Katrina's death toll is anybody's guess

[struggle4progress]

Wednesday, November 02, 2005
By Robert Travis Scott
Capital bureau
BATON ROUGE -- Hurricane Katrina stopped killing people Oct. 1.

That's the date state health officials have assigned as the cutoff for an official Katrina-related death for people who evacuated the New Orleans area because of the Aug. 29 hurricane and died in another city.

It is just one of many guesstimates in the state's hurricane death count, a number characterized by unknown and under-researched data, a high level of secrecy and a lack of communication between parish coroners, state health authorities and the public.

The state Department of Health and Hospitals as of Monday had "recovered" or received reports on 1,067 bodies. But because of gaps in the data, no one, not even at the agency, considers that an official death count. <snip>

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