CNN just announced Katrina death toll tops 1000

[shadowknows69]

No mention at all about any number of missing. Guess we found everyone including those 4000 children CNN was highlighting two weeks ago? What kind of wthically challenged news organization doesn't report missing numbers.

[jobycom]

1. No one knows the missing numbers

Those children (2000 was the highest estimate I saw) weren't all missing, many of them were in other shelters. Most have been matched up with their families since then. No one knows the actual missing from New Orleans because of how far the evacuees were scattered.

The number of missing is always higher than the casualty rate. Harrison County, MS, for instance, had over 1000 missing at one point, but after research eliminated duplicate names, the number dropped to just below 700. After further research, all but about 100 of those cases were solved. Most were simply found, only some were dead.

After these type events people try to find relatives and friends by calling local officials. A lot of these people are classified as missing. They may not even know they are missing, and never report they were found. I had a friend from Waveland who evacuated at the last minute to a friend's house further inland. Her house was flooded by at least 25 foot of water, and the house she evacuated to had all power and phones knocked out. My mother finally reached her on her cell phone (once a couple of towers were rebuilt) several days later, but she still couldn't reach her relatives in Louisiana, because their phones were out, too. A week after the storm, we took this friend to her house, which was a horrible mess in an area completely destroyed and abandoned, and while there, her sister-in-law showed up. The SIL lived in Baton Rouge, and had driven over when she couldn't get her on the phone. She had driven to the house several times, but no one was there. This time, coincidentally, someone was. We found out that her son, in jail, had reported her missing and her brother had also reported her missing. So she was at least one of the missing persons, assuming she was put on the list.

There are hundreds of cases like that. It was sheer chaos for a while. People evacuated when they saw how bad it was going to be, without telling relatives where they went. Afterwards, it was impossible to get in touch with anyone and very hard to get back down there.

New Orleans was much worse. I doubt they have any idea how many people are missing, and CNN probably stopped reporting the numbers because people were assuming the worst about the numbers.

[FrankX]

2. Thank you for a logical explanation, and I hope the numbers to be lower

than predicted.