Sun, May 21, 2006 page7

• Katrina death toll increases by 281

  NEW DEATHS People who died as a result of their displacement were added to the final total, while New Orleans evacuees were deciding on a new mayor

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  The death toll from last year's Hurricane Katrina jumped by 281 after authorities updated their tally of people who died of causes related to the disaster.

  With the new count, the number of deaths blamed on Katrina among people from Louisiana, the hardest-hit state, rises to 1,577, state health authorities said on Friday. Some 170 others died in neighboring Mississippi.

  All of the newly counted victims were Louisianans who fled to other states after the August 29 storm and whose deaths were blamed on their displacement. Most were elderly people who authorities ruled would still be alive had their lives not been disrupted.

  Most of the newly reported deaths -- 223 -- come from Texas, which received the majority of Katrina evacuees, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said in its statement.

  Katrina devastated the US Gulf Coast and flooded New Orleans, trapping hundreds of residents in their homes and scattering those who got out across the country.

  In all, Louisiana has attributed 480 out-of-state deaths to Katrina. The state has asked the rest of the nation to tally Katrina-related deaths, but 18 states have yet to file reports, the Times-Picayune newspaper said.

  Meanwhile, voters still living outside of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina were deciding yesterday whether to re-elect Mayor Ray Nagin or turn him out in favor of Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu.

  The winner of the too-close-to-call race will start his new four-year term just one day before hurricane season begins on June 1.

  Heading into election day, both candidates said they felt good about their chances but neither would predict the outcome.

  "It's hard to know. It's that close," said Landrieu, who would become the city's first white mayor in 28 years if elected.

  Nagin predicted black voters and conservative white voters, many of whom supported him in 2002 but defected to other candidates in the April primary, would come together to support him.

  "We're going to have a coalition of African-American voters and conservative voters that will blow people's minds," he said on Friday.

  Fewer than half of New Orleans' 465,000 pre-Katrina residents have returned to the city, which remains marred by hollowed out homes and debris nine months after the storm struck and flood walls broke.

  Evacuees were being bused from as far as Atlanta and Houston to vote, and many were expected to drive in to cast ballots in an election that will help determine the course of one of the largest reconstruction projects in US history.

  More than 24,000 ballots were cast early by mail or fax or at satellite polling places set up around Louisiana earlier in the month.

  The candidates, both Democrats, largely agree on issues, including the right of residents to return to all neighborhoods, even those far below sea level, and the urgent need for federal aid to speed rebuilding.

  As a result, much of the debate has centered on leadership style, with Nagin, a 49-year-old former business executive trying to cast himself as the man willing to make tough decisions and stand up to federal officials when necessary.

  His maverick, everyman style has won him fans since he was first elected in 2002 but also has opened him to criticism that he is a loose cannon.

  Landrieu, who argues the city lost its credibility nationally and internationally because of its response to Katrina, says his experience bringing people together will be needed to move New Orleans forward.

  A career politician and member of a prominent political family, the 45-year-old says his ability to bridge disparate groups will give New Orleans a chance to remake itself into a better city than it was before the storm.
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