Helping the dead reclaim identity (140 bodies a day max)

[preciousdove]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-canedarryl0905sep09,0,7114500.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

Darryl E. Owens | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 9, 2005

...DMORT teams are composed of medical examiners, coroners, pathologists, forensic dentists, radiologists, mental-health counselors, funeral directors and support personnel, all paid volunteers. Teams typically consist of 26 members. But the number here swelled to 150, given the round-the-clock shifts dictated by the scope of their mission....

There, the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, in conjunction with Kenyon International Emergency Services, an international mortuary firm specializing in disasters, is sweeping the city. The 82nd locates the dead and Kenyon retrieves the bodies.

After that, the dead are trucked to St. Gabriel, where Edwards' team works to eventually reunite families with those whom they've lost....

A number of families are nearing that closure. St. Gabriel authorities have not updated the body count since Tuesday, but say 59 have come in, only a trickle of the hundreds or thousands of bodies expected to arrive here. The team can examine up to 140 bodies each day....