|
Katrina: Fewer dead than feared
11/09/2005 18:41 - (SA)
New Orleans - Rescuers are finding fewer bodies in flooded New Orleans than authorities had feared, the US official overseeing Hurricane Katrina relief operations said on Sunday.
Officials had estimated that thousands or as many as
10 000 people could have died from the monster storm, which violently swept across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama August 29.
"We are finding many fewer fatalities than we had expected," coast guard vice-admiral Thad Allen told Fox News on Sunday.
Allen was picked on Friday to replace embattled federal emergency management agency director Michael Brown to oversee the relief effort.
The official death toll in Louisiana stands at 154 so far.
- AFP
|
