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 ...
Makes you wonder who "they" were, exactly, in each case.
I'm waiting for him to start calling it Hurricane KKKatrina....
You may be on to something there...
LOL! I think we've both been peaking in on DUh one too many times.
There's activity at the Port of New Orleans. The airport is scheduled to resume commercial flights in a week. Parts of town are high and dry. The levees have been plugged. The convention center and Superdome have been emptied. There have been a whopping four confirmed deaths due to toxic flood water -- no waves of cholera and typhoid sweeping the drowned city. Now the cleanup crews are finding a whole lotta nuthin', where we were told that bodies would be knee-deep after the water receded.
The media have never been immune to sensationalism, and I'm getting a sneaking suspicion we've been had. Yeah, it's bad. But it's not half as bad as we've been led to believe it is.
No Gnews is Good Gnews with the MSM.
LAO!
I had predicted 1250 a couple of days ago. Here's hoping I was too high.
They are. Life is cheap to these people, in spite of their phony tears. Besides, I suspect they would consider the dead to be "martyrs" to the cause if their deaths contribute to the "fall of the Bush regime".
You may be on to something there...
So how many bodies of people who recently died in nearby states have been moved into New Orleans to try to cash in?
"Many have already been reconnected."
Thank God -
I can't see any tourists running down to Orleans for at least four months. It'll be locals from Dallas and Houston that might drive down to spend a weekend at the French Quarter...but without major hotels in operation...this will be a odd-deal.
The odd thing here is that you can draw a circle around the flooded area, and alot of the city simply never was under water. The French Quarter never was. And its stupid to kick everyone out if your area is unaffected. And as for the bodies...at the end, we need to ask how many had bullet holes in them. There is a difference between dying of heat exhaustion at the Dome, drowning in the water while you were supposed to leave, and getting shot. And I'll bet the mayor doesn't want to discuss the guys who got shot (it is likely to be more than 20).
Is this Nagin ever right about anything?
This time I'm very thankful he is wrong.
Isn't it odd that people who stayed and didn't lose everything are being forced to leave and lose everything?
The French Quarter is fine. Rush he heard there are hotels down there that are good to go as soon as they get the electricity back on.
The same people who wanted to go to NY after it was hit to help them out. If they clean up the tourism areas and keep law and order the people will come.
"I'm starting to get the disturbing feeling that I've been duped by media hysteria. The stories dribbling out of New Orleans all indicate that the initial assessments were exaggerated in almost every instance -- length of time to halt the flooding, length of time to evacuate the refugees, time for the flood to recede, toxicity of the floodwater, disease, deaths ..."
I'm getting that same feeling---- how long it will take to get the town pumped out....how long til they can hold Mardi Gras...
Well, of course! And the Nat'l Guardsmen who drive the dumpsters to mass graves in the dead of night won't say a word either.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.