Historical Deadly Canes & The Blame Game

First, let me just point out, as Carl has, that Google Maps has imagery from the flooding integrated into their online mapping tool (see example below).

The death toll in Mississippi alone has risen to 185 and officials are estimating that overall fatalities from the storm may be "in the thousands." How does this compare with historical hurricane deaths? Chris Burt, author of Extreme Weather, lists these storms in his book (and let me tell you, he knows his stuff):

8000+ Galveston, TX 1900
2000+ Lake Okeechobee, FL 1928
1800-2000 Coastal LA and MS 1893
1000-2500 SC, GA 1893

These were the four storms that killed more than 1000 people in the U.S. But what about recent deadly storms (since 1950) that have killed more than Katrina has been blamed for (so far)?

408 Keys of FL 1935
390 West LA (Audrey) 1957
256 MS, AL (Camille) 1969
184 NC to ME (Diane) 1955

So it sounds like Katrina will go down in the history books as the deadliest storm since at least 1935, and if the toll surpasses 1,000, it will go down in the top four of all times, all of which were before modern hurricane warning systems were put into place.

Was Katrina's flooding of New Orleans preventable? Did we even know how bad it could be? Absolutely. To quote this article from October, 2001:

If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water. New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen. The boxes are stacked eight feet high and line the walls of the large, windowless room. Inside them are new body bags, 10,000 in all.

I agree with Neil Cavuto's commentary today on Fox News -- that it's time to fix what's broken, and not play the blame game yet, there will be plenty to go around. Carl has pontificated on this a little. One can blame anyone from the President down to the Mayor, but more likely the New Orleans Levee Board, who is corrupt, according to Jim Rogers who spoke on Neil's "The Cost of Freedom" today. I won't report further on that topic; you can monitor the news yourself and decide. I've got to get back to the weather.

Coming Tomorrow: A reassessment of my previous list of wind gusts and other extremes from Hurricane Katrina as new information comes in regarding the surface and buoy reports.