God I hope this is just an Internet rumor.

www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1473894/posts

It is with heavy heart I write this... I have finally reconnected with my best friend who is a paramedic who was sent from Georgia 2 days ago to Gulf Port, Mississippi before the hurricane hit. He just reached me within the last 10 mins via emergency cell phone to tell me he was alive. Thousands of bodies have been discovered throughout Mississippi in Gulf Port, Waveland,Hancock County,Bay of St.Louis. They are hanging in trees and they are pulling them out 30 at a time. Entire families found drowned in their homes and washing up on shore. The stories he could tell me were brief. National Guard is on the scene and arresting anyone seen on the streets. The numbers are staggering and what I have been told tonight will shake people to their foundation as the numbers will be coming out in the next 24-hours of just how many people have actually perished in these and 3 other beach communities. More to follow....

He spoke to me for all of 5-10 mins...named off the areas...said it is literally a war zone...like a bomb went off and killed everything in sight...the water came in nearly 2 miles....just took everything in its site. Winds sustained at 145 at the time it all went to hell per-medic.Everything turned white.

He got very quiet with me when I told him the numbers that have been public so far. He asked what have they said? I told him 50-80...he said "dude..we are picking up 30 at a time...thousands are dead...why aren't they saying...I guess I better shut up then...don't give my name" word for word in the call... Just trying to be specific for everyone here....

Cell service just worked for 2 mins again...it's going in and out. He said that many bodies being recovered and marked as I said on their arms as checked off,people dead in their homes and those homes are being given markings. Refrigeration trucks on their way in the next 12 hours to start a base for body i.d.'s,body bag orders way up. The odd thing is he said he has seen absolutely no media where they have been going into. Lost signal again going to voicemail.

Quoted: God I hope this is just an Internet rumor. www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1473894/posts

+1.

I believe it, just wait till they get a true body count in NO..

for the last two weeks i have been without a TV.

All i have heard about the hurricane has been on talk radio.

I really haven't grasped the reality that this was a cat 5 hurricane and N.O. is under water.

that being said, i really do hope it is just an internet rumor.

Oh my.

I was exepecting several hundred. But not even I was expecting "thousands" to be dead.

Let us hope these numbers are being overestimated.

Quoted: Oh my. I was exepecting several hundred. But not even I was expecting "thousands" to be dead. Let us hope these numbers are being overestimated.

I hope so....but looking at these images on tv.....If people were in any of those wiped out areas....

Quoted: Oh my. I was exepecting several hundred. But not even I was expecting "thousands" to be dead. Let us hope these numbers are being overestimated.

i think they are. The Lamestream media has "official" radios too. They can hear the sqawking of the LEO's and the National guard. They have no reason to lie about dead bodies or hiding them for that matter. There's no way to tell how many people are dead right now because we do not know how many people were left and unaccounted for. It will be in the mid-1,000's  I fear.

"This is our tsunami," Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway told the Biloxi Sun Herald.

I thought this was a bit of an exaggeration earlier, but maybe he knows something we don't.

Quoted: "This is our tsunami," Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway told the Biloxi Sun Herald. I thought this was a bit of an exaggeration earlier, but maybe he knows something we don't.

I was just thinking the exact same thing.

On Sunday one report on Fox stated as many as 50,000 lives could be lost if it was still a Cat. 5 at landfall.

No body really knows, they didn't have time to pickup the bodies, because it is still search & rescue, and not search & recovery. It's probably somebody's gut feeling.

Quoted: Quoted: Oh my. I was exepecting several hundred. But not even I was expecting "thousands" to be dead. Let us hope these numbers are being overestimated. i think they are. The Lamestream media has "official" radios too. They can hear the sqawking of the LEO's and the National guard. They have no reason to lie about dead bodies or hiding them for that matter. There's no way to tell how many people are dead right now because we do not know how many people were left and unaccounted for. It will be in the mid-1,000's  I fear.

