I have had my suspicions that the death count would be kept down all along. Several things that I have read in the Times Picayune have done little to allay my fears. This from today’s… http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/
“Although body-recovery operations were still under way, the death toll represents the number of bodies that have been counted where the deaths were a result of Katrina’s winds, rains or floodwaters, or those who died as a result of medical equipment that became inoperable during the hurricane.”
So it seems that those that starved or dehydrated in their attics will not be counted. Those who starved or dehydrated in the convention center or Superdome will not be counted. Those that died at the airport from prior lack of medical care will not be counted. Those in the hospital who didn’t receive the medical care, that they needed and died on the loading dock awaiting rescue will not be counted, unless it was because of medical equipment failure.
* otis704’s diary :: ::
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Then there was this from Fridays…TP http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09_10.ht
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“Sheriff Harry Lee said Saturday night that the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s office had processed 152 bodies, but only 20 of those were deaths related to Hurricane Katrina. He said the coroner’s office was picking up bodies that are reported lying in the street and handling them to FEMA’s specifications. He also said that body count does not include bodies that may have been taken to the morgue in St. Gabriel. “
So let me get this right 152 people died, but only 20 of those were determined Katrina related? So 132 people just happened to die of natural causes during Katrina. I think this is right weird in a parish this size and surely is not the normal rate of death.
Will the media bother to report on this or even investigate it? I certainly hope so. The least that these poor souls deserve from this government is to be counted as the victims of” Katrina that they are.
The hurricane did not hit NO directly, so most of the people in the city who died over the last couple of weeks perished from natural causes of thirst, dehydration and subsequent renal failure,heat stroke, water-borne disease, self-induced drowning secondary to failure to amass sufficient resources to evacuate, and constituting an obstacle to wealth builders.
It seems though that they are changing it for this one. This was how they determined Andrew in 1992: “A hurricane-related fatal or nonfatal injury/illness was defined as one that occurred from 12 noon August 24 through 12 midnight September 21 that resulted from the preparation for, impact of, or clean-up after the hurricane and required treatment in a hospital ER or caused death.” http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00020139.htm
Excellent point. Apparently we need to create a new category for deaths by criminal negligence, and add those to the total.
This cannot be allowed. What can be done to make this right? I said earlier in the week that this would happen. How do we get someone in there(media?) to tell the truth? How about those that were evacuated and die from disease caused by the neglect a month, a year, ten years from now? Isn’t this what they are also doing with the death numbers in Iraq? I may be wrong but it is my understanding that if they do not die on the battlefield in Iraq but die say in a German hospital they are not counted. How about the vets that commit suicide because they cannot cope with what they were forced to do over there?
Even DRUDGE is asking that question. in a My Way News article, they state 97 dead.