Why don't they have a couple more morgues?
http://nytimes.com/2005/09/12/national/nationalspecial/12bodies.html?hp=&pagewanted=printSeptember 12, 2005 New York Times
Identifying Hurricane Dead Poses Unusually Daunting
Challenges
By SHAILA DEWAN
BATON ROUGE, La., Sept. 11 - Faced with the loss of dental
records, the rapid decomposition of bodies in this hot
coastal environment and the vast destruction of personal
possessions, public health officials face a difficult, if not
insurmountable, task in identifying the countless dead from
Hurricane Katrina.
<snip>
"The ability to capture useful information from that
body diminishes week to week," said Terry M. Edwards,
the commander of the morgue operations in St. Gabriel, La.,
run by the Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Team, a
division of FEMA.
Workers from Kenyon Worldwide Emergency Services, a company
contracted to retrieve bodies, reached Louisiana at the
beginning of September but then awaited instructions from
FEMA for several days, said Bill Berry, a spokesman for the
company.
<snip>
In Louisiana, the FEMA morgue is not making identifications
or performing autopsies, both of which are the responsibility
of the parish coroners, Mr. Johannessen said. The morgue is
taking fingerprints, dental X-rays and photographs of bodies,
as well as collecting any personal items found with them, to
be used for later identification. Mr. Edwards, the morgue
commander, declined to talk about the conditions of the
bodies that had reached the morgue, which can handle 140
bodies a day.
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