In my experience initial reports being low doesn’t necessarily translate into final casualty accounts. When the entire infrastructure is destroyed (see Haiti, t

In my experience initial reports being low doesn’t necessarily translate into final casualty accounts. When the entire infrastructure is destroyed (see Haiti, the 2004 Christmas tsunami) counting the number of dead is much harder and isn’t the top priority. On the flip side, I’ve often found that ‘missing person’ reports can overcount the number of casualties. Again, when infrastructure is destroyed or when there’s a locally-devastating disaster it’s hard to get an actual account of who was actually in the area when disaster struck.