Hundreds of bodies still unidentified (Katrina)

[sabra]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509290151sep29,1,4800188.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Hundreds of bodies still unidentified


BATON ROUGE, La. -- A month after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Louisiana coast, coroners have positively identified just 32 of the nearly 800 corpses collected at a temporary morgue, officials said Wednesday. Only about a third of the recovered bodies have been even tentatively identified.

In the first public accounting of the dead, the state's chief medical examiner acknowledged that some victims may never be identified, and for many others the date and cause of death may never be known.

"These are horrible times," Dr. Louis Cataldie, the medical examiner in charge of the effort, told reporters. "It's extremely frustrating."

Forensic experts said the effort has been compromised by the sheer scale of flooding over hundreds of square miles, the destruction of medical and dental records, the loss of physical evidence, and the rapid deterioration of corpses in toxic water and subtropical heat and humidity. Many victims lived in low-income areas where medical and dental care was often poor or haphazard.

[babylonsister]

1. Only 800 fatalities? That number sounds fishy. nt

[M155Y_A1CH]

9. And I smell a rat....

This on the 22nd:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1798433

"New Orleans: Many more bodies expected
22/09/2005 - 08:25:32

Searchers smashed through doors in New Orleans, bringing their hunt for the dead to homes that had been locked and to blocks hardest hit by Katrina’s flooding.

Behind those doors, officials said they expected a sharply escalating body count even as the overall death toll passed 1,000.

“There still could be quite a few, especially in the deepest flooded areas,” said US Coast Guard Capt. Jeffrey Pettitt, who is overseeing the retrieval of bodies. “Some of the houses, they haven’t been in yet.” Officials said searchers were beginning to find more children.

The death toll in Louisiana stood at 799 yesterday, an increase of 153 bodies since the weekend and nearly 80 percent of the 1,036 deaths attributed to Hurricane Katrina across the Gulf Coast region. Pettitt and other officials would not speculate on what the final tally could be. They said the effort could last another four to six weeks."

....and today this number again?
Maybe the qualifier is "temporary morgue"?

on edit: context

[Pepper32]

10. Well, Hurricane Rita has taken care of the rest.

I wonder if those areas are still flooded and if there will be any remains left other than bones? This is working out perfect for Bush :sarcasm: :rant:

[fasttense]

2. There was the huge pet python that got away during Katrina.

When they found the snake his body was distended in the shape of a human being. Then there was that huge alligator they found in the flood waters. He was so old, he only lived on carrion. So there are probably hundreds of missing that will never be found. But since no one is bothering to do a consolidated list of the missing, there is no way to estimate the number of dead. How convenient for the brush administration.

[babylonsister]

3. I hadn't heard about that python. Gawd, what a way to

go! :cry:

[tanyev]

4. Good chance the person was already dead.

If that helps...

[Marie26]

7. I don't know... that sort of sounds like an urban legend to me.

[LostinVA]

12. Check snopes -- they answered it

[expatriot]

5. link? I am not questioning you. just would like more info. nt

[LostinVA]

11. The python story was on Snopes as fake

(the python was real, but it wasn't NOLA). A DUer post6ed about that this week.

[Marie26]

6. NewsHour had a report on this

The coroner reporting only 32 bodies of 700+ have actually been ID'd & returned to families. He said they don't want to release the bodies unless they can identify them - but can't even do that because most records are destroyed. It makes me sad to think that many, many of these people will never be identified.

[GayCanuck]

8. there would have been far less

if "Brownie" was still running the Arabian Horse lobby.