Nola.Com Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated

"That the nation's front-line emergency management believed the body count would resemble that of a bloody battle in a war is but one of scores of examples of myths about the Dome and the Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the media and even some of New Orleans' top officials, including the mayor and police superintendent. As the fog of warlike conditions in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath has cleared, the vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees have turned out to be false, or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to key military, law enforcement, medical and civilian officials in positions to know.

"I think 99 percent of it is bulls---," said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Lachney, who played a key role in security and humanitarian work inside the Dome. "Don't get me wrong, bad things happened, but I didn't see any killing and raping and cutting of throats or anything. ... Ninety-nine percent of the people in the Dome were very well-behaved.""

redux [09.07.05]
Guardian Unlimited Murder and rape - fact or fiction?

"There were two babies who had their throats slit. The seven-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in the Superdome. And the corpses laid out amid the excrement in the convention centre.

In a week filled with dreadful scenes of desperation and anger from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina some stories stood out.

But as time goes on many remain unsubstantiated and may yet prove to be apocryphal."

Reason Online The Deadly Bigotry of Low Expectations?

"All along Hurricane Katrina's Evacuation Belt, in cities from Houston to Baton Rouge to Leesville, Louisiana, the exact same rumors are spreading faster than red ants at a picnic. The refugees from the United States' worst-ever natural disaster, it is repeatedly said, are bringing with them the worst of New Orleans' now-notorious lawlessness: looting, armed carjacking, and even the rape of children.

"By Thursday," the Chicago Tribune's Howard Witt reported, "local TV and radio stations in Baton Rouge...were breezily passing along reports of cars being hijacked at gunpoint by New Orleans refugees, riots breaking out in the shelters set up in Baton Rouge to house the displaced, and guns and knives being seized.

The only problem—none of the reports were true."

ABC News Evacuation Disrupted by Gunshot Report

"The evacuation of the Superdome was temporarily disrupted Thursday after a shot was reported fired at a military helicopter. No injuries were immediately reported."

"Laura Brown, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Washington, said she had no such report.

"We're controlling every single aircraft in that airspace and none of them reported being fired on," she said, adding that the FAA was in contact with the military as well as civilian aircraft."

University of Delaware Disaster Research Center Looting In Disaster: A General Profile Of Victimization

"We are aware as anyone else in the research area that while looting is commonly believed to occur in disasters, almost no social or behavioral scientist looking €or the phenomena has found much evidence for it. In fact, the supposed widespread existence or prevalence of looting in such situations is frequently cited as one of the more important disaster myths which researchers have uncovered. In a moment, we ourselves will discuss for background purposes the large gap between popular and journalistic beliefs about looting, and the inability of scientists to find much empirical support for the common belief. Now, among the more important scientific conclusions are that looting incidents are typically very rare in community disasters, that the contexts of natural and technological disasters very seldom lead to an increase in anti-social or criminal behavior (including looting) beyond that which prevails in pre-disaster times in affected communities, and that such rare looting incidents as do occur are carried out not by the affected population, but by outsiders including security forces brought in obstensibly to prevent such behavior."