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Half Of Katrina Victims Were 75 Or Older

Posted on: Friday, 29 August 2008, 15:40 CDT

A new report on the deaths from Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana shows that almost half of the nearly 1,000 who died were 75 or older.

The majority died on the day of the storm - August 29, 2005 - and drowning was the leading cause of death. More than one-third died in homes.

The results present a tragic portrait of elderly residents who may have thought the warnings were a false alarm, who feared that abandoning their homes would lead to looting, or who simply didn't want to leave their familiar surroundings for the unknown.

The report said the high death toll in the elderly was likely due to those factors along with older people being more vulnerable and frail and unable to fight the catastrophic storm.

Joan Brunkard, the lead author and a researcher at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the report provides the most comprehensive details yet of Katrina's deaths in Louisiana and "just shows us where we need to direct our disaster preparedness effort".

“We must reach these populations before, during, and after storms, and provide the assistance and reassurance they need to be willing to evacuate,” she said.

The researchers wrote: "The findings in this report will aid public health and emergency preparedness efforts and may help reduce the mortality burden in future natural disasters."

“Plans are under way to help New Orleans' residents—including the elderly—prepare for the current storm, Gustav, which some projections say could hit Louisiana with hurricane strength in coming days,” said Dr. Raoult Ratard, Louisiana's state epidemiologist and a co-author of the report.

Deaths directly related to Katrina in Louisiana were the primary focus of the new report as well as deaths of Louisiana residents who fled to other states. It's based on death certificates listing Katrina as the main or contributing cause and data from a federal disaster response team. The researchers counted 971 Katrina-related deaths in Louisiana, mostly in New Orleans, and 15 deaths among residents who fled out of state.

The time period was Aug. 27 to Oct. 31, 2005, which includes deaths in car crashes on evacuation routes and from injuries suffered during the storm.

The death toll for all Katrina victims was previously reported at 1,698. That includes bodies collected in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and Louisiana residents who died in other states in the month after Katrina.

The findings showed:

• 40 percent of victims drowned.
• Just under half of all victims were 75 or older; the average age was 69.
• Only 2 percent were younger than 18.
• 51 percent were black; 42 percent were white.

Information on place of death was available for 877 victims; 36 percent died in homes, 22 percent in hospitals and 12 percent in nursing homes. More than 25 percent were found elsewhere, including the Superdome and Convention Center, where masses of people were housed during the storm.

After drowning, injury/trauma was the second-leading cause and accounted for about 25 percent of the deaths. There were four suicides and two slayings blamed on Katrina.

An editorial in the journal praises the report but says it likely underestimates the disaster's true toll because many more deaths were indirectly related to the storm.

The study was published online Thursday and will appear in the October print edition of the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.

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Image Caption: U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Shawn Beaty of Long Island, N.Y., looks for survivors in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as he flies in an HH-60J Jayhawk helicopter over New Orleans. Petty Officer Beaty is a member of an HH-60J Jayhawk helicopter rescue crew sent from Clearwater, Florida, to assist in search and rescue efforts. Katrina, a Category 4 hurricane, came ashore at approximately 6:10 a.m. CDT near the Louisiana bayou town of Buras. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class NyxoLyno Cangemi

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On the Net:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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