More than 2000 dead bodies collected in only ONE facility on only ONE day

[John Doe II]

I was assigned to a team that blocked off the street in front of a building that FEMA is using for a morgue, on the corner of Besson and Iberville. It's a plain warehouse that sits in the back of other buildings, with a large area for truck movement.

We're letting anybody attached to FEMA into the morgue, and any contractors FEMA has hired to bring the warehouse up to standards. The warehouse is almost the length of a football field - about 75 to 80 yards.

I take my hat off to the FEMA people. They've really been tireless, working day and night. They brought in all kinds of special medical people - we're talking a high-tech operation, from DNA people to forensic doctors.

I don't refer to the hurricane victims being brought in here as "bodies." They are people. I'm trying to give them the utmost respect.

This is a federal installation now, a closed facility. We've fenced off the entire area - about 25 acres - with an 8-foot chain-link fence.

I'm stationed at the front gate, and wear a black tactical uniform and black ball cap. I'm armed with a .357 pistol. I work 12- to 16-hour days.

The refrigerated trucks can collect and bring in about 120-150 people a day. Seventeen trucks came in yesterday.

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:8hhL5nN9WQQJ:www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/09/08/sections/local/local/article_667202.php+%22We%27re+letting+anybody+attached+to+FEMA+into+the+morgue,+and+any+contractors+FEMA+has+hired+to+bring+the+warehouse+up+to+standards.+The+warehouse+is+almost+the+length+of+a+football+field+-+about+75+to+80+yards.%22&hl=fr


120 x 17 = 2,040 in ONE day to ONE facility.

[justiceischeap]

1. Not to rain on your parade

But it isn't clear if all those trucks were full. I'd assume so but an arguement can be made that not all the trucks are filled to capacity or at all.

Just saying. I certainly expect there to be a high death toll and I also certainly expect our government to try and hide the real number, which would be hard to do because they do have to file death certificates.

[longship]

3. That's correct.

...they do have to file death certificates.

...which are public records and are generally available to the public.

Also, there will be thousands of people looking for their loved ones who will not rest until they have resolution to their queries. Hiding deaths in this affair is not only not practical, it is not possible.

[CountAllVotes]

6. they are GONE

They likely drowned and sunk to the depths of the Bayou - were eaten by alligators etc. :( So no, they will never know.

What happened to the 2,000 post office employees that were missing from NO that I heard about yesterday that could not be found?

[longship]

8. NO PO employees

I believe they were missing because they evacuated, not because they died in the flood.

[John Doe II]

4. Agreed

the exact number is hard to pinpoint. Therefore I used also only 120 and not 150. In any case doing this macabre calculation I was shoked by the result. Only one day. Only one facility.

[zann725]

28. I agree with you that the 'numbers' HAVE to be much higher than said.

On the basis of lack of water particularly...and the hot, humid heat...people trapped on asphalt roof-tops, and standing on asphalt over-passes for days. My understanding that anything over 48 hours without water can endanger most people lives. And a lot of these people went 5-7 days without food or water. And if we focus our estimate on JUST the physically more vulnerable citizens...elderly, babies, pregnant women, the disable and ill (particularly those in need of daily med's)...it would NOT be unreasonable to estimate a 10% death toll...which would be about 50,000. Then factor in all those who died from drinking polluted water, and those shot my the "militia" forces guarding them. And there were those several 'fires' in the city a several days after the flood, in which some bodies also no doubt disappeared.

As I've said here before, we need some REAL 'accounting' of body counts since this was at least 'negligent homicide'...if not outright genocide.

[HereSince1628]

7. True, we don't know what we don't know.

And, ok to say so.

[Imagevision]

25. why can't investigative reporting verify the truth...?

http://downingstreetmemo.com/

[CountAllVotes]

2. I'm sure the toll is very very high

I ran into a young man last night and he told me he had about 2 dozen relatives from about 50 miles north of NO and they had not heard a single word from even one of them! Yikes!!!!!!

:kick:

[chknltl]

5. Ok , thinking.... not one of my better talents.

on edit this was a not so well thought out post by me, I have removed it for that very reason.

[justiceischeap]

10. Maybe the bodies were looted.

:sarcasm:

[William769]

9. The Government has no reason to hide the death toll

There was so much screaming last year that there were hundreds if not thousands of bodies being hidden after Hurricane Charley. As one that went through Charley, I can tell you that was not the case & it was proven also. If they tried to hide that kind of body count don't you think the families would have something to say?

I will give the Government the benefit of the doubt until otherwise proven wrong.

[chknltl]

11. You are right and....

...I can add support to your argument with the fact that our government is giving a very accurate accounting of those who have lost their lives over in Iraq, in spite of what some folks might be saying. I stand corrected. (Thinking is not one of my better talents sometimes)

[pretzel4gore]

15. there's several filters

there's the military, of course, where injured soldiers are evac'ed outta iraq and the dead never counted. then there's the pentagon/pr establishment, reacting to the white house pressure to 'playdown' any numbers (the plunge protection team doing same thing with stock markets)...then there's the pigmedia, operating at different levels, with busheviks at many different positions randomly stamping out bad news- and with the national exposure vetted by the rove boys, who remember told us we were 45 minutes away from 'mushroom cloud' evidence of wmd's in iraq....

