Death toll for 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: 120,000 plus.

Death toll for Hurricane Katrina in N.O.: 300 plus.

Zero deaths would be great, sure, but a ratio of .0025 isn't bad for the "worst natural disaster in US history," as MSM is so fond of saying. Anyone who has updated information on the actual death toll from Katrina (not the hyperbolic "estimates"), especially if it includes the entire Gulf Coast, gets well-earned kudos for reporting it here. The 300 number comes from a PBS report yesterday, issued by a N.O. official.

This is a participatory and self-correcting enterprise, unlike the alternative.

Update: Thanks to the entirprise of Oyster and the Associated Press we can now report that the 300+ figure for the death toll from Katrina is not just for New Orleans, but for the entire Gulf Coast. Granted the comparison of a Hurricane with a Tsunami isn't ideal, but a death toll ratio of 1 to 3,300 suggests that there's something to the notion that you're safer living in a market oriented democracy. A comparison of earthquakes in Iran vs. the US yields a similar ratio. Even going back to 1906 to find a quake comparable in magnitude to the one in Bam, Iran, which killed 41,000 we find that the San Francisco Earthquake--the most devastating in US history--killed 3,000. Death tolls from more modern quakes in the US are in single digits. The death toll from the Northridge quake, the most destructive modern temblor, was less than 60. The difference is probably a matter of construction methods and other engineering interventions, as well as communicatons and disaster response and relief. Winds of Change has more.

Posted by: Demosophist at 01:31 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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By Demosophist

I haven't been able to interest Pat at The State of Jefferson in a little geography/history quiz, inspired by the history that inspired his blog name. So rather than exercise any further restraint, I'm spilling the beans. Here was the question:

One area of the country managed to initiate a "successful" secession movement, not in the sense that the secession stuck, but in the sense that the movement achieved its objectives. The place also happens to be the only area of the "deep South" that fought on the side of the Union during the Civil War.

For fun and valuable prizes can you name the place, time and circumstances of the secession movement? (Hint: Check the title of this post.)

Posted by: Demosophist at 04:30 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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According to this report, people in a camp in the village of Beurawang in the Aceh region on Sumatra have been eating leaves to stave off hunger, increasing fears of mass starvation and disease. The news comes from American nurse Linley York and is at least second-hand information.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's Health Ministry has confirmed additional dead that were believed to be only missing. The Indonesian death toll has been raised to 166,320 which brings the global total for the tsunami disaster to 226,566.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 08:19 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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