When you mix a 20' storm surge with 30-50' waves reported on top of that to an area that's at or below sea level and a couple hundred thousand people that decided to "ride it out, the outcome is not going to be good. I have a sinking feeling the death toll will eclipse 9/11

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Oh my. I was exepecting several hundred. But not even I was expecting "thousands" to be dead. Let us hope these numbers are being overestimated. i think they are. The Lamestream media has "official" radios too. They can hear the sqawking of the LEO's and the National guard. They have no reason to lie about dead bodies or hiding them for that matter. There's no way to tell how many people are dead right now because we do not know how many people were left and unaccounted for. It will be in the mid-1,000's  I fear. When you mix a 20' storm surge with 30-50' waves reported on top of that to an area that's at or below sea level and a couple hundred thousand people that decided to "ride it out, the outcome is not going to be good. I have a sinking feeling the death toll will eclipse 9/11

It very well may be..I think there has'nt been enough time elapse or people to search yet. There literally thousands of NG units and SHeriff's deputies being deployed from the state of Florida tomorrow a.m., I know because I was in the Emergency management meeting this morning. Logistics is something that has to be cautiously and slowly planned out because of what they are facing. Trying to search unfamiliar areas with standing water. Gonna be a tough few week/smonths of work for these guys. The numbers will probably eclipse any other disaster we have had in our history.

Tag

It's also quite possible that the people he's picking out of trees were already dead - as in already buried in the cemetary, but washed up from the storm dead.  But for now, there's no real way to know.

Hurricane Katrina cost more lives and destroyed more property than any disaster in Coast history, the Red Cross said Tuesday.

Unprecedented destruction on the Coast and elsewhere will prompt "the largest Red Cross response in the history of the nation," national Red Cross spokesman Peter Teahen said Tuesday. Mississippi Coast history, prompting "the largest Red Cross response in the nation's history," said Peter Teahen, a national spokesman for the relief agency.

Hundreds are feared dead, said Biloxi spokesperson Vincent Creel.

"It's going to be much higher than anything we've ever seen," said Jim Pollard, spokesperson for the Harrison County Emergency Management Agency.

Public officials were skittish about relaying fatality numbers because firefighters, other emergency workers and even volunteers navigated mountains of debris Tuesday, finding bodies all along the waterfront.

The hardest hit areas appeared to be the peninsula in East Biloxi, a four-block stretch of the waterfront in Long Beach and low-lying areas of Henderson Point on the west side of Pass Christian.

Rubble was so thick and high that some areas were inaccessible.

In East Biloxi, firefighters and emergency workers pulled bodies from the debris, mostly in areas inaccessible to sightseers. The firefighters tucked the bodies into black bags, laid them on the ground and resumed their search.

Officials were still concentrating on search and rescue missions, looking for survivors that might have been trapped in debris, Tuesday afternoon. As many as 100 rescue vehicles were expected to fill the parking lot at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, designated a command center for rescue operations.

Biloxi officials were worried, too, about a shortage of potable water they hoped wouldn't lead to more deaths. The city's water and sewer system is not working, Creel said, and the heat and humidity will quickly dehydrate people who have no access to clean water.

Officials are trying to arrange for one or more portable water stations to be brought to Biloxi, Creel said.

"The nightmare we thought might happen before the hurricane hit appears to be developing," Teahen said.

Frantic family members who fled Katrina made their way to devastated neighborhoods Tuesday, searching for loved ones. Many burst into tears when they took in the destruction and wondered if they would ever again see relatives who dared face Katrina.

