Following some discussion on Usenet, querying the official death toll in Louisiana following the Hurricane Katrina disaster, I became intrigued enough to do a quick Google search myself. There does indeed seem to be some kind of discrepancy in the reporting, so I've put together a brief time-line of reports, with links to third-party reports.

As people have pointed out, nothing was hidden or suppressed during the Indonesian tsunami and reports were coming in daily, yet official reports from Louisiana are decidedly sketchy.

30th Aug 2005	none	NBC10 reports that no deaths have been officially confirmed in Louisiana.
	50+	The Westerly Sun reports an estimated 50 dead in Harrison County but Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials refused to confirm the deaths.
1st Sept 2005	180	National Geographic report the official death toll at 180 as of Thursday morning.
	100+	MSNBC report New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin as saying "Minimum hundreds, most likely, thousands"
	110	The Scotsman report 110 confirmed dead in Louisiana.
2nd Sept 2005	10,000+	Yahoo reports US Senator David Vitter as saying that the death toll from Hurricane Katrina could top 10,000 in Louisiana alone.
3rd Sept 2005	Near 60	Insurance Journal reports that search and rescue teams have confirmed 59 deaths in Louisiana.
	147	The Washington Post reports Mississippi officials as putting the New Orleans death toll at 147
		MediaCorp repeat David Vitter's estimate of 10,000+
5th Sept 2005	159	The Los Angeles Times reports that Louisiana medical authorities tallied 59 dead in makeshift morgues and another 100 corpses line on docks east of the flood-swept city.
		Detroit Free Press reports the same story.
		The London Telegraph reports the same story.
		Yahoo reports the same story.
	59	CNN report Louisiana emergency officials as confirming 59 deaths in New Orleans.
6th Sept 2005	71	The Star reports that the toll could top 1000 but the official death toll stood at 71.
7th Sept 2005	71	The Age reports the official toll as 71.
	59	Taiwan News report the official death toll as being 59, but also quote the mayor of New Orleans as saying as many as 10,000 may have died.
8th Sept 2005	83	Arab Times (Kuwait) reports an official death toll of 83 but also reports that the Mayor said as many as 10,000 people may have died and a Louisiana health official revealed Wednesday (7th) that some 25,000 body bags had been brought into the area.
10th Sept 2005	"relatively minor"	BBC News is reported that Col Terry Ebbert, homeland security chief for New Orleans, said early results suggested the death toll might not be as high as feared. "Numbers so far are relatively minor as compared to the dire predictions of 10,000"