JULY 22, 2024
How many car accidents resulting in death from Hurricane Ida?
Car accidents resulting in death from Hurricane Ida
Hurricane Ida reached the state of Louisiana on August 29, 2021 as a category 4 hurricane. The storm was rated as a category 4 storm and it directly hit New Orleans and nearby cities in Louisiana and Mississippi.
As of 5 p.m. on 8-29-21 ABC news reported over 500,000 people were without power. News reports showed power lines down everywhere due to the 150 mph plus conditions. Trees were down, power lines and poles were down and all traffic lights everywhere had no power.
The hurricane is expected to bring not only severe destruction, but also to have a storm surge that will exceed 9 – 16 feet that will flood roads and highways. The main areas that are supposed to have the highest surges from 9 to 16 feet will be between Burns Point, Louisiana and Ocean Springs Mississippi. The path of the storm was reported to be over 17 miles wide.
Ida is exactly 16 years to the date of the former category 5 Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina caused more than $125 billion in damage to property and bodily injury losses and deaths. Hurricane Katrina killed 1803 people and had 1418 indirect deaths. Rappaport, et. al. AMS.
New Orleans History with Hurricanes
New Orleans spent more than $15 billion to rebuild the levee system in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. At the time of the writing of this news it is impossible to know what the final damage to the States of Louisiana and Mississippi will be. It is unknown whether the New Orleans levee system will withstand this category 4 hurricane.
The road and highway system in and out of New Orleans as well as the Huey P. Long Bridge were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. I-10 and the 20 Span Bridge in Louisiana collapsed from Katrina.
According to Wikipedia, Katrina was so bad that because many car accidents along I-89 occurred from vehicles traveling too fast for the watery road conditions. Motorists hydroplaned across and off of I-89 resulting in motor vehicle accidents, injuries and deaths.
How many injuries from car accidents can be accounted for in hurricane injury and death
According to Morantz and American Family Physicians, car and vehicle crashes made up approximately 7.2% of vehicle related injuries or 145 approximately. According to Rappaport et. al., about one-third of 200 fatalities occurred as a direct result of Hurricane Katrina causing car crashes that resulted in death.
According to Rappaport et. al., AMS, July 1, 2016, 2-3% of the traffic fatalities were caused from downed power lights following Katrina. These open intersection crashes are clearly foreseeable following Hurricane IDA. About half of the 80 evacuation related fatalities (40) in Katrina were a result of the hysteria caused from people panicking to leave the area before Hurricane Katrina hit where they had car accidents for a myriad of reasons.
Rappaport created a statistical category of tree-related deaths with motor vehicle accidents. He calculated that over 30 deaths from tree-related deaths were a direct result of car crashes with trees.
According to meteorologist, Ari Sarsalari, the number one danger for car drivers in surging waters is driving through floods and drowning.
The main reasons people die in hurricanes
- Drivers who panic during the evacuation process are often likely to act negligently and have accidents with other drivers.
- Drivers who fail to heed flood warnings from meteorologists and news stations and drive into areas that are flooded and underwater will cause everyone in the vehicle to die from drowning.
- High winds will cause tree-related deaths where drivers who have panicked or act hysterically end up dying after driving into a fallen tree.
- High winds and floods will cause substantial power outages which will result in a failure of the traffic light system in many cities in Louisiana and Mississippi which will cause many accidents and deaths at intersections without signals.
- Destruction of roadways, bridges and interstate highways will lead to motor vehicles and drivers having accidents from driving on highways and bridges which are destroyed or in poor condition following Hurricane Ida's cessation.
What can really be expected for total deaths in comparison from Katrina to Ida
The total number of motorists to die during Hurricane Ida will likely be just as high as it was in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina occurred. History tells us that data gatherers, historians and meteorologists will study the rather significant number of motor vehicle accidents and car crashes causing death following Hurricane Ida.
Hurricane Ida will hit a wide path from Louisiana to Mississippi which will ultimately result in downed powerlines, fallen trees, flooded streets, collapsed bridges, destruction to highways and roadways as well as other destruction to buildings, vehicles and people. The true number of people who were injured from hurricane Katrina as opposed to died is not well reported and the statistics from Louisiana are poor for 2005.
A reasonable projection for actual deaths related to motor vehicles that are a result of Hurricane Ida will likely reach hundreds of deaths to drivers and their passengers due to careless drivers failing to heed governmental warnings to evacuate prior to the hurricane and/or stay home and avoid driving after the hurricane.
Thousands of motor vehicle injuries, as opposed to motor vehicle deaths, are likely to result from Hurricane Ida.
Governmental statistics fail to accurately record all injuries due to the fact that many drivers and passengers do not have health insurance and do not initially report an injury on the first date of accident. There are many other reasons for this statistical occurrence. The reasons for the failure to report injury on the date of the accident are as follows:
- Drivers and their passengers without health insurance will fail to go to hospital or health care providers to avoid medical bills.
- Law enforcement will be unable to attend 911 calls during a hurricane because of governmental orders that all people are to stay at home if they have not evacuated.
- Hospitals who are already flooded with Covid-19 patients in Louisiana will be unable to provide care to people injured from motor vehicle injuries.
- Many people who drown in floods from past hurricanes are never recovered and therefore going unreported.
- Statistics maintained by the State of Louisiana and the CDC as well as by the insurance industry can only calculate the total number of injuries and deaths within a certain statistical deviation and many injuries and deaths are never calculated in these statistical databases.
- Many illegal aliens and undocumented citizens in Louisiana and Mississippi that are injured and/or killed from car accidents may never be counted similar to how the Census bureau is unable to make accurate population estimates due to illegal aliens.
One thing is certain, thousands of motorists will be injured by careless drivers venturing out into the storm in cars and pickups and hundreds of motorists and their passengers will die as a direct result of Hurricane Ida.
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