Body Counts

279 so far. Considering the intensity of the storm, and the basic defenselessness of city residents that's pretty remarkable.

As for the 10,000 figure, it won't excuse the media that it came from Mayor Nagin. It was obviouly pulled out of the air, but the media repeated it over and over and referred to it in opinion pieces heaping blame on Bush. The MSM plays so loosely with the truth, that anything it reports ought to be taken as tentative at best. And they criticize military estimates!

It wasn't until yesterday that I heard a report about people who were killed by the storm. You always have a certain number of fatalities from any natural extremity, because there is always a certain percent of the population who are sick and die merely from added stress. Yesterday, however, 45 elderly patients were found dead in a medical facility which was under water. These people weren't holdouts. The couldn't get out, and the staff were unable to attract the notice of rescue helicopters flying through the city. Again, this is a result of the city's unpreparedness for the ever present possibility that its powere and levees could fail in a hurricane.