Mr Imperato had also opposed the creation of LDPs, saying they risked becoming a "kangaroo court".

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But an accurate estimate of how many people died may not be available for some time, Imperato says, because it will require tallying up missing people, many of whom were swept away from where they died or out to sea.

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"We had no idea as to whether this could turn from 94 cases originally calculated into 9, 400 cases, " says Pascal James Imperato, chairman of preventative medicine at the State University of New York-Downstate Medical School and a former New York City health commissioner.

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