katrina (louisiana only) death toll update

[pitohui]

i said i'd link the update when it was posted, grab it now if you want it, for whatever reason i find nola.com doesn't leave these updates up too long

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1133507272162130.xml

Of the bodies released to families, 49 percent are African-American and 47 percent are white, according to the health department. The numbers of male and female corpses are about equal.

New Orleans had the greatest loss; 344 of the bodies reunited with their families were from Orleans Parish, followed by St. Bernard, a distant second with 86 bodies.

considering new orleans is close to 70 percent black, this disaster didn't seem to discriminate by race, both black and white were affected, the meme that this is a disaster that selectively killed poor blacks is incorrect, where the disaster did discriminate is that it seemed to take the highest toll among our elderly, however, the age breakdown was not provided in this news release, it has been provided in some others & doubtless will be provided again in the future, i'll watch for it

keep in mind those who were evacuated out of state and died later of their injuries or exposure would not be included in this count, hence, the 70-plus evacuees from orleans who died in houston, texas are not included in the louisiana death toll

nor is the death toll included from mississippi


this is louisiana death toll only of victims who died of their injuries or exposure in louisiana

around 50 evacuees later died of their injuries in baton rouge, i am not clear if they are included in the count

i do know the three people i knew personally who were killed are not yet added to the toll, all three have been laid to rest for some time now so i doubt they are going to be added, one died in evacuation and i believe no deaths in evacuation process are being counted as katrina deaths, fair enough, but the other two drowned so they really should have been counted and not put down as dead of old age!

so, yeah, the toll is an undercount because all deaths are simply not being attributed to the storm but to other causes but it's the best statistics we have right now

not that anyone needs my editorial comment but i hate to see race pitted against race in this disaster, truth is, there was terrible harm to all & we need to be working together now, ok, sermon over

[sam sarrha]

1. is there going to be a search of area down from the pumps in the lake.??

i am sure a significant percentage of the bodies were just pumped out with the water.

[pitohui]

8. i don't think anyone is searching now

i think now it is more what people are finding by chance, like the 3 bodies recently found in st. bernard parish

the state is completely broke

if anyone knows of continued search efforts, please correct me

[jobycom]

9. I thought the pumps had filters, and were of too narrow a bore? nt

[uppityperson]

2. Was that nursing home in Orleans Parish?

They could identify them, so counted them quickly. Just wondering which parish. Thanks for the numbers. I'd like to see an age breakdown also. Sorry for your losses.

[rox63]

3. I think that was in St. Bernard Parish n/t

[uppityperson]

5. Thanks, I thought it was over the boundary line, not sure.

insert rant here on the whole thing.
peace

[pitohui]

7. st. rita's nursing home was in st. bernard parish

they found over 30 bodies there, i believe they just recently found another body that had floated out of the home, 36 or so in total, i don't have the number at my fingertips tho

there were some other dead in other nursing homes, because power was lost to the entire area and even back-up generators failed due to flooding, windows blown out, etc. there were others who died because their life support failed or various reasons

the cause of many of these deaths is still being investigated

in some cases older people were removed from the earlier copies of the list because it was concluded that they would have died anyway, storm or no storm

i wouldn't have the information or medical knowledge to second guess those decisions but i think they removed abt 20 names from an earlier list of orleans and st. bernard dead, which doesn't sound too outrageous

jefferson parish by contrast removed a great many names, dozens, so the undercount is a little more blatant there, however, that's jeff parish for you, i expect nothing different from them, she sniffed

[BJW]

4. Thx for this

keep Katrina issues kicked and recc'd!

[BJW]

6. P.S. Animal death toll estimated over 100K

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x176750

Rescue efforts for the animals left behind are STILL ongoing for the animals and people are STILL needed to help out in NOLA.

LA kicked out the big animal rescue groups last month because the crisis was deemed "over" but it's not over, not at all.

[pitohui]

10. i am not seeing the wandering animals now

the most striking thing is the complete absence of life, even bird life, over a widespread area

the quaker parakeets saved themselves, my friend saw them swarming in his built-up yard the day before he left ahead of the storm, and they are still around uptown, which is protected by traditional levees along the mississippi, we've seen them alright since the storm tho they seem scattered w.out their trees, there are also huge numbers of wild ducks (black-bellied whistling ducks), white ibis, and egrets that have moved onto the audubon zoo property

however in lakeview, gentilly, new orleans east, it's scary dead

there is a talk of an attempt at a christmas bird count to see how the wild birds fared but my anecdotal observations is that numbers of smaller birds like the warblers and hummingbirds are way down

[BJW]

11. how terribly sad...the article I linked to did say

that the dogs and cats that escaped their homes are mostly coming out at night, which is when they can most effectively catch them, and that many of these animals are behaving like they've been severely psychically/emotionally traumatized.