Name: Will Texas ever figure out how many people died in the winter storm?
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Will Texas ever figure out how many people died in the winter storm?

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6:00 AM on Mar 1, 2021 CSTThe bodies kept coming to the morgue, but none were leaving.Frozen to death from hypothermia. Poisoned by carbon monoxide. Trapped in home fires. Dead from crashes on icy roads.The Dallas County medical examiner’s Office was close to capacity and funeral homes couldn’t pick up bodies as the winter storm made roads icy and caused millions of power outages across Texas.More bodies came last week as families, unable to check on loved ones during the storm, discovered relatives died in their homes and the bodies of the homeless were found. Dr. Jeffrey Barnard, Dallas County medical examiner, asked hospitals to hold onto bodies a few extra days. Morgue doctors stored others in the cooling trucks that are used only in emergencies.Across the state, authorities initially suspected at least 40 deaths were caused by the winter storm, The Associated Press reported, and the number is likely to grow. Doctors know many of those who died were victims of the storm. But proving it will take months. Other deaths may be impossible to pin on the storm because the bodies decayed, said Barnard, whose office is investigating whether , as well as deaths from other counties.“We’ll probably never have a really accurate number,” Barnard said.Related:State officials are trying to get a complete death toll. The state’s Department of State Health Services instructed doctors, medical examiners and justices of the peace who certify deaths to flag the ones that may have resulted directly, indirectly or even possibly from the winter storm. Its own staff is combing media reports and will inquire about those deaths not marked as storm-related, State Health Services spokeswoman Lara Anton said.“This process takes a while to complete, and it will likely be weeks before we have a preliminary number to share,” Anton said.In many Texas counties, justices of the peace — not medical professionals — determine what cause and manner of death are on the official record. The elected judges may order autopsies but often don’t if the circumstances surrounding a death are obvious, said Judge Rick Hill, Brazos County justice of the peace.Hill, president of the Justice of the Peace and Constables Association of Texas, has taught other JPs about certifying deaths for the Texas Justice Court Training Center.Winter storm deaths will be no different, except judges might order a few more autopsies than they normally would for the elderly, Hill said. Older people often don’t get an autopsy, as officials expect death was due to natural causes — unless evidence suggests otherwise. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia famously was not autopsied after his 2016 death at the Cibolo Creek Ranch resort in Presidio County. He was 79.Hill doesn’t expect a dramatic increase in autopsies but can foresee fellow judges calling for them to determine if carbon monoxide poisoning, for example, was to blame.But even those can be easy to deduce. If a family is found in the living room around a grill or a person is found after the street was without power for most of the week, a justice might confidently predict the death was accelerated by the winter conditions, Hill said.Related:A car crash on icy roads and a house fire during the frigid temperatures would probably get marked as a result of the February 2021 winter storm too, Hill said.The challenge for judges and doctors alike will be the bodies that have warmed and decayed.“We don’t make things up,” Hill said. “Unless you really know, I mean, I wouldn’t be comfortable putting it on the death certificate.”But the state’s Health Services Department is asking death certifiers to flag even those that are possibly storm-related. Deaths that occurred in the disaster-affected area and during the storm period “but for which there is inadequate information available to make that determination at the time of recovery” should also be marked, Anton said.The time element is critical, said Barnard, the Dallas County medical examiner. A person discovered on Friday could’ve died during the storm when temperatures reached negative 2 degrees or after when they soared to 81 degrees.“If you don’t have any good evidence that it did occur [during the storm], then you may just have to not put that down,” Barnard said.Dallas police suspect at least one man, 34-year old Lorenzo Charles Washington III, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Garland police believe two men, 41-year-old Arnulfo Escalante Lopez and 28-year-old Jose Anguiano Torres, were also victims of carbon monoxide poisoning.The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office is investigating seven deaths — including three of from Denton County — as possibly storm-related. That number could change as test results are completed, a spokeswoman added.In Conroe, near Houston, 11-year-old was found dead in his bed, presumably from hypothermia. The deaths of in Abilene are probably linked to the storm, officials there have said, including a 60-year-old man who died in his recliner.Among the cases the Dallas County medical examiner’s office is investigating, at least two were obviously hypothermia cases and at least three people died in a house fire, Barnard said.But pressed to remember the details of other deaths, he said, “I think I have PTSD trying to remember all these cases … and we’re still busy.”Get email alerts on breaking news stories as soon as they happen.By signing up you agree to our

6:00 AM on Mar 1, 2021 CSTThe bodies kept coming to the morgue, but none were leaving.Frozen to death from hypothermia. Poisoned by carbon monoxide. Trapped in home fires. Dead from crashes on icy roads.The Dallas County medical examiner’s Office was close to capacity and funeral homes couldn’t pick up bodies as the winter storm made roads icy and caused millions of power outages across Texas.More bodies came last week as families, unable to check on loved ones during the storm, discovered relatives died in their homes and the bodies of the homeless were found. Dr. Jeffrey Barnard, Dallas...

Will Texas ever figure out how many people died in the winter storm?

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