Mississippi death toll could reach hundreds, officials say today

[sabra]

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050905/NEWS0110/50905015/1260

Mississippi death toll could reach hundreds, officials say today

The death toll on the Mississippi Gulf Coast could reach into the hundreds, authorities acknowledged today as refrigerated trucks serve as makeshift morgues.

As many as 300 may be dead in Bay St. Louis and 500 in Pass Christian, two towns devastated by Hurricane Katrina, former state Supreme Court Justice Chuck McRae said today.

McRae has spent recent days driving gasoline from Jackson to the Coast to take friends who are running generators for power. "Down there, gas is liquid gold," he said.

...

"It looks worse than a war zone," he said. "There's not the first house standing. They're all flat."