Search for Katrina bodies ends in La.; state's death toll at 964

[preciousdove]

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051003/APN/510031078&cachetime=3&template=dateline

The search for bodies of people killed by Hurricane Katrina has ended in Louisiana and more searches will only be conducted if someone reports seeing a body, a state official said Monday....

All agencies conducting the searches have finished their sweeps, but Kenyon International Emergency Services, the private company hired by the state to remove the bodies, is on call if any other body is found, said Bob Johannessen, a spokesman with the state Department of Health and Hospitals....

Last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had completed its role in the search, because its specialties were no longer needed; those services include getting to bodies in attics or other hard-to-reach places or in buildings that may be structurally unsound....

FEMA did nearly 23,000 secondary searches - thorough room-to-room searches - in New Orleans with about a dozen teams.

[malaise]

1. So where are all the missing people

What has happened to all those missing people???

[oldtime dfl_er]

7. My question exactly

I believe it was the Guardian that reported there were still 96 Brits missing a few days ago. And that's just Brits! (I'll try to find a link...)

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/870605

[kestrel91316]

30. They didn't search the attics .........................

so now when they bulldoze the houses and truck the debris away, they will simply vanish.

[raccoon]

51. How do you know that? nt

[kestrel91316]

56. The searchers have been looking in windows, knocking on doors, and

if the door is open they walk through the house. Attics have not been systematically searched.

Maybe they are just lying when they say this in news reports?

[raccoon]

57. I was just asking. nt

[Blaq Dem]

48. The Alligators probably got to them...

...or they rotted into a pile of mush.

However, if we just ignore them, we can say they never existed.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. A neighbor has been involved with recovery and he believes that

the numbers will be lowballed so that we don't look as bad as we actually do at this point.

[Delphinus]

14. I would believe it.

The way they sent people all over, breaking up families sometimes, makes it hard to ever know how many died.

I remember reading, just over the weekend, there are over 10,000 missing!

[annabanana]

3. We need people in the field...

Where are all those missing people? They can't really hide that many people, can they?

[MissWaverly]

11. My friend said his two buddies just came back from N.O.

they were helping with the recovery effort, they said that the water
is full of bodies but they were told not to touch them, to only clear
storm debris.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. Yeah, okay... whatever

ho hum

[merwin]

5. So what do we have to do to get a breakdown of deaths by causes.

Not just of the 964 bodies that they say died in Katrina, but the thousands that actually died during Katrina that were attributed to other things?

[annabanana]

8. you're right

starvation, dehydration, shock, exposure, heart attack, ... are they counting drownings? (that was the levees, not the hurricane)..

[jobycom]

31. They do count those types of deaths.

If they are hiding bodies, they are doing it other ways. Maybe an overly strict interpetation of a body. If they find a badly decomposed body, I wonder if they count it or classify it as body parts, for instance.

[Carolab]

40. It is classified as "remains". n/t

[jobycom]

41. Does that make it a "body?"

[Carolab]

42. No, it makes it remains. It is a "case" until identified.

Then it becomes a body.

[jobycom]

43. So do you think that's what they're doing in NOLA?

[Carolab]

45. That would be standard procedure for Medical Examiners.

But I don't know that they are following standard procedures down there. Didn't an ME in either LA or MI appear on the news about two weeks ago with some rather negative things to say about how the entire process was being conducted?

Here's an article that goes into some detail about what they are doing and how they are not only working for ID but also to collect forensic evidence that will help to determine manner and cause of death.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7992

[louis-t]

6. Say it with me....

Kenyon Hides Bodies for Bush.

[orleans]

47. but i remember reading blanco hired kenyon because fema was

dicking around with a contract and blanco wanted the bodies taken care of.

so she contracts with kenyon? (didn't anyone tell her they have a bit of a wicked history?)

i kept thinking bodies were being drained out with the water--those pipes were huge (especially the first ones they started using) and did they have screens or fliters on them? how many bodies got washed out?

[stillcool]

9. It should be great news....

Why do I feel so sick?

[annabanana]

10. link to the missing?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4960371

[stillcool]

13. Thanks....

that explains my nausea.

[malaise]

15. So where is the media on this n/t

[jobycom]

33. Careful with rumors like that

I heard all sorts of rumors in the days after Katrina. One rumor posted on Free Republic was from a man whose best friend's brother was a paramedic who swore there were thousands of bodies in Hancock County, hanging from trees and littering the ground. I went to Hancock County, and have a lot of friends in the area. The story was completely false.

