A month after one of the largest natural disasters in the history of the United States, the death toll from Hurricane Katrina continues to rise with more than 1,132 bodies found.
At least 885 in Louisiana died during the Aug. 29 storm and in its aftermath. Another 220 died in Mississippi, 14 in Florida and two in Alabama.
Many of the bodies haven’t been identified yet. Just over 30 have been released to family members in Louisiana.
Associate professor of geosciences Mike Brown said the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina and the angle at which it hit the Gulf Coast caused it to be extremely destructive.
“It was a strong Category 4. It was pretty large in size. The angle it hit the coast produced a great surge, which happened to make it more deadly,” Brown said.
Troy Blanchard, professor of sociology, anthropology and social work, said the large number of deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina is related to the evacuation of a very large number of people in a short period of time.
“One of the key issues that may have been overlooked in this instance is that some residents simply do not have either the physical or financial capacity to evacuate. In these types of emergencies, all residents should have an opportunity to evacuate dangerous situations,” Blanchard said.
“However, we have yet to know what share of Katrina deaths are due to this particular issue,” he added.
More planning needs to go into what to do in the case of a disaster like Katrina, he said.
“The only way to prevent deaths from natural disasters is to force residents to evacuate. This is not easy to do because some residents will opt to ride out the storm because they have survived severe hurricanes in the past,” he said.
“For those lacking the means to evacuate, emergency planners need to establish alternative means of transportation. Impoverished residents and those with mobility limitations need to be able to trust that governmental and volunteer emergency agencies can provide a way out of life-threatening situations,” he added.
Early estimates of the deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina ran as high as 10,000, but there is now hope that those numbers were highly overestimated.
Hurricane Rita, which hit last week near the border between Louisiana and Texas, claimed the lives of over 100 individuals in Texas.