NEW ORLEANS – The bodies are no longer being dragged from houses and buildings toppled or swamped by Hurricane Katrina, but nearly two years later, many medical experts think the storm is still killing.

Storm survivors are dying from the effects of both psychological and physical stress, with the causes including dust and mold still in dwellings, financial problems and fear of crime, health experts and officials said.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Katrina is still killing our residents," said Dr. Frank Minyard, coroner for Orleans Parish. "People with pre-existing conditions that are made worse by the stress of living here after the storm. Old people who are just giving up. People who are killing themselves because they feel they can't go on."

Some say an in-depth federal analysis is needed, despite a new state report that found no significant increase in deaths in the New Orleans area from January 2006 through June 2006. The state Department of Health and Hospitals is still compiling figures for the last six months of 2006.

Some New Orleans doctors questioned the accuracy of the population figures used to determine the death rate, saying they might have been too high. Dr. Fred Cerise, secretary for the Department of Health and Hospitals, said he is comfortable with the population data, which he said came from the Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The city was abandoned after Katrina struck Aug. 29, 2005, and many people did not begin returning until mid-2006.

The official Katrina death toll in New Orleans stands at about 1,100. State health officials said deaths haven't been listed as Katrina-related since the end of 2005, except for bodies found under storm wreckage. But Dr. Minyard said he believes that the hurricane is still behind many deaths.

Dr. Ronald Kessler, professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and head of a group that has monitored 3,000 exiled Katrina survivors, said reconstructing an individual's mental and physical state before death might help in determining exact causes of death.

"There are high rates of mental health problems among the survivors, and previous research has found that mental disorders are predictors of earlier death rates," Dr. Kessler said.

Said Dr. Minyard, "Years from now, when they talk about post-traumatic stress, New Orleans after Katrina will be the poster child."