Another rumor right after the storm was on a blog of a man whose best friend was a drummer who took a boat out to Slidell, and he reported that the city of Slidell was completely washed away and that there were hundreds of bodies floating in the lake, and that the authorities were hiding this fact from people to avoid a panic. That turned out to be false, too. Slidell was hard hit, but not that hard, and it started to recover soon after the hurricane. There was a lot of damage near the lake, but just inland there was very little.

Rumors of 10,000 corpses in warehouse always accompany tragedies. I've heard from people who knew someone who was a completely unimpeachable source that there 10,000 bodies in a warehouse in New York after 9-11, in Bagdad after the invasion (our troops' bodies, of course), etc.

I think they are hiding bodies, using overly beauracratic excuses to not count some of the bodies they've found. But until I see footage of or some confirmable source for 10,000 bodies in a warehouse, I'm not going to count them as real. You live long enough, especially in Texas, you learn to doubt.

[EFerrari]

53. Point well taken. n/t

[Caoimhe]

59. Can someone tell me

what does n/t or nt after a post mean?

[daleo]

60. It means no text in the body of the message. n/t

[EFerrari]

64. It means there is "no text" after the initial statement. like this. n/t

[cdsilv]

36. Statistics......

.... the actuaries will eventualy be able to tell us how many people died between 8/29/05 and 9/30/05 in southern MS, LA, AL, SE TX and NW FL.

They'll have to know, because that is how insurance companies decide how much to charge for various levels of coverage.

Whether it will be made public is for the next set of politicos (2006 & 2008) to decide.

I probably won't believe whatever is said, because I'm too much of a cynic.

buck fush

dick cheney b4 he dicks you

[Roland99]

12. Well, that sure was quick. They went to EVERY house in New Orleans?

[uppityperson]

32. Searching only if flooded over 5 1/2 ft

They aren't searching if under 5 1/2 ft per Nagin/FEMA agreement.

[Roland99]

35. Ah...people can't drown if the water is under 5 1/2'

:eyes:

[fooj]

38. You can be sure that they haven't checked all of the attics!

:grr:

[localroger]

16. I think they are trying to keep it below Galveston

...so that this won't become the new benchmark "worst natural disaster in US history." The magic line for that is around 10,000 (Galveston is figured at 6,000 to 12,000 dead). I personally think the real death toll is between 20,000 and 50,000, based on little clues like having lived here all my life, knowing about how many people would stay no matter what, and how many houses went underwater vs. how many people were actually rescued from their rooftops.

First clue: Over 30,000 rooftop rescues. Yet under 1,000 dead. Do we seriously expect that 97% of the people who were driven into their attics by the rising water were then able to break out and be rescued?

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[progressivebydesign]

19. Because the govt hired a firm FAMOUS for hiding bodies???

And it serves Bush's purposes to keep the tolls low?

[alarimer]

20. The media didn't have to make him look bad

He did that all by himself.
Keep regurgitating the right-wing talking points like a good Dittohead.

[earth mom]

22. * doesn't need any help looking bad-he does that ALL BY HIMSELF!

:eyes:

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[saigon68]

52. Adios

[lostnfound]

24. you seem gullible. welcome to du. nt

[wanpete]

26. hey freep..what ya doing here? poof..be gone!

[FrankX]

27. Only upset if they are hiding the bodies.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. He needs no help in looking bad

No run along back to FR or CU or wherever it is you came from and tell them all how upset we are for actually expecting our govt to do its job. :eyes:

[Bridget Burke]

50. I doubt Galveston is part of their reasoning.

Did Bush actually read "A Weekend in September" when he took Texas History? (I did & re-read the book recently. It remains the best one on the subject.)

Anybody who knows what happened there in 1900 has a respect for the forces of nature. After Katrina, the mayor of Galveston met with her team to perfect plans for evacuation. She had been raised on stories of the Great Storm. (Too bad so many in our area who were in little danger joined the Second Runaway Scrape.)

Back then, the city fathers of Galveston probably underestimated the total number of dead to help the city's future growth. They also built a Seawall & raised the city behind it, which actually saved lives in later storms.

Not that I believe the numbers for Katrina, though.

[China_cat]

18. Let's title this properly

That should be 'state's OFFICIAL death toll at 964'.

We all know that there's a big gap between the official and the real death toll and we shouldn't let them get away with trying to play it down.

[HoosierClarkie]

21. Ok so why did they need so many semi trucks?

Maybe this is simple mindedness but, why would they need that many semi's if they only had 900 bodies? :shrug:

[Marthe48]

25. This blogger is keeping track

http://robertlindsay.blogspot.com/2005/09/katrina-death-toll-surpasses-1200.html

I keep checking the www.nola.com site where people are posting on the missing board. Over the weekend, there were over 7800 messages. Today there are 8043 messages, and if you read any, many list more than 1 person, sometimes whole families. How is it the number of posts is going up, not down? And the search is over? I hope and pray for low numbers, but I'm afraid that many people will go uncounted, unmourned, and unburied.

