I have a gut feeling about the death toll from Katrina which I hope is right. I believe that state officials are greatly exaggerating the numbers (up to 10,000 plus).

I remember on 9/11 people throwing around numbers like this from Reuters:

Officials feared the death toll could climb into the thousands - perhaps tens of thousands - as 40,000 people alone worked in the steel and glass Trade Center towers and a nearby 47-story building, World Trade Center No. 7, which collapsed seven hours later after a raging fire.

I also imagine that the media was pretty much restricted to certain areas of New Orleans - a highway overpass, the Superdome, the Convention Center. They have no way of knowing what will be found in the rest of the city and theories like "dead people drowning in attics" has replaced actually fact-finding.

I bet (hope) the number turns up being less than a thousand (in New Orleans).