General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This message was self-deleted by its author [View all]magical thyme
(14,881 posts)are people who died during the storm, not due to being left to die. And as others have pointed out, the death count is rising as bodies of the missing are found.
We already have seen first hand accounts of survivors who waited until the height of the storm to try to evacuate. There is no telling how many people didn't evacuate until their homes were flooding or burning, and winds were 90mph. Some of those will have made it; many will not have made it out.
And yes, fires are a foreseeable problem in a storm. Along with the usual risks, lack of electricity means people burning candles, downed power lines and transformers exploding means sparks being thrown, power surges can start electrical fires, and so on. With fire trucks unable to get through the flooding, you are shit out of luck. And if your house is in a tightly spaced group, then the odds of your house burning down go up substantially.
This was not Katrina; poverty and lack of shelter to evac to was not an issue or legitimate reason.