The numbers game begins. By 11 pm CST today, the official toll was up to 197, but what does that count? Actual bodies recovered from the water and streets? Out of homes? What about individuals who died at the Armstrong airport or during triage at various locations from dehydration or loss of medication, shock and stress? Are these numbers being included? And what about those individuals who will continue to die for several more days or weeks to come from trauma induced by the events of the hurricane?
Like many, I've been watching CNN, and a feature tonight focused on continued rescue efforts and house by house sweeps where the volunteers would go into a house and mark the outside of the house accordingly, but some neighborhoods closest to Lake Ponchatrain are still in 8-12 foot water. It's impossible to get into those homes, and it's impossible to say what will be found once the water recedes completely.
The rush to proclaim that the fatalities associated with this storm are much lower than 10,000 predicted suggests that another number is more acceptable, and we should all leave the gruesome stuff to the experts, but they can't tell us what they think that number is. 5,000? 3,000? What is the number that offers the most absolution to those in the political spotlight? I guess we'll know by the spin.
- Deborah