Katrina deathtoll rockets to 1417

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein at 11:47 AM on January 26, 2006.

Independent journalist and blogger Robert Lindsay has been painstakingly adding up the death toll from Hurricane Katrina:

The death toll from Hurricane Katrina climbed sharply on January 24, with the addition of 25 new deaths to the count, 23 in Louisiana and two in Mississippi, according to several news articles published on that date in the The New Orleans Times-Picayune (two articles), The Birmingham News, The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Louisiana Weekly and The Insurance Journal.

That puts the new death toll over the 1,400 mark for the first time, at 1,417, up from 1,392 on January 17, a week before. Although this increase is quite dramatic and unexpected at this late date, and the size and timing of the increase arouses suspicion, we will consider that seven references in six major US papers will be enough to validate the increase, until we hear otherwise.

Over 3200 people are still missing after the storm.

[Robert Lindsay]

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.