Hurricanes Do Save Lives

How many lives have been saved by hurricanes

Sept. 28, 2005, 10:55PM Evacuation Lessons come at high cost :107 lives

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topfront/3374468

I have followed Hurricane Rita since it brushed my Key West floating home. The Houston Chronicle women and men have done a great job. The article is well researched and well written. Here is one suggestion: include how many people die each day on greater Houston highways, how many die in nursing homes, how many die from crimes, how many die from suicide , and how many from other accidents. So if the total is greater than the toll during the evacuation, then less people died than is the "normal" death toll. We Floridians pad the toll of hurricanes. If someone drives into a canal during the storm or in the next few days, the death is a hurricane death. If someone falls off their roof clearing tree limbs, their death is a hurricane death. Then, of course, we have the people who run generators in attached garages, enclosed porches, attached sheds and even inside houses or apartments and die from carbon monoxide. Are these deaths hurricane deaths? Did drug overdoses decline during the hurricane? New Orleans, the former murder capital (per capita), has lost its title. So how about looking at the positive side, too. A life shaking event shakes lives. Some people are alive that would have been "normal" deaths because of the hurricane.