Katrina Death Toll Up to 1,373

Update: The unofficial Katrina death toll has risen to 4,098 as of March 13, 2007. See my March 30, 2007 post, Katrina Death Toll Passes 4,000, for details. A list of 1,195 people who were killed in Hurricane Katrina is available on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.

Updated February 7, 2008:

The unofficial death toll for Hurricane Katrina rose by 17 to 1,373 on Wednesday, November 9, with the addition of 17 more bodies in Louisiana. Louisiana continues to recover about 1-2 new bodies every day, which is rather amazing, actually. Although Louisiana officials are reportedly arguing about the official death toll in the state, the official figure is still 1,067, so we will use it in our toll.

Hurricane Katrina cost between $70-130 billion, making it the costliest tropical storm ever. 200,000 people have been left unemployed by Katrina.

The breakdown:

Louisiana:   Wed., November 9:   1,067
Mississippi: Wed., November 9:   228
Florida:     Wed., November 9:   14
Alabama:     Wed., November 9:   2
Georgia:     Wed., October 19:   2
Ohio1:       Fri., September 23: 2
Kentucky2:   Fri., September 23: 1
Evacuees3:   Tues. October 4:    57
Total:                           1,373

Footnoted totals are controversial. Explanations for controversial totals follows:

¹The Ohio victims are Cassondra Ground, 19, of Monroeville, Ohio and Thelma Niedzinski, 84, of Norwalk, Ohio. Both were killed in a car accident near Monroeville, Ohio on August 30, 2005. The Ohio State Highway Patrol felt that a wet road caused by Hurricane Katrina caused the car accident. See Ohioans Focus on Helping Katrina Victims, by Jay Cohen, Associated Press , August 31, 2005

²The Kentucky victim was Deanna Petsch, 10, of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. On August 29, 2005, she fell into a Hurricane Katrina-swollen ditch in Hopkinsville and drowned. See Storm Surge: State Gets Soaked, City Avoids Major Flooding, Homes, Life Lost in Hopkinsville , Sheldon S. Shafer and James Malone, The Louisville (Kentucky) Courier-Journal, August 31, 2005

³53 of the 57 hurricane evacuee deaths occurred in Texas after evacuating the storm; the total includes two suicides in Texas. Two more evacuees died in Tennessee. Two other evacuees died in an unknown location.

I consider all of these deaths to be storm-related, and it is my understanding that authorities felt they were hurricane-related also. The evacuees section is particularly controversial.

Critics have suggested that the evacuee death toll of 57 deaths is simply a normal death toll for the huge number of evacuees. Yet the figure of 57 dead is far lower than the number of evacuees who died after the storm - a very large number of evacuees died post-Katrina, but the vast majority of them are not included in this tally.

For example, this tally mostly includes evacuees in Texas, omitting the huge number of evacuees from Louisiana, for whom a dubious zero deaths are recorded. Furthermore, evacuees in very poor health or on the verge of death post-Katrina never even made it to Texas; they were evacuated to hospitals, often via airplane.

It is my understanding that officials consider the 57 deaths (mostly in Texas) that occurred very soon after the hurricane to be hurricane-related. Apparently most of the deaths were exacerbated by the stress of the hurricane. The two suicides in Texas have also been questioned.

However, they both occurred very rapidly after the storm and I understand that they are considered to be hurricane-related. There have been many more suicides post-Katrina that are not yet included in this tally.

This section needs further research. Critics with valid data helping to clarify the evacuee death toll are encouraged to email me at the email address at the top right of this page. See 57 Evacuees Reported Dead; At Least 2 Committed Suicide, Steve Quinn, Associated Press, September 15, 2005.

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