tallyho8
Elite Member
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2004
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The number of casualties in the latest hurricanes keep rising and it is indeed a tragedy but should all of these reported victims be listed as hurricane casualties?
We read the list and it states that 4 people died of carbon monoxide poisoning by using a generator in an unvented area and 2 people died when they ran into a tree while evacuating and so on. But can you really call these hurricane casualties? To me this seems like calling it a work related death for an office clerk if he gets killed in a car wreck on the way to work. This seems more like accidental deaths than deaths caused by the hurricane.
Example: They list over 1000 Katrina casualties in New Orleans in the months following Katrina and they state that half these people were over 75 years old. No one who died in New Orleans following katrina was listed as a non-hurricane related death yet on normal days there are 75 deaths a day in the New Orleans area. So 750 people normally die in the area in 10 days but since there was a hurricane they call these 750 deaths hurricane casualties. Many of the bodies were found with bullets in them. Many people simply died of old age and would have died even if there had not been a hurricane yet all of them are classified as storm deaths. There were very few people who actually died of drowning or trees falling on their house, etc, though the news media did manage to sensationalize the fact that a body was seen floating in the water by the Superdome.
I do not mean to trivialize these people's deaths but I am wondering if they jack up the hurricane casualty list in order to gain sympathy to receive more government funding or what is the purpose of calling all these accidental deaths, homicides, and natural deaths "hurricane related"?
We read the list and it states that 4 people died of carbon monoxide poisoning by using a generator in an unvented area and 2 people died when they ran into a tree while evacuating and so on. But can you really call these hurricane casualties? To me this seems like calling it a work related death for an office clerk if he gets killed in a car wreck on the way to work. This seems more like accidental deaths than deaths caused by the hurricane.
Example: They list over 1000 Katrina casualties in New Orleans in the months following Katrina and they state that half these people were over 75 years old. No one who died in New Orleans following katrina was listed as a non-hurricane related death yet on normal days there are 75 deaths a day in the New Orleans area. So 750 people normally die in the area in 10 days but since there was a hurricane they call these 750 deaths hurricane casualties. Many of the bodies were found with bullets in them. Many people simply died of old age and would have died even if there had not been a hurricane yet all of them are classified as storm deaths. There were very few people who actually died of drowning or trees falling on their house, etc, though the news media did manage to sensationalize the fact that a body was seen floating in the water by the Superdome.
I do not mean to trivialize these people's deaths but I am wondering if they jack up the hurricane casualty list in order to gain sympathy to receive more government funding or what is the purpose of calling all these accidental deaths, homicides, and natural deaths "hurricane related"?
