by Kevin Caruso
September 5, 2005
The same day the levee was repaired and flood water began to be pumped from New Orleans, Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orlenas, said that as many as 10,000 people could be dead because of the hurricane.
"It wouldn't be unreasonable to have 10,000 deaths,” Nagin said during an interview on the “Today” show.
All of the homes and buildings in New Orleans will need to be thoroughly searched to locate those who died, but such a search has not been possible thus far because of the floodwater.
As the floodwater continues to recede, however, search efforts will be accelerated.