CHICAGO — A new report presents the clearest picture yet of deaths from Katrina in Louisiana. Of the nearly 1,000 who died, almost half were 75 or older, according to researchers.
Most died on the day of the storm — Aug. 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 high death toll among the elderly was probably due to those factors along with older people being more vulnerable and frail and unable to fight the catastrophic storm, the report said.
The study was published online Thursday and will appear in the October print edition of the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.
