1995's Hurricane Luis' death toll? 19 or 1,000+?

[HarlequinBoy]

Okay, so I was reading on Wikipedia about Hurricane Luis, a storm I had never really explored. Everyone knows Wikipedia can't be completely trusted, but rarely do I really find standout errors or head scratching figures. Under the "St. Martin" heading in the article this sentence really threw me for a loop, "The hurricane killed nine people (two in the French side and seven in the Dutch side), and possibly 1,000 people drowned in the lagoon according to some sources." The official death toll listed for Hurricane Luis' impacts on the Antilles, the US, and Canada is 19. Where is this 1,000 people coming from? There's no source and it seems highly unlikely that 1,000 drowning in 1995 could be a possibility, rather than a certainty. Anybody have any insight into this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Luis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Luis#St._Martin

[Chacor]

It's Wikipedia, and the claim isn't cited. I wouldn't read too much into the claim.

[HurricaneBill]

Yeah, sometimes conspiracy theorists come up with wild claims about hurricane death tolls.

An infamous one with Andrew was that thousands of undocumented migrant workers died.

A more recent example was with Charley. Remember the claims that there were hundreds of bodies at a demolished Holiday Inn?

I'm surprised I've never really heard any conspiracy theories about Katrina's death toll. I know Katrina is ripe with other conspiracy theories.