For now the official Hurricane Katrina death toll stands at 1,697.Why count those deaths?
But Columbia University geophysicist and earth scientist John Mutter believes the number is "well in excess of 2,000.''
That's because Mutter isn't just counting people who drowned in Katrina's waters or were crushed because of the storm's powerful winds.
Mutter's count also would include the despondent evacuee who committed suicide, the suspected looter fatally shot, and the dialysis patient who died because the storm interrupted treatment.
"I think we understand the financial losses better than the human losses and I think that's outrageous," said Mutter, who is deputy director of The Earth Institute at Columbia. "We should measure tragedy in human terms not financial terms."We should also measure our rebuilding progress in terms of people, not finances. People, not buildings. People, not profit. People, not politics.
If not for people, why should we rebuild?
1 comment:
We will never know the full extent of the deaths from Katrina related causes.
I know of one wealthy, elderly, apparently healthy person who died while out of Louisiana. Who can say if that death was caused by Katrina?
Who can say if such people were Katrina victims?
Who can say whether many thousands of New Orleans residents have had their lives shortened as a result of the events following 8/29?
We should be more concerned with the living than the dead. Let the families grieve in peace but fix the problems that caused that grief.
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