Hurricane Katrina deathtoll

[sunflower68]

Can it be true, as the Times says, that the official current toll of dead from the hurricane is 322?  I felt some relief upon reading this; then I realised what a huge number it still is. It's all down to scale I guess.

[Peri]

I'm not too sure sunflower but I think they have only begun the count and bringing in the bodies.  That could be a count to date - although they did say it might not be as bad as the mayor originally thought. 

[Grunty]

Usually the count is of the bodies that have been recovered and identified by the families etc.  That would be the 322, even though there must be thousands of bodies waiting to be dealt with.

[fishbait]

I think they have 25,000 body bags ready, sorry to say. its a coast line of about 200miles that has been affected from alabama to texas. god bless them all.

[january_bug]

Ditto what fishbait said... the number will be at LEAST 10, if not 100 times higher than that sadly.  I'm sure we've all seen the awful images on the news of bodies just lying in the street.  Such a tragedy. 

[surfer mike]

The times is jumping the gun it will be weeks before we know the final death toll...

BTW, the press and media in general always initially and just for cynical shock value exagarate the victim numbers, in every disaster.. on sept 11 they at first said the toll was 12.000 dead one paper the daily mail said 20.000, and then when the final numbers are revealed they [the media ] have the audacity to blame the governments for giving out wrong information or scare mongering, when in truth the best policy would be to skip with their obsession about numbers...it can be done..

[jenstar]

fishbait - "God bless them all"? Even if there was a God, it would be a bit late for that now.

[january_bug]

I don't think it is too late to say "god bless them all".  For starters, I'm sure fishbait was referring to ALL the people affected by Katrina, not just those already dead.  And the survivors definitely need the blessing of someone, whether a religious deity or someone else... they need help, hope and prayers. 

As for the dead... well people have religious funerals because they hope that the souls of the people who died will be blessed by god and allowed to enter heaven... I don't see the harm or the pointlessness in that.  I'm not even religious, but I really do see where fishbait was coming from, and I don't see that it was anything to be knocked really. 

[friskysman]

I think the media jumped the gun BIG TIME with the thousands-of-dead predictions. Some people even saying 10,000??!?! Ridiculous. I do not think the number will even come close to breaking 1000. Still most definitely a massive tragedy, but not on the scale that people have been assuming.

[Ghost]

Is Everyone Asleep??? I Think The Important Question Here Is Why We Haven't Been Presented With A Legitimate Deathtoll... I Mean, It's Been 6 Weeks... Are We Just Going To Sit By And Accept This...Do The Lost Lives In New Orleans Mean Nothing...???