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As of this morning, the official Hurricane Katrina death toll is 646, up from the 579 reported Friday afternoon. Of this number, 490 are at the morgue in St. Gabriel, 63 in East Baton Rouge Parish, 30 in Jefferson, 20 in Tangipahoa, 14 in Terrebonne, 7 in St. Tammany, 6 in Iberia, 5 in St. Charles, 4 in Livingston, 3 in Plaquemines, 2 in Assumption, and 2 in West Baton Rouge.¹

Authorities said Tuesday the death toll will probably continue to rise, but they felt the final number would be well below the dire projections. Mayor Ray Nagin said soon after Hurricane Katrina struck that the New Orleans alone could have 10,000 dead.²

The death toll in Louisiana stood at 799 on Wednesday, an increase of 153 bodies since the weekend and nearly 80 percent of the 1,036 deaths attributed to Hurricane Katrina across the Gulf Coast region. Pettitt and other officials would not speculate on what the final tally could be.³

As recovery efforts continue in the Gulf Coast and the death toll from Hurricane Katrina continues to rise, the public health crisis wrought by the storm continues to unfold. Health officials have shifted the focus of their concern from the disease threat posed by the polluted flood waters to the cost and delivery of basic health care to the storm’s displaced evacuees, and the mental health needs of Katrina’s traumatized victims.⁴

Nagin issued a grim warning this weekend that Hurricane Katrina’s death toll could top out at 10,000, and he said it could take up to 10 years for the metropolis to be restored. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco estimated the death toll in Baton Rouge could reach “several thousand.”⁵