PRESS RELEASE

Louisiana Chief Medical Officer Continues to Update Number of Gustav, Ike Fatalities
Department of Health and Hospitals News Update
BATON ROUGE, La. (September 17, 2008) - Please find the attached memo sent from Louisiana Chief Medical Officer Louis Cataldie, M.D., regarding fatalities related to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike:

From: Louis Cataldie, M.D.
To: Secretary Alan Levine
Date: September 17, 2008
Re: Fatalities Related to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike

This memorandum delineates the current number of confirmed hurricane-related fatalities. As Chief Medical Officer for the state of Louisiana, I am working closely with local coroners and police departments to identify fatalities as a result of Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike and offering assistance to local authorities.

Today, there are no newly-confirmed deaths related to Hurricane Gustav.  The totals stand at 46 for Gustav.

One additional fatality was confirmed today related to Hurricane Ike.  A Terrebonne Parish resident died of natural causes, bringing the Ike-related fatality total to 5.

Any death that is determined by the jurisdictional coroner to have been caused as a result of Hurricane Gustav or Hurricane Ike will be counted as a storm-related death. General criteria for classifying a death as hurricane-related include:

- Death due to activities associated with evacuation (i.e., evacuation stress precipitates a heart attack)
- Death due to the effects of the storm itself (i.e., a tree falls on a person during the storm)
- Death associated with recovery efforts (i.e., a person is electrocuted by a fallen electrical line while cleaning up fallen tree limbs)

Keep in mind that many individuals who died of natural causes had severe or critical medical illnesses.  The storms would be considered a contributing factor to their death of natural causes, not the cause of death.

I will continue to notify you at the end of each day of newly-confirmed deaths related to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

###