Katrina Victims' assumptions may be incorrect, data reveals

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Four months following the killer hurricane that devistated much of Louisiana and Mississippi, analyses of compiled data suggests that widely reported assumptions about the hurricane victims were incorrect.

A comparison of the locations where 874 bodies were recovered, indicates the victims were not disproportionately poor. Another database of 486 Hurricane Katrina victims from Orleans and St. Bernard parishes also suggests they were not disproportionately African-American.

Both sets of data are still incomplete; Louisiana state officials have still not releases a comprehensive list of the dead from the August 29th Category 4 hurricane.

One demographic that was disaproportionately affected by Hurricane Katrina was senior citizens. People 60 and older make up about 15 percent of the new Orleans population. Current databases suggest that 74 percent of the dead were senior citizens 60 or older. Nearly 50 percent of them were older than 75--many from nursing homes and hospitals--where almost 20 percent of the bodies were recovered.

Lack of transportaion is assumed to be a key factor that many people stayed behind and died.