Hurricane Katrina
Recovery of Bodies Could Take Up To Four Months; 40,000 Feared Dead
By D.L. McCracken
Sep 8, 2005, 11:06

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is warning volunteer members of the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team to expect to recover up to 40,000 bodies as teams of morticians, medical examiners, coroners, pathologists ready themselves for departure to New Orleans.

The 40,000 estimate does not include bodies that had been interred in the city's above-ground mausoleums but had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding.

The National Association of Funeral Directors and Embalmers will be establishing a temporary morgue where forensics experts of not only morticians and coroners but also anthropologists, dental assistants, odontologists, photographers, and specialists can begin the grim task of identifying human remains through DNA, x-ray and fingerprinting.

Experts anticipate the body recovery process could take up to four months because of the magnitude of the search and the total destruction of such a large area.



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