Many More Bodies Expected to Be Unearthed in New Orleans as Teams Reach Ar

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBF0U77WDE.html

Many More Bodies Expected to Be Unearthed in New Orleans as Teams Reach Areas That Were First to Flood

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Searchers smashed through doors in New Orleans on Wednesday, 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 U.S. 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 are beginning to find more children.

The death toll in Louisiana stood at 799 on Wednesday, 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.

About 500 people are involved in the search of locked homes, the third and most intense phase of the recovery effort. Initially, authorities made a hasty sweep through neighborhoods to identify the living and dead. That was followed by a door-to-door search, though locked doors were off-limits.

[SmokingJacket]

1. 80% of dead have been in LA, but several MS cities are GONE...

I wonder what's going to show in in MS.

[spuddonna]

2. "locked doors were off-limits"

How many people leave their doors unlocked nowadays in the US?

This pisses me off to no end... There are going to be dead bodies because the 'first sweep' missed unconscious or dying people who didn't respond to 'knocks'! :mad:

[Skittles]

3. I think it sounds utterly ridiculous

with all due caution, this a disaster and appropriate measures need to be taken - this just sounds ridiculous. How many unconcious people are bing overlooked?

[spuddonna]

4. Well, they found a guy yesterday, so there are still people there!

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/21/katrina.rescue.ap/index.html
"Rescuers find elderly man alive, wife dead - (9/21/05)
'We have half a happy ending'
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- John and Leola Lyons stayed together, locked in their neat little blue house, riding out the killer storm and the flood that followed.

A pair of agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found the elderly couple inside their house Tuesday, more than three weeks after Hurricane Katrina roared through New Orleans.

John was keeping watch over his wife's body.

ATF agents Charles Smith and Sam Cohen, part of the massive hurricane relief effort here, went to a suburban store for supplies earlier in the day and Smith struck up a conversation with an old man named Leo Barrow."

[all.of.me]

5. and what happened to all those hundreds of bodies

that were floating around, according to very early eye witness accounts?!

[leftchick]

6. they won't be counted

they may have died from other causes. :puke:

[RC]

7. Heart attacks and stuff caused by the stress of job loss.

[all.of.me]

8. and fear of water

how many excuses will they come up with? i am curious to see how we fare with rita.

[OneBlueSky]

9. the kind of search that was needed three days after the disaster . . .

when the bodies were still living, breathing people . . . waiting for rescue by their government . . .

disgraceful doesn't even begin to describe it . . .