How do they determine a body count in large disasters?

Question

China and Burma recently had huge natural disasters where thousands have died. When officials count the dead, how do they keep track of which bodies have already been counted? Is it possible to count one body 2 or 3 times, while not counting other bodies?

Answer 1

When we had the earthquake on July 1990, the bodies were tagged (M.E. calls them Jane/John Doe 1) to avoid counting them again.

Answer 2

Actually they use statistics.

Which means they basically guess.

You can see that in the China disaster. The original number was 12,000. Now they are saying 26,000.

The key to the real number for this tragedy is that the epicenter of the quake of the size of Maine to Texas. HUGE.

And millions, about 6 million, of people lived in that area.

80% of buildings were destroyed towards the inner epicenter.  So, look for that number to keep going up and up.

Answer 3

I'm not sure... but maybe that's the reason for there usually being so much difference between the numbers from the press and numbers from other sources?

not sure, sorry.