[chknltl]

16. Here is the best unfiltered one:

http://icasualties.org/oif/Methodology.aspx
This is their methodology page but please peruse the rest of the site.
There was a bruha a month or so ago here in the DU over weather or not the government was presenting factual stats on the deaths over in Iraq. One of the stronger arguments was that the death tolls over in hospitals outside of the war-zones was not being included in the overall tallies reported to the media. (That argument made sense to me too, until this source was provided). Like you or anyone else in the DU I trust this government less than half as far as I could toss them but I do not think they will try to play fast and loose with casualties coming out of this gulf disaster. (They would get caught and the American electorate would find a way to bring back that fun punishment of tar and feathering).

[pretzel4gore]

18. it's the 'nevermind those facts, they're political'

argument the gopigs and their mediawhores somehow get away with all the time....the bush gov and the repubs seem to have crossed the rubicon in terms of lying outright to the people...they don't have to persuade anybody anything, they simply have to keep deluding the deluded, and that means keep on lying.....it's like a big game now.
when reagan was 'crowned' king tut of gopusa in 1980, there was a relentless campaign of lies to discredit the dems and promote the rightwing- and even with fairness doctrine in place, the mass media blatantly preferred reagan to jimmy and reagan it was (though he only got 37 percent of electorate, he was called 'popular' so much it became urban legend)...this pattern of lying brings to mind the foreward in the penguin edition of sinclair lewis's 'babbitt'...the professor who wrote the foreward discussing 'babbitt' and its effect upon the readers, esp the ruling elite of america, said that in the main the ruling elite understood that there was, in the US body politic, an element of righteous greed aw shucks casual cruelty typified by the bizmen in 'babbitt' that, if the ruling class ever lost control of them ( rightwing fascist types) it meant certain calamity for america.....reagan was the beginning of the calamity, jr bush might only be 2nd act.....

[Zynx]

20. Um, the Iraq stuff has been totally debunked again and again and again

Dead from injuries ARE counted. Shut up now.

[neweurope]

13. You should never give THIS government the benefit of the doubt :)

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[chknltl]

14. True that but.....

....there is a non-partisan group who does keep track of those who have died in the service of our country. Military and civilian casualties counts jibed exactly with the governments. There was a bit of bruha a few months back in the DU over this one. The government has given an honest body count there, regardless of how much they might prefer not to. They will likely have to do the same again, to get caught doing otherwise would be sheer suicide.

[Imagevision]

21. I suspect any info from the Bush administration must be scrutinized

Bushco has lied too many damn times to accept any claim as fact!

You can't report what you can't see or know.

http://downingstreetmemo.com/

[we can do it]

23. Puleeze....it would benefit * to lower the count...

Then this disaster will seem smaller, not as important as 9/11...or that their incompetence really wasn't so bad.

[Imagevision]

26. which is why the focus is on air port reopening-water level going down

death count news is now fading as they cover more neighborhoods, we're witnessing another Rove cover-up...!


http://downingstreetmemo.com/

[leftupnorth]

12. Winston Wolf

Has arrived and Vincent and Jules are furiously cleaning out the back of the car. Jimmy's makin' Mister Wolf another cup of coffee......



Even 17 trucks with 10 Bodies in each would be 170. what's the official death count now?

[mbee]

17. I keep reading reports the death toll won't reach 10,000 so, naturally,

I figured they'll keep the number to 9,999.

[Lorien]

22. On NPR today they said that the official death toll was just under 300

for the entire Gulf region. If that's so, then why were bodies left rotting for so long?

[Quezacoatl]

24. Body count vs missing

Together with a body count shouldn't there be an ongoing count of the number of missing people? It's unlikely that every body will be found but that doesn't mean they were not victims.

After 9-11 the media presumed that almost all of the missing were dead and every attempt was made to reconcile the numbers. There should be some kind of similar reconciliation for Katrina's victims.

Anyone know the current number of missing people?

[tinfoilinfor2005]

19. I think he makes one great point that shouldn't be overlooked:

As much as the top brass at FEMA have mucked up this whole thing, the individual FEMA people are "tireles, working day and night." I would hate to think that the anger with this organization could make them think that they are not appreciated.

[CabalPowered]

27. That is my feeling as well..

I know a gal that was personally involved in the response to the wildfires in California in 2003. Her family's neighborhood was burnt to the ground. She arrived on scence several hours before any FEMA officials. When a FEMA guy showed up, he asked her "what do you need?" She rambled off a laundry list of stuff thier neighborhood was going to need and several hours later a flotilla of trucks showed up with everything she asked for. The FEMA guy continued to work 16 hour days for several weeks to make sure these people were taken care of. She had nothing but praise for FEMA and their help.