NEW ORLEANS - Officials ended their door-to-door sweep for corpses finding far fewer bodies than once feared and some schoolchildren returned to classes as New Orleans revved up efforts to recover from Hurricane Katrina. The search for Katrina victims ended in Louisiana with a death toll substantially less than the 10,000 victims some officials feared.
A private company hired by the state to remove bodies was on call if any others were found. The toll Tuesday stood at 972, eight more than Monday, the state health department said.
The death toll probably will continue to rise, but authorities have said sweeps yielded fewer bodies than feared, and that the toll 
was likely to be well below the dire projections. Mayor Ray Nagin said soon after Katrina struck that New Orleans alone could have 10,000 dead.
"There might still be bodies found — for instance, if a house was locked and nobody able to go into it," said Bob Johannessen, a spokesman with the state Department of Health and Hospitals. Mississippi's death toll remained at 221.
No comments:
Post a Comment