Repost from the old blog. This is to the best of my knowledge, the best and most up to date list of the victims of Hurricane Katrina that available. It was very hard to find, hidden in an obscure corner of the Net, and soon after I grabbed it, the professor who put it up there took it down. To my knowledge, he has not reposted it. If there is a better one out there, let me know.
Finally, at long last, we have an accessible list of victims of Hurricane Katrina. It’s not complete at all, as it only lists 1,195 victims, but it’s a start anyway. The Louisiana Health Department has released a list of 828 victims, but I don’t know where to find that list, and it’s incomplete anyway.
Listing of victims has been quite haphazard. Mississippi listed those directly killed by the storm, while Louisiana chose to list indirect deaths. John Mutter, a professor of geophysics at Colombia University’s Earth Institute, was frustrated by the seeming lack of an accurate death toll, so he decided to try to tally up his own.
Mutter wants a complete list of everyone killed by the storm, directly and indirectly. His list is now pretty much hidden and very hard to find, but in March 2007 I did manage to track it down to an obscure website on Mutter’s homepage. However, he has now removed the list and is not responding to emails about it. I have placed the file here.
The file is an Excel spreadsheet and you need to have a program capable of reading Excel spreadsheets in order to read the document.
I also have a large and detailed report in pdf that breaks the deaths down into all sorts of categories. It is available here.
The list has 1,195 victims listed on it, with a few facts about each victim included in their entry. Mutter’s list is dated October 26, 2006 and there does not seem to be a more updated list. Mutter’s list contains names that are not on the official state tallies. Here is the website for Mutter’s project at Colombia. You can also send him data on any hurricane deaths that may not appear on the list from a form on the site.
As this article makes clear, it seems there are storm victims who have not made it onto either list. Some are well-known, such as Sgt. Paul Accardo of the New Orleans Police Department, who committed suicide a mere six days after the storm.
Others include Jerome “Slim Rome” Spears and his fiance Rachel Harris. Spears shot Harris to death and then killed himself in a rental home in Atlanta, where they had moved as unemployed refugees after the storm.
Some are elderly, such as Dorothy and Sam Cerniglia and Yvonne Aubry. All three saw their health begin a rapid slide to death after the storm hit, dying of conditions that previously had been well-managed.
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Looking for Edward Gonzales…last known to have went to a hotel with Mother Carol, father, ex wife Anne, and son Brandon. I have no idea if they are alive or not…they used to live on Regent st. in New Orleans. Any info will help….just want to know if they are okay.
I am looking for a friend, her name is Kimberly (Chapman) Duplantis, or it was last I talked to her. Im not quite sure what area of Louisiana she lived in as its been a long time. She has dropped off of the face of the earth and I want to find her!!!
I am looking for Herbert Speight, Junior. I was just informed recently that he died in Hurricane Katrina. If he is on either of your lists, I would appreciate some feedback. Thanking you in advance, His Cousin inquiring for his mother(my aunt), Ms. Penny Pollard
I am looking for Michael Karras. Lost contact with him many years before Katrina hit. Ruby Webber
I am looking for my grandma Karen Price and my brother Keifer Price, their names are the only things that I know, I never met them and I would like to have closure in their absence.
I am looking for a really good friend, that I met after Hurricane Katrina in Flint,MI. His name is JoeDon James and the last time I heard from him was in 2006. I have never forgotten him and have always been greatly concerned about him. Please help me find him.
I am looking for a really good friend, sabine kabawiska, she is deaf, and i would like to hear from her and to know she is ok.
looking for jacqueline bonello, also know as jackie zarsza, who I lost contact with, while she was living in Louisiana
Would like to find out if she and her family are ok.
We are searching for my children Jason, Jonathan, Katie and daughter-in-law Corey Warren. My children came up missing after the storm at which time my ID was stolen and my life was attempted on. I did have contact since then, but they have come up missing again ,a year ago. I don’t know what they did to them when since they tried to kill me over my ID and my children
Looking for James Herbert smith
Hello I am a fiance looking for two people. These two are Edward and Carolyn Hiller. They are my fiance’s father and mother. She is 30 now and I have Wat he her go through a great deal of stress to this day and I feel like I can’t comfort her because I never experienced Katrina because I lived in California. She needs resolution in order to move I believe.