8,000 dead in New Orleans? Here's an article that says that many

[FloridaPat]

were taken to the morgue. And apparently it is a real mess trying to get bodies back or even found. You would think loosing their homes and loved ones would be enough to go through in one lifetime.

"Cataldie, a former medical examiner, acknowledged that identifying and releasing bodies has been painfully slow. Of the nearly 8,000 bodies taken to the morgue, he said, just 32 have been identified positively and another 340 have been identified tentatively.

But several families said their frantic calls to FEMA and state officials were taken by people who were either indifferent or unable to provide any information. And even those whose loved ones' remains have been officially identified and cleared for release said it still took weeks to get the bodies.

When he finally could leave his post guarding a nuclear power plant after Hurricane Katrina struck, Richard George Reysack III sped to the flooded home of his 80-year-old father east of New Orleans. Slogging through the muck, he found his father's corpse face-down in the hallway.

As devastating as that discovery was, at least Reysack had his father's remains. Then even that was taken away. The authorities who moved the corpse to a temporary morgue not only won't return it to Reysack for burial, he said, but they won't even confirm that they have it. "

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051002/REPOSITORY/510020403/1037/NEWS04

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. How can we have 8000 bodies in a morgue, and the official no.

stand in the 900s?

[preciousdove]

3. 964 Processed bodies, DMORT LA can only do 140 a day. n/t

[louis c]

5. I thought the same thing

My cousin keeps telling me that i was wrong when I estimated the dead in NOLA at 10,000.

If this story is accurate, my guess was accurate.

Where is there a confirmation on this story?

[readmoreoften]

7. no, it's be shown to be a typo

I still think there are more dead, though.

[cloudythescribbler]

18. The "typo" appeared in the link text to the Concord Monitor Online

Of the nearly 8,000 bodies taken to the morgue, he said, just 32 have been identified positively and another 340 have been identified tentatively.

[louis c]

19. I got it

800, not 8,000.

ThanKs for the correction.

Boy, do I hate giving misinformation, I'm glad you caught it for me.

[Wickerman]

2. taken from the LA Times

interesting.

[bananas]

12. The latimes.com story says 800 bodies

I searched for one of the article authors "ZUCCHINO"
there were two stories, both used the number 800, not 8,000.
Use bugmenot.com if you can't read these.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-bodies2oct02,1,7047123.story
Families Lose Loved Ones Again -- in a Bureaucratic Mire
October 2, 2005
By David Zucchino and Nicholas Riccardi / Times Staff Writers
...
Cataldie, a former medical examiner, acknowledged that identifying and releasing bodies had been painfully slow. Of more than 800 bodies delivered to the St. Gabriel morgue, he said, 32 have been positively identified and 340 have been tentatively identified.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bodies29sep29,1,2402137.story
Katrina's Corpses Are Many, IDs Are Few
September 29, 2005
By David Zucchino, Nicholas Riccardi and Alan Zarembo / Times Staff Writers
BATON ROUGE, La. — A month after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Louisiana coast, coroners have positively identified just 32 of the nearly 800 corpses collected at a temporary morgue, officials said Wednesday. Only about a third of the recovered...

[Wickerman]

16. helluva typo

:eyes:

thanks.

[FloridaPat]

17. Pretty bad when they can't even copy it correctly.

[Jawja]

4. Fuzzy Math.

That's how. :crazy:

[Alpharetta]

6. Do you believe they could hide 8000 bodies?

I don't. I think in the morgue crew there'd be at least one patriot with a digital camera.

[readmoreoften]

8. I believe they can pretty much do whatever they want.

It'd be hard to capture a photo that shows 8000 dead in one shot, except for a photo with an aerial view.

[linazelle]

13. Who said there was one morgue, or one morgue crew?

I recall them flying in portable morgues.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

9. I read this article earlier

and it said 800! Very strange, as if someone changed it. Or just a typo, I guess.

[cloudythescribbler]

10. This is MAJOR MAJOR news -- if this is true it could cost Repugs a House

What a coverup. And everyone would be able to see it would be Administration spin doctory -- the only frigging thing that they do efficiently. It just is disgusting enough, in every sense, so that it could be the ton of bricks that breaks the proverbial era of Repug domination of Congress.

But then again, the Democrats are professionals at losing and the media at justifying the lying. The search for sellout Democratic candidates may be on.

[readmoreoften]

14. It's a misprint from the original article.

The original article was 800, not 8000.

[RagAss]

11. Let them do their job....

I have found that people who do work like this are not prone to be quiet about it when the work is done....they owe it to the souls they have tended to.......we will hear the truth here...I'm certain.

[wiggs]

15. Remember story about only counting 20% of deaths re Katrina?

Not too long after Katrina, a story was briefly up that claimed that only 20% of the deaths were being attributed to Katrina. The remaining 80% were deemed not to be caused by Katrina and therefore aren't being totaled in the "body counts".

So if someone dies of dehydration, assault, diabetic shock, heart attack, neglect, etc during or after Katrina, my bet is that their death is not counted among the 900 some Katrina victims. It is possible that there are thousands of deaths overall, but only 900 attributed to Katrina...officially, that is.

There were eyewitnesses. Don't know what happened to the story.