Posted on 09/09/2005 11:05:16 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Authorities said Friday that their first systematic sweep of the city found far fewer bodies than expected, suggesting that Hurricane Katrina's death toll may not be the catastrophic 10,000 feared.
"I think there's some encouragement in what we've found in the initial sweeps that some of the catastrophic deaths that some people predicted may not have occurred," said Terry Ebbert, New Orleans' homeland security chief.
Ebbert declined to give a new estimate of the dead.
Authorities turned their attention to counting and removing the dead in a grid-by-grid search of the city after spending days cajoling, persuading and all but strong-arming the living into leaving the shattered city because of the danger of fires and disease from the filthy, corpse-laden floodwaters.
"Numbers so far are relatively minor as compared to the dire projections of 10,000," Ebbert said.
Mayor Ray Nagin had suggested over the weekend that the death toll could climb that high, and authorities ordered 25,000 body bags as they started gathering up the dead across a landscape awash in corpses.
Separately, Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, commanding general of 82nd Airborne Division, said the last of the bodies at the convention center would be taken out on Friday. Thousands of people took shelter there after the hurricane for days with little or no food or water, in what became an increasingly chaotic and violent situation.
In a small sign of progress, authorities said the New Orleans airport will reopen to commercial flights on Sept. 19. Caldwell said water and power are functioning at the airport.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
>>In a small sign of progress, authorities said the New Orleans airport will reopen to commercial flights on Sept. 19<<
"Miss, is there something you're not telling us?"
"Yes, we're out of coffee."
>> In a small sign of progress, authorities said the New Orleans airport will reopen to commercial flights on Sept. 19. Caldwell said water and power are functioning at the airport. <<
Umm, come to think of it: I guess that means the evacuation is off?
OR
DIMS: "This has nothing to do with BUSH"
Hopefully it stays this way. I worry because the deepest parts have not been drained yet. Are those houses also part of the sweeps? Checking attics?
Still this is very good news indeed if it shows the trend.
...said the last of the bodies at the convention center would be taken out on Friday. ....
They are still there???????????????????????
I predict that total body count will be <1000
They were estimating 30,000 on 9/11.
Waiting for Major Owens to claim that 20,000 blacks were eaten by sharks in the Gulf after Katrina washed them away.
they sound disappointed.
I've been saying the same thing for days, less than 1,000. Even though the media isn't allowed (for now) to show the bodies, there would have been stories all over about the massive numbers of bodies. It's all BS, the higher the number, the more it tarnishes Bush and the GOP. How disgraceful!
I guess the condescending paternalistic scumbags over there believe that poor black people don't bother to notice when their relatives just disappear into thin air.
When they don't get a death certificate or collect on any insurance for their disappeared relatives, they'll just shrug and do nothing, unless some caring white liberal flies down from New England and explains the world to them.
No. They are kicking them out, right down to the old ladies that took the 'cane by the balls. The airport's just going to open for clown Nagin's good buddies to come in to split up the spoils.
What about the buildings still underwater?
I posted a week ago that I predict as many dead as one thousand, Not near what the incompetent Mayor predicts. Probably a few more in Mississippi and Alabama .
Michael Brown's fault!
And in a related story:
N.O Alligators demand immediate shipment of Alka-Seltzer.
>>
. . . the Bush Administration is just going to hide all the bodies.
<<
Dumb ole DUmmies! We all know Bush and Cheney love a hearty stew made from poor dead black people's bodies. They aren't hiding anything.
What?? No zombie stories to blame on Bush?
I sure hope this is true. There were still too many deaths at the Superdome.
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