Death, Debris, and Diseases

When thinking about the streets of New Orleans, most people envision festive parades, Mardi Gras beads, and the scent of spicy southern foods. That is hardly the image in that place today. Garbage, urine, gasoline, and corpse fill the area and create a sick odor. The hospitals and morgues are over flooded with bodies and many of which are unidentifiable because of the water and hungry animals tearing away at the flesh and bones. At St. Rita’s nursing home, over 30 people died because it was too risky to rescue them and people are still dying now from infections. Some bodies are clogging up pipes and spreading diseases. What is an even more onerous task than cleaning up the debris is linking bodies to families. This is similar to Sept 11th when FEMA was left to deal with hundreds of dead in the massive rubbles of the buildings. Hospitals were congested with people and did not have the capacity to treat all of them. Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition and 40% (2700) are still unidentified. Most matches of the dead to their families were made using DNA from items like toothbrushes or hairbrushes but Katrina has washed most of those away so it will be almost impossible to link all of the bodies to their families even with all the technology of today.
Article by Allen G. Breed