Oh no.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Oh my. I was exepecting several hundred. But not even I was expecting "thousands" to be dead. Let us hope these numbers are being overestimated. i think they are. The Lamestream media has "official" radios too. They can hear the sqawking of the LEO's and the National guard. They have no reason to lie about dead bodies or hiding them for that matter. There's no way to tell how many people are dead right now because we do not know how many people were left and unaccounted for. It will be in the mid-1,000's  I fear. When you mix a 20' storm surge with 30-50' waves reported on top of that to an area that's at or below sea level and a couple hundred thousand people that decided to "ride it out, the outcome is not going to be good. I have a sinking feeling the death toll will eclipse 9/11 It very well may be..I think there has'nt been enough time elapse or people to search yet. There literally thousands of NG units and SHeriff's deputies being deployed from the state of Florida tomorrow a.m., I know because I was in the Emergency management meeting this morning. Logistics is something that has to be cautiously and slowly planned out because of what they are facing. Trying to search unfamiliar areas with standing water. Gonna be a tough few week/smonths of work for these guys. The numbers will probably eclipse any other disaster we have had in our history.

Where at? Which EOC? I might get sent and my brother got voluteered by the boss today to leave first thing in the morning.

What a shame and what a waste.

If only the people had heeded the evacuation notices.

I bet after the magnitude of this disaster is realized, people will be wiser the next time. At least for a couple of years anyway.

Those are precisely the numbers I  mentioned to my lead emergency coordinator.  The conditions were ripe for that if it hit New Orleans square and I think it's a valid estimate.  

I've been in involved with the relief efforts for a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal  that clobbered Bangladesh and for typhoons in the Philippines and we can also look at the effects of typhoons in China.  You get a storm of this magnitude hitting extremely lowlying areas where the people either can not or choose not to leave and they  can't get out of the way of floodwaters, storm surges, levee and dike breaks, etc.  We are fortunate enough that many media outlets told people to get to their roofs or have ways of breaking out through their roofs.

But what happened to all the people in the Bayous, the sloughs, the coastal barrier islands, the swamps.  Mississippi knows they lost at least 30 in one apartment complex and initial reports of the devastation in some areas is disheartening.  Unfortunately there are a lot of Americans that believe it can't happen to them for whatever reason, they won't leave for a variety of reasons, and this one could get a lot of them.  

Thousands is not out of the realm of possibility.  

Yeah I've been hearing rumors about at least 2000 dead

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Oh my. I was exepecting several hundred. But not even I was expecting "thousands" to be dead. Let us hope these numbers are being overestimated. i think they are. The Lamestream media has "official" radios too. They can hear the sqawking of the LEO's and the National guard. They have no reason to lie about dead bodies or hiding them for that matter. There's no way to tell how many people are dead right now because we do not know how many people were left and unaccounted for. It will be in the mid-1,000's  I fear. When you mix a 20' storm surge with 30-50' waves reported on top of that to an area that's at or below sea level and a couple hundred thousand people that decided to "ride it out, the outcome is not going to be good. I have a sinking feeling the death toll will eclipse 9/11 It very well may be..I think there has'nt been enough time elapse or people to search yet. There literally thousands of NG units and SHeriff's deputies being deployed from the state of Florida tomorrow a.m., I know because I was in the Emergency management meeting this morning. Logistics is something that has to be cautiously and slowly planned out because of what they are facing. Trying to search unfamiliar areas with standing water. Gonna be a tough few week/smonths of work for these guys. The numbers will probably eclipse any other disaster we have had in our history. Where at? Which EOC? I might get sent and my brother got voluteered by the boss today to leave first thing in the morning.

I am in Okaloosa county, city manager said that south Fl was coming and they were caravaning to some rendezvous point in Alabama. There will be "he said" thousands of Florida Law enforcement going becuase of the short proximity and their experience in hurricane aftermath. thats all I know. We have around 3-4,000 displaced Miss. and La families here in county. We are trying to help FEMA/ Red Cross with temporary housing, transportation and all that goes with it.

if  this dec 2004 article from the center for hazzards assesment at new orleans university, they were able to forecast with frightening accuracy the effects of a large hurricane strike. it reads like a damn script for what has been unfolding over the past few days. unfortunately, and in addition to everything else they nailed right on, they also estimated 40-60,000 casualties.

www.colorado.edu/hazards/o/nov04/nov04c.html

PaDanby: Well thanks for passing on the numbers, but I hope you're wrong.

