Monday, December 12, 2005

On Katrina's "Official" Death Toll

This artcle raises the question of whether the official death toll really reflects all the Katrina related deaths. Unknown numbers died in the aftermath of Katrina days or weeks later and in places all over the country. They most likely would still be alive had it not been for Katrina. Should they not be included in the death toll? Here is an example....

Clarise M. Horn, 56, died of a stroke in Fort Worth, Texas, where she was taken after five days in the Superdome, said daughter Joycelyn M. Brumfield. After Horn had a stroke six months ago, her daughter said, her doctors said another stroke would kill her.

"During the storm in the Superdome, she was already fragile," Brumfield said. "No medicine, dehydration — it was just awful."

Brumfield said her arm was wrenched from her mother's while buses were loaded at the Superdome. She and other family members wound up on a bus to Kansas City; her mother went to Texas. A day or two later, she learned her mother was dead.

No comments: