Let Them Count the Dead Their Way

The following has caused quite a bit of consternation in the dKos community since it appeared on the Times Picayune's website two days ago:

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.

We expect the government to try to conceal the death toll. It's a well-known tactic of despots, from the Soviet Union to El Mozote.

Otis704 pointed out yesterday that the standard applied for a "hurricane related" death when Andrew struck Lousiana in 1992 was straight from the CDC:

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.

Either Harry Lee didn't get the memo, or Bushco is trying to apply a different standard here. As Els pointed out in her brilliant diary yesterday, the standard for Katrina is going to be quite different:

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.

Which is how, with 152 bodies to deal with, Jefferson Parish finds that only 20 deaths were hurricane-related.

So what did the other 132 die of? Most likely the deaths resulted from:

• "medical equipment that became inoperable" after the hurricane
  
• lack of insulin and other medication
  
• hyperthermia (heat)
  
• dehydration
  
• electrocution
  
• other accidents
  
• suicide
  
• homicide
  
• cardiac arrest
  
• shock
  
• water-borne diseases, including dysentery, cholera, and infected wounds
  
• poisoning
  
• snake-bite
  
• alligator or other animal attack

And other awful stuff that I'd really rather not think about just now but the point here is, the other 132 deaths were caused by human error in the aftermath of the hurricane.

So let's let Bushco define hurricane-related deaths their way. Once they've separated out the deaths directly resulting from the hurricane, we'll know exactly how many times more people (it looks like 660%, based on the sample above) were killed by the sheer incompetence of George W. Bush and his appointees.

 

•  Good point

  With the caveat that WE have to keep tabs on how many dead bodies there actually are.

  They're going to pull a "532" thing here.  Just as they artificially stopped the Florida recount with Bush at a false, but believeably small, lead and used that fact to support Bush's claim to the Presidency, they're going to limit the number of deaths to something small and tame and say, "See how badly the liberal naysayers overestimated?"  We need to have a number of dead immediately available to counter their big, media-saturated press release.

  by ChicagoDem on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 04:47:08 PM PDT

•  1.5 million residents

  How many people in this area die during a normal week?  Old age, disease, murder, suicide, car accidents etc?  People dont stop dieing of aids, cancer and old age just because a hurricane happens.

  by lachisula on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 04:49:41 PM PDT

  •  But don't forget most were evacuated

    Presumably most such "expected" deaths occurred elsewhere, not where the hurricane hit.   So you aren't asking the right question -- the population left in the zone was not 1.5 million.

    by indybend on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 04:54:00 PM PDT

  •  Normal death rates

    Some rough numbers: Life expectancy in the US is approximately 75 years. With a population of ~300 million, that's 4 million deaths every year, or about 10,000 people a day. In other words, in a normal day, one person out of every 30,000 will die.

    For a 1.5 million person population, we would expect about 50 deaths per day, or about 350 over the course of a week.

    All numbers rounded off to convenient values because I'm too lazy to fire up a calculator.

    -dms

    by dmsilev on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 05:19:28 PM PDT

•  As I've posted elsewhere here...

  Early casualty esimates are always chancy. On 9/11, we were told that as many as 800 were killed at the Pentagon, when it was "only" about 200.

  I'm willing to accept that fewer than 10,000 died in New Orleans, but there are parishes in LA and sections of MS and AL still unaccounted for. Put all these areas together, and the overall death toll will still be huge.

  by zkg on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 04:56:27 PM PDT

  •  Places like Plaquemines Parish

    that are right on the Gulf.  Or homes along the Mississippi river. If people didn't evacuate from those areas I would imagine they would have been swept out to sea.  There may be hundreds that can't be accounted for - because their bodies are gone.

    by Anna M on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 06:56:46 PM PDT

•  if the bodies don't disappear

  of course, that's assuming that all the bodies actually get treated properly, not dumped in a hole somewhere like that funeralgate guy did.

  oh wait - guess who's been contracted for the mortuary work?

  (more)

  by zeke L on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 05:02:04 PM PDT

•  hi, Sen-si

  i think that the heavy handed totalitarian angle might not be the subtext, but rather that the insurance claims might be the reasoning behind the cause of death discrepancies.  just like  the wind v. the flooding needs separation so that the insurance co's won't have to pay, the cause of death will be the difference between big money and BIG money.  just MHO, but after watching two shows(60 mins. and cnn's 911 show) on the lawyer who administered money to victims families of the trade towers, i can see how these valuation issues are tantamount to their(ins. co's) cause.  
  

  by stagemom on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 05:35:20 PM PDT

  •  Hm. I hadn't thought of that.

    In that case, they really ought not to be allowed to get away with an other-than-established formula for calling a death hurricane-related.

    by SensibleShoes on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 05:48:32 PM PDT

    •  have you seen

      the constant gardener yet?  

      by stagemom on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 06:05:17 PM PDT

      •  Eh?

        No...?

        by SensibleShoes on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 06:05:51 PM PDT

        •  movie about aids medicine

          and human testing...big pharma and big insurance in cahoots, keeping poor sick africans down...
          sorry for the tangential thinking, but my cynicism always takes me to the money trail.  

          by stagemom on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 06:08:28 PM PDT