September 23, 2005 Deceased Victims Update 9-23-2005September 23: Updated Number of Deceased Victims Resulting from Hurricane Katrina

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Sep 23, 2005 -

• At this time, state officials, working in conjunction with coroners from local parishes have confirmed841 deaths.

• These numbers have been reported to state officials by local coroners.

• A breakdown of these deaths is as follows:

664 are at the morgue in St. Gabriel

Parish Coroners:

      Ascension -- 5

Assumption -- 2

East Baton Rouge – 68

Iberia – 6

Jefferson – 30

Lafourche -- 2

Livingston -- 5

Plaquemines -- 3

St. Charles – 5

St. Tammany – 7

Tangipahoa -- 26

Terrebonne -- 15

      West Baton Rouge – 3

• Any death that is determined to have been caused as a result of Hurricane Katrina will be counted as a hurricane-related death. For example, this applies to people who drowned as well as people who required life-support but had it cut off and died as a result when power was lost during the storm.

• Because of uncertain weather conditions from Hurricane Rita, Kenyon International Emergency Services has suspended recovery operations in the New Orleans area for Friday and Saturday. Weather permitting, the recovery operation will resume Sunday, Sept. 25.

• Incident Medical Commander Dr. Louis Cataldie and others are securing the morgue site at St. Gabriel in preparation for the storm and are confident it will withstand weather conditions in the area.

• A media briefing originally scheduled for today with Dr. Cataldie has been canceled due to his need to oversee storm preparations in St. Gabriel. The briefing will be rescheduled for next week.

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