltering attics or being swept out to sea.

But state officials say that for weeks after it made landfall Aug. 29, Hurricane Katrina kept claiming Louisiana victims, often in more subtle fashion and often in other states: elderly and ill evacuees too fragile for grueling trips on gridlocked highways, infants stillborn to mothers who were shuttled to other cities when they should have been on bed rest and residents overcome with anxiety by 24-hour television broadcasts of the devastation back home.

Because of a continuing rise in reports of out-of-state deaths, Louisiana's official Katrina toll jumped 22 percent on Thursday, to 1,577 deaths, when the Department of Health and Hospitals added 281 more victims to the count. Texas alone accounted for 223 deaths of the increase. And the work is far from finished. Only 32 states, representing 480 deaths, have filed their reports with Louisiana officials.

State Medical Examiner Louis Cataldie said he and his staff are preparing to examine every case to determine whether each death was indeed storm-related. The work will be tedious, but the ultimate goal is to define the mortal scope of Katrina's tragedy.... (more @ link including "Almost half of the out-of-state deaths occurred in Texas.")