Just heard on CNN that rescuers are marking homes in which they find dead bodies with black tape, to help in locating them again later once the focus shifts from rescue to recovery.



Since this is still a rescue operation, bodies aren't even being dealt with yet. So we have no idea how many there could be. But I fear it's far, far too many whatever the number.

Quoted: Yeah I've been hearing rumors about at least 2000 dead

It'll be much higher, I'm sure.

I remember when they were saying 50 dead yesterday, then watching a streaming newscast that was saying there were bodies floating in the streets.. They have no fucking clue how many people are dead yet there are still many people inside homes and trapped otherwise that won't be found until the water is gone.

I'm betting more than 3,000. Think of all the people who don't have a reliable car, and didnt' want to leave the only thing that mattered aside from family. Mark my words, there will be a lot of drowned children in the tragedy.

Dave

I don't live there, but I could easily see myself saying I'm not going anywhere. I guess it's human nature to always think it's not gonna happen to me.

Sadly, it is a possibility FoxNews was reporting (I heard this before Katrina made landfall ) that 10 percent of the population could not or would not leave the coastal areas and was estimated to be about 100,000 people. They did not mention the soucre of this info so I only hope this was speculation.

All those rotting bodies, raw sewage, and miscellaneous other shit floating around is going to make the gulf coast a living hell for a number of weeks.

I think this could easily be true.  I think when the real numbers come in they will be devastating.  It could top 5000, maybe as high as 10,000.  Look at the aerial views of what the storm surge did in Miss.  

I just saw a news report that confirmed a minimum of 100 dead in one county in Mississippi. The official said they haven't even tried looking for dead bodies, these were out in the open.

This is going to be hellish.

Yep. I don't think the news media has done a very good job of preparing America for just how devastating this is going to be in terms of human lives lost either. Listening to them you'd think maybe 200 people have been killed. Most of the uninformed casual viewers will probably think that's it because the reported deaths are climbing slowly. What many fail to understand is that all the focus has been on rescuing those still alive and that no effort has even started yet to recover the bodies.

When news arrives that 1000, 2000 or 3000+ have died, much of the country is going to be in shock.

of course its thousands, they didn't MAKE everyone leave and there had to be up to 20,000 people in NO alone that stayed in their houses (despite what they are saying the #'s were).  If only a tenth of those died, its 2000 and the water came in suddenly over the levee that one nite..not everyone would have known about it.

Add to that the devastation seen on the news in MS and AL and its got to be thousands.

Essayons

Hopefully the French send aid.

I do have a question though.  If this storm was this bad, WTF didn't more people leave?  I understand that some had to brave it out due to lack of resources, but why the rest?

Most of the reports on the West Gulf emergency net have been for people still trapped in attics, there were six reported by one mobile station in Bay St. Louis last night.  Elderly people trapped in Gretna, etc.

Listening to the message traffic, it sounds like a lot of these people were the elderly and they couldn't evacuate prior to the storm.  Lots of medical emergencies still being reported.

The Coast Guard and other military in that area are doing great work, but there's only so much they can do.

We may never know the toll in shoreline communities. Entire families could have been washed out into the gulf.

Oh man. The disease part is distressing to say the least. Here you have all of this water standing everywhere. Contained within it are dead bodies, raw sewage and chemicals. To make matters worse, this standing water will cause a huge increase in the number of mosquitos. Those in turn will spread disease, such as malaria and West Nile. Now that the people are displaced and many living outdoors (soon to be in tents), they will be exposed to all of this.

Then you have all of the people who will die as a result of stress, pre-existing medical conditions, heat stroke, etc during the clean-up. Lousiana is a very hot area and with all of this water added to the mix, humidity will soar. This will certainly make life tough on folks with respiratory conditions. Then those who commit suicide as a result of the depression that will set in with so many or those who are accidentally killed during recovery efforts just adds more.

You're right Tom, we may never know the full extent of this. It's scary as hell to even think about.