NEW ORLEANS – Searchers looking for bodies smashed into homes that had been locked or submerged under Hurricane Katrina’s highest floodwaters, pushing the overall body count past 1,000 as another hurricane threatens to prolong the hunt for the dead.

The death toll in Louisiana stood at 799 on Wednesday, an increase of 153 since the weekend and nearly 80 percent of the 1,036 deaths attributed to Katrina across the Gulf Coast region. Officials said the effort could last another four to six weeks.

“There still could be quite a few, especially in the deepest flooded areas,” said U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jeffrey Pettitt. “Some of the houses, they haven’t been in yet.”
news.yahoo.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 22nd, 2005 at 7:43 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.