Brett
09-09-2005, 07:57 PM
NEW ORLEANS — Police officers and soldiers did another house-to-house sweep of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans Friday to try to convince those still clinging to their homes to evacuate, and what they saw raised hopes that the city's death toll could be much lower than projected.
"I think there's some encouragement in what we've found in the initial sweeps that some of the catastrophic deaths that some people predicted may not have occurred," said Terry Ebbert (search), New Orleans' homeland security chief.
They said Friday that their first systematic sweep of the city found far fewer bodies than expected, suggesting that Hurricane Katrina (search)'s death toll may not be the catastrophic 10,000 feared.
Ebbert declined to give a new estimate of the dead.
"Numbers so far are relatively minor as compared to the dire projections of 10,000," Ebbert said.
Earlier in the week, the mayor had said the death toll in New Orleans alone could be 10,000, and state officials had ordered 25,000 body bags.
Authorities marked the houses they found with dead bodies inside so they could return later to clear them out.
"I think there's some encouragement in what we've found in the initial sweeps that some of the catastrophic deaths that some people predicted may not have occurred," said Terry Ebbert (search), New Orleans' homeland security chief.
They said Friday that their first systematic sweep of the city found far fewer bodies than expected, suggesting that Hurricane Katrina (search)'s death toll may not be the catastrophic 10,000 feared.
Ebbert declined to give a new estimate of the dead.
"Numbers so far are relatively minor as compared to the dire projections of 10,000," Ebbert said.
Earlier in the week, the mayor had said the death toll in New Orleans alone could be 10,000, and state officials had ordered 25,000 body bags.
Authorities marked the houses they found with dead bodies inside so they could return later to clear them out.