Hurricane katrina how many people died

Three months after that, in August , Louisiana counted 1, victims , with people still missing. Today, when asked about the Louisiana death total, the health department cites a study that reviewed death certificates and concluded that there were victims. But that study said the total could be nearly 50 percent higher if deaths possibly linked to the storm were included. Among federal agencies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been the primary one focused on determining how many people died because of Katrina regionwide.

It reported 1, deaths in but has continually revised the number downward, to 1, at last count. Yet the 1, number has made it into news articles and the congressional record in the past month. John Mutter, a geophysicist at Columbia University, was more familiar with earthquakes than hurricanes before Katrina.

After the levees failed and the official death counts kept rising, Mutter began looking into it. Mutter was interested in what standards existed for counting how many people were killed by a hurricane.

Standards are extremely important for the grim task of counting the dead. They settle questions with no obvious right answer — for example, whether to include deaths that occurred immediately before a storm hit such as someone who died in a fall while cutting down tree branches to mitigate anticipated damage. What are known as indirect deaths are the most confounding to the count.

Direct deaths are those that occur from drowning or an injury sustained during the storm or post-storm flooding, while indirect deaths occur from some other cause that might be linked to the storm, such as an inability to access medical care to treat an illness. After Katrina, government counters in Louisiana chose to include indirect deaths based on an arbitrary time cutoff — people who were evacuated from New Orleans and died after Oct.

The authors of the study that counted Louisiana deaths took a different approach, counting only deaths that could be directly attributed to the storm.

NOAA, meanwhile, has reviewed death reports and removed indirect deaths from its count, a major reason that its total went down. Most of the storms are listed by where they made landfall because they occurred before hurricanes were named.

Neither does the U. Mutter decided to try to improve on the existing counts for Katrina, seeking to include indirect deaths that had never before been linked to the storm. Some of the responses were helpful.

Mutter is sure the true death toll is higher than the official figures. Another effort arrived at a total of more than 4, with a method that researchers use to estimate civilian deaths in conflict zones. Mutter ran out of funding in , and his work largely stopped then. But people still send him new names for his count, especially around the time of year that Katrina struck.

The database — which includes all events since colonial times in which 10 or more people died — was compiled by Wayne Blanchard, a retired manager of emergency management instruction at FEMA. The findings — estimates of the total number of deaths for Katrina and the other storms, broken down by direct and indirect causes — are expected to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. The project has taken an emotional toll on the NOAA employees who have been involved.

Reviewing death records is very different from forecasting storms. Other federal agencies treat the keeping of official death counts as a core job, done by specialists, rather than the side project of people who are trained for other work.

The U. Katrina flooded New Orleans less than four years after the Sept. The death toll of victims from that day — 2, — is well-documented. The names of the victims are inscribed in bronze at a New York City memorial. C, the draw and effect of thousands of names can be powerful. Mutter thinks deaths stemming from disasters deserve the same respect as those caused by terrorism or war.

After levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans failed, much of the city was underwater. Hide Caption. A helicopter rescues a family from a rooftop on September 1, Floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina stranded thousands of New Orleans residents. Evacuees crowd the floor of the Astrodome in Houston on September 2, The facility housed 15, refugees who fled the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.

A neighborhood east of downtown New Orleans remains flooded on August 30, A woman gets carried out of floodwaters after being trapped in her home in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, on August 30, Police watch over prisoners from Orleans Parish Prison who were evacuated to a highway on September 1, Daryl Thompson and his daughter Dejanae, 3 months old, wait with other displaced residents on a highway to catch a ride out of New Orleans on August 31, Thousands were looking for a place to go after leaving the Superdome shelter.

Residents of Saucier, Mississippi, line up to get gas on August 31, Hanging from her roof, a woman waits to be rescued by New Orleans Fire Department workers on August 29, People seek high ground on Interstate 90 as a helicopter prepares to land at the Superdome in New Orleans on August 31, A woman cries after returning to her house and business, destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, on August 30, , in Biloxi, Mississippi. People search for their belongings among debris washed up on the beach in Biloxi on August 30, People try to get to higher ground as water rises on August 30, , in New Orleans.

People wade through high water in front of the Superdome in New Orleans on August 30, President George W. August 29, Katrina makes landfall near Grand Isle, Louisiana as a Category 3 storm with winds near mph. Wind and water damage to the roof created unsafe conditions, leading authorities to conduct emergency evacuations of the Superdome.

Fatalities directly or indirectly. Read More. Nearly half the fatalities in Louisiana were people over the age of Private Insurance Payments. Insurance Information Institute Report.