[Joanne98]

29. FEMA was formed to respond to a nuke attack. They have huge....

underground facilities. Just a thought. Google FEMA "The secret Goverment".
Here I did it for you.
http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/gvcon6.html

We can't let FEMA get privatized. Bushco will own these underground sites and that would be a diaster.

[uppityperson]

34. How many bodies were found after 9/11 compared to deaths?

How many bodies were officially found vs how many were officially dead? For Katrina, for 9/11, for any other disaster?

[fooj]

37. That's a bunch of crap. They showed the convoy of semis arriving

in Mississippi at a giant warehouse about 3 days after Katrina hit. There was roughly 7-9 of them parked in a row right outside the warehouse. The woman at the warehouse (temp. morgue) said all of the victims would be treated with the utmost respect. EVERY SEMI WAS REFRIGERATED AND LOADED UP WITH VICTIMS!

How stupid do they think the American people are? These sick, maniacal monsters have got to be stopped. Sounds like they are self-destructing! We need to keep up the pressure!

peace.

[expatriot]

39. Honore: recovery efffort "hasn't even begun" in Plaquemines Parish

http://americannero.blogspot.com/2005/10/general-recovery-work-hasnt-even.html


Over a month has passed since the catastrophic storm slammed ashore yet recovery efforts haven't either started yet according to General Honore.


Hurricane-relief effort continues in low-lying parish

Army Lieutenant General Russel Honore, touring Plaquemines Parish by truck and helicopter yesterday, says the recovery work hasn't even started there yet. The Corps of Engineers hopes to have the floodwaters out next week.


About half of the residents of the parish are displaced and efforts to repair the eight breeches in the parish's Mississippi levi are set to resume as helicopters that were called off the job to conduct Rita-related missions were returning. It still boggles my mind that we do not have enough air transport capacity in this wealthy nation to handle both Rita and Katrina missions simultaneously and more expeditiously.

[the_spectator]

44. The problem is that

the NOLA "bowl" was not filled instantaneously and violently by widespread "over-topping" -- it was filled through a few discrete levee breaches after the fact. As a result, the floodwaters came in SLOWLY - and so (relatively) few people may have died. Don't shoot the messanger!

[mbperrin]

46. Remind me again how many MONTHS we sifted through

the few city blocks of the World Trade Center looking for the smallest of remains; yet an entire CITY is declared "clean" just like this???




B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T-!

[frozenfishdemon]

49. there is a difference

hurricanes are not terrorist... and bodies float when they get bloated from being in water.. if you want pics ill be happy to find them for you. the reason they had to go through the WTC so throughly is because of the difficulty of finding a full body. and the ammount of evidence to sift through.... im sure there is more bodies.... its just not going to be a full scale operation now.

[pitohui]

54. the difference is this happened in the south

a yankee life is apparently more valued than a southern life

bitter much, yes i am

[EFerrari]

55. The business interests of the South

are worth the same, dollar for dollar, as those of the North.

The kleptocracy values the people the same, as well. Very little.

That's why Wackjob is so frantic right now. He knows he just f*cked the people his party has been wooing for forty years and that there's no way to repair that. This was the tipping point.

And having said that, it was a really horrible way to arrive there. On behalf of conscious people whom I occasionally join, I'm so sorry. :(

[Name removed]

62. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pitohui]

63. i'm curious what country you live in

because if you live in the usa, which is the SAME country i live in, you can sit on it & rotate

there is no call to be this hateful

new orleans voted overwhelming for kerry, if it's OK w. you that it is being punished for its democratic politics, you're on the wrong website

[cloudythescribbler]

58. What happened to the other post that erroneously listed 8000 in morgue?

Even though erroneous, with corrections included, it is curious that it would disappear like that. Mistakes should be part of the searchable record also. That includes the comments that pointed it out.

Interesting follow up. The Concord Monitor article that had been the source of the 8000 figure has recently corrected it, as was noted to me from someone at the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, without any indication of the previous error having been there. This notion of 'correcting the record' without leaving a trace is very ominous. The better approach would be to put the accurate information there, and then include in brackets the previously erroneous information which has since been corrected. This problem, both here and at the Concord Monitor, in the zillions of instances on the web where this is apt to happen, is potentially huge. It amounts to a rewriting of the historical record, including of errata, and I don't like that at all.

[daleo]

61. I bet the Soviets weren't told the real story of Chernobyl either.

Tom_Paine is right about the comparison sometimes, I think.