Clarion-Ledger is reporting:
Some state officials said Monday they fear the death toll in Mississippi could top 1,000 as refrigerated trucks serve as makeshift morgues. Lt. Rusty Pittman of the Mississippi Bureau of Marine Resources, involved in the search effort, said he worries the death toll "could reach 4,000, maybe 5,000, if not more." The official number of confirmed dead in Mississippi remained at 170, but Biloxi spokesman Vincent Creel said Monday he thinks there will be several hundred dead just in Biloxi.
Meanwhile, the New Orleans mayor has predicted the death toll there could reach 10,000 — a number almost equal to the entire population of Oxford. [...]
Barbour defended the response time, saying the Highway Patrol, Department of Transportation and the National Guard were all pushing into the area before the storm had abated. "I'm grateful for all the federal government has done."
He blamed the national media for criticism of timing. "It's pretty easy for vultures to fly in after the fact."
Lott said federal help could have come faster, but he doesn't want to "bite the hand" that will feed Coast residents for the next few years. "Thanks to the federal government, more than anyone else, the Gulf Coast will be bigger and stronger than ever."
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