Just so we don't lose sight of what could quickly become hidden. They are expecting to find more elderly and are coming across more children.
Grim search for bodies continues; death toll expected to rise
04:50 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Associated Press
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On Tuesday, Pettitt's team gave the mayor's office a map of the areas where the more intensive phase of the search for bodies should be conducted. On Wednesday, emergency crews hacked their way into houses in the Ninth Ward, an impoverished section of the city notable for being the birthplace of Fats Domino and other black musicians.
Much of the final search was being conducted in eastern New Orleans. Crews probed areas of the city that just recently have been drained enough to allow ground searches -- neighborhoods that were closest to the fractured levees and bore the brunt of the floodwaters' force.
As the weeks pass, the urgency of the task increases because bodies are decomposing rapidly.
Bodies are still found scattered around homes and in streets. On Tuesday, a badly decomposed corpse in the Ninth Ward lay draped over a fence, its nearly skeletized head resting on the ground and one leg jutting in the air. There was no outward indication it had been marked for removal by the search crews.
Reporters and photographers roaming the city have recorded numerous bodies in recent days around the city. One that had been marked remained in a house and visible from the street for a week before a reporter notified authorities. It was removed that day.
Pettitt, the Coast Guard official in charge of retrieval, acknowledged frustration with the process and with trying to coordinate with Kenyon International Emergency Services, the private company that has contracted with the state to remove the bodies. Nagin last week acknowledged there had been problems with the body removal, at least in the early stages, partly because Kenyon workers were having trouble with the conditions.
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL092105grim.7dcf8ce6.html