A co-owner of Shelbyville-based Gowen-Smith Chapel has been deployed to Gulfport, Miss., to help with recovery since Hurricane Katrina, and his business partner here has described the grim task there."DMort is telling us to expect up to 40,000 bodies," Dan Buckner said, quoting officials with the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, a volunteer arm of Homeland Security.
His partner, Dan Hicks, of Paducah, Ky., was deployed Monday. Buckner, of Dickson, is on standby. Their funeral home is one of several collection sites for donations to be taken to the Red Cross in Fayetteville on Wednesday for transfer to places in need.
The 40,000 estimate does "not include the number of disinterred remains that have been displaced from ... mausoleums," Buckner told the Times-Gazette Monday. (full article in comments and also linked with title bar)
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Funeral director deploys to hurricane region
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
By Clint Confehr
A co-owner of Shelbyville-based Gowen-Smith Chapel has been deployed to Gulfport, Miss., to help with recovery since Hurricane Katrina, and his business partner here has described the grim task there.
"DMort is telling us to expect up to 40,000 bodies," Dan Buckner said, quoting officials with the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, a volunteer arm of Homeland Security.
His partner, Dan Hicks, of Paducah, Ky., was deployed Monday. Buckner, of Dickson, is on standby. Their funeral home is one of several collection sites for donations to be taken to the Red Cross in Fayetteville on Wednesday for transfer to places in need.
The 40,000 estimate does "not include the number of disinterred remains that have been displaced from ... mausoleums," Buckner told the Times-Gazette Monday.
Since New Orleans is below sea level, in-ground burial is impossible.
Public health protection and identification of bodies are tasks for DMort, Buckner said. Teams include morticians, medical examiners, coroners, pathologists, anthropologists, odontologists, dental assistants, photographers, police, DNA, X-ray, evidence, fingerprint, mental health and computer specialists, and others such as heavy equipment operators.
"Until they search each and every remaining house and remove all the fallen materials ... they will not know how many people are there," Buckner said.
"The National Association of Funeral Directors and Embalmers will be making assignments to coordinate with local officials ... [for] preparation of bodies," he said. "They'll probably establish a mortuary there where bodies can be taken so forensics can identify bodies and families can decide what they want to do.
"My personal opinion is they will be recovering bodies for 30 ... to 120 days," Buckner said.
That's because of "the sheer destruction, the rubble that will have to be removed and to find bodies in attics and yards and the water," he said. People "were told to go to their attic. Then the water came up and they had no way to escape.
"Firemen chopped holes in roofs and found bodies."
Without anything to do for them, they moved on, he said.
Public health is "definitely" a major concern as time goes on, Buckner said.
He anticipated volunteers would serve for two weeks and then be relieved as a rotation schedule is developed.
Buckner, 67, attended a funeral directors association conference in Chicago where he received training so he might be prepared for such work. He's been in the mortuary business for 45 years.
"I feel a moral obligation to help people," Buckner said. "We serve people in dire need and if ever there was a time when people need ... it's now."
He anticipates the emergency mortuary will receive bodies from national guardsmen, fire fighters and others such as rescue squad teams.
DMort teams in the funeral directors' region that includes Tennessee have also been deployed to Biloxi, Miss., Anniston, Ala., Baton Rouge, La., and Houston, Tex.
Gowen-Smith Chapel "has collected a massive amount of food and necessary items" for survivors of the hurricane on the Gulf coast, Buckner said. "The people of Bedford County ... have been very receptive."
I still find myself in shock over the sheer scale of this terrible disaster. I guess as a UK gal living in Canada I'm just not used to hearing about Hurricanes hitting anywhere other than Florida. My heart goes out to the people who are caught up in this.
A great post, very well written, I added you to my blog links.
i have begun to hear such numbers as well and i tell you, i am shocked. because i honestly more people got out. i am so sad for those lost and also for those who are left with nothing. it is so deeply heartbreaking.
T-You probably saw this link from the Grid boards-but if not here it is. Might be worthwhile to spread the word and get some heads in these beds!
http://www.katrinahousing.org/
Beds Available
75406
Survivors Placed
2883
J, done. Thanks for the heads up.
9/7/05 Wednesday
1:55 P.M. - (AP): Even as crews in New Orleans try to find and count the corpses that are decaying in the 90-degree heat, reports of the extent of the tragedy are starting to emerge.
A Louisiana congressman says more than 100 people died at a warehouse along a New Orleans dock. Congressman Charlie Melancon says they died as they waited for rescuers to take them to safety.
And a state lawmaker says 30 people died at a flooded-out nursing home just outside New Orleans.
Nita Hutter says the staff had left the residents behind in their beds.
A rescue that was supposed to take place never happened.
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