Where are the funerals?

[scoopmeister]

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002361.html

We even saw a number today: 423 just in New Orleans (with more than 200 fatalities in Mississippi a seeming afterthought).

But we haven't seen a name -- not officially anyway. Not one single name -- the thing that turns an empty corpse back into a person. So far we've seen one story (in the Washington Post) that took a massive amount of reporting to come up with the life stories of five of the dead -- five lonely faces out of the hundreds.

So much death.

And not a single funeral.

It's been 14 days now. Where are the funerals?

[SmokingJacket]

1. You're right, not one name.

I want to see a list, I used to know people down there...

[ck4829]

2. They'll be put in a mass grave.

I'm serious BTW. There was a story about it recently on DU.

[ModerateLee]

3. In NOLA...

...at least, there's going to be the problem of enbalming/cremating them (and I'm not sure there's even been time to identify them or do DNA yet, if that's what is necessary) and where they would do that. Also, I'm sure many of their cemetaries are flooded, so there's the problem of where to bury people, too. Also, people may be waiting for families to reunite so they can all pay their respects together. At this point, I think people are still trying to find their LIVE family members--let alone the deceased ones.

Many of the technicians and undertakers etc. have lost family themselves, I'm sure they'll be more organized if you give them a little time.

[shraby]

4. The next of kin needs to be notified first if

it is at all possible, as well as most of the bodies may not have been identified yet.

[KharmaTrain]

5. And You Bury Them Where?

Considering 50% of New Orleans is still underwater and 80% of the city was affected. That doesn't count all the other areas that still are clearing the debris.

I read the number announced are those that have been identified and a next of kin has been notified. Some are being held in morgue facilities around Baton Rogue and probably will remain there until family members determine what to do with them.

It wouldn't be surprising if there was some sort of pauper's grave arrangement set up...people who couldn't be identified or their families couldn't or wouldn't take possession. According to NOLA officials, everone is supposed to get a dignified burial.

If it were my family, the last thing I'd want is to publicize my grief. What's the sense of seeing a funeral, when we can see that people died and that some didn't have to. I don't need funerals to bring home that point.

[HeeBGBz]

6. The MS Sun-Herald has a small list of dead

That they've released to the public.