Man apparently drowned in Katrina floods; body under furniture(#1588)

[uppityperson]

RIP. Relatives have been to the house several times, body just found when workers mucking out house.

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-25/1150657457206520.xml&storylist=louisiana

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The body of a man who apparently drowned in the floods that followed Hurricane Katrina was found under furniture in his once flooded house, the coroner's chief investigator says.

The New Orleans Forensic Center will test DNA to see whether the body is that of a 59-year-old man who lived there and had been missing since September, John Gagliano said. He said relatives had made several trips to the house since Katrina, but the body was found only Wednesday, by workers cleaning the house in eastern New Orleans. An autopsy found that the man had drowned.

He was the 23rd apparent storm victim found in New Orleans since the forensic center took over body recovery from federal search teams in March, Gagliano said. As of May 18, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals had counted 1,588 Louisiana deaths from Katrina, including 281 who died in other states after the storm.

[pitohui]

1. new orleans east in terrible shape, i'm not surprised

what surprised me was 1577 found in mid city which wasn't too bad

i don't even know how they can ask people to live in new orleans east again, that is a swamp built by greedy developers in the 1970s of no historical value which serves no purpose except to remove the natural protection aga. storm enjoyed by the whole city -- and to get the unfortunates living there killed

[uppityperson]

3. Yes, this house was visited several times without finding him

yes, many houses smell really bad. Yes, may be bodies in there that won't be found until they are mucked out. East New Orleans, low swamp land, I don't know how parts will be liveable again without major financial and manpower input and how the h* will that happen. I'm working on getting UPJr back down to work and these sorts of stories make my stomach and my heart hurt. I am glad that 1 more person can be removed from the missing list, but how it has happened hurts.

[pitohui]

4. they really need to shut it down but the political will ain't there

in a decent world, every person living in new orleans east would be provided with sufficient funds to move to a safe area

this is not a handout to these families -- it is in recognition that new orleans east served a purpose as a swamp, once the trees and swamp was gone, then instead of being a protection against the storm, it became a funnel -- and then you have the whole MRGO issue too, it's just completely unsafe to expect people to live there if the current Atlantic hurricane cycle is going to last for 50 more years!

but they won't do it because 1) it would make too much sense, and we can't have that, and 2) the rich developers are actually returning to their little area of new orleans east and refuse to acknowledge the danger they have created for ALL of orleans parish with their greed

i have little sense of smell so can't speak to that but the visible devastation for mile after mile of new orleans east is pretty much beyond belief

[MADem]

7. Do we have a number to put to those still missing?

Have they published any sort of list?

[SoCalDem]

9. It's to their advantage to NOT know..

Apparently the SF earthquake death toll is "iffy" too.. personally, I always thought that was behind the RUSH to scatter the survivors all over the place, ionstead of setting up temporary lodging elsewhere within the state.. If the people are scattered all over and families are divided, a great deal of time must be spent just trying to locate the living, let alone the missing/presumed dead. Officals could wring their hands and posit the "possibility" that the missing were just "out of touch" and would soon be located....and after enough time, the public would just "move on" and quit asking embarrassing questions..

[pitohui]

13. there was a list of 300-400 at the coroner's office

so you see they have still quite a way to go to find all of these bodies

if i recall correctly, most of these were believed to have been last seen in the 9th ward and lakeview areas

i have not heard of any official list of missing besides that one, which was for orleans parish only, i think if any katrina victims were found in jefferson, harry lee would just put them down
as dead of old age like all the rest!

if you have seen biloxi or other areas of the gulf coast where in some cases not even a slab remained, i suppose it might be pointless to have any list, as no body could ever be found in that area

i suppose the same is probably true for plaquemines parish

[speedoo]

2. Bless his soul.

May Bush and his cabal burn in hell for Katrina and all the other crimes they have perpetrated.

[pitohui]

5. hear hear

however in the specific case of new orleans east, the real estate bazillionaires who profited by developing that swamp should join them in hell

[aquart]

6. Hell or sooner.

[Up2Late]

16. Amen to that.

[geomon666]

8. Relatives had made several trips to the house since Katrina.

And nobody wondered what that smell was?

[Sadie5]

10. In my opinion

If the government can waste our tax dollars on wars and trips for Bush in AF1 then we can help get these people into housing. If that is what they want. Although the jobs they worked at might have been low level min wage jobs, and some jobs are probable not there, they might want to relocate elsewhere if rebuilding would end the same way on down the line. This could be what the rich developers want them to do, then they can buy up the land for next to nothing.

[DawgHouse]

11. Muck and swamp has it's own special smell.

It can be very ovewhelming on it's own!

[geomon666]

12. So does death.

But I'll take your word for it.

[Hekate]

17. When Hurricane Camille struck my husband was stationed around Biloxi

He was in the Air Force at the time, and was sent out with other military personnel to search for bodies. He says that often that dreadful smell would come from refrigerators, and they wouldn't know if it was a human body or not until they probed.

Hekate

[uppityperson]

24. Here's another house. I wonder if there are any bodies in it?

It is in an area that many people have driven and walked past. Good observation about the frig's stinking. They get duct-taped shut, taken away and people with hazmat (hazardous materials) suits and respirators open and clean them.

[Hekate]

25. I'm so ashamed this is happening in America--like a 3rd World nation

:cry:

Hekate

[pitohui]

14. probably wasn't any smell by the time they returned

this is about to get gross, so maybe don't read any further if you would rather not know the icky details

ok, here goes -- the two hurricanes were followed by drought -- and in some cases i get the impression that the bodies were dessicated and little more than bones were left by the time people were able to go to the "look see" in new orleans east (and many other areas)

we did not get one drop of rain between rita on sept. 24 until well into november -- an unprecedented drought for this area

if you have ever lived around here, perhaps you have seen those mummified little "chameleons" you sometimes find, that have died and completely dried out? well, they don't have any smell even though they are well and truly dead

a description i read of the body recently found near suno seemed to fit that category, this body shriveled up under the furniture might well fit it too

it is not as simple as just following your nose

[uppityperson]

15. I agree with what pitohui said, dried out bodies smell less, also

there is a generalized smell about many places, especially those that have not been mucked out yet, like this house. It was still full of water soaked, mold and mildew infested everything. Here's pictures of houses for you, not this house but just random ones. Nice flocked wallpaper? Mold. Could be a dried up body under all that piled up moldy stuff. Yes, these houses smelled bad.

[pitohui]

19. my husband's family house looked just like that in new orleans east

good photos -- and it's just acres and acres of houses like that out there

as far as smell, you got it...


part of it is you lose your sense of smell, part of it is the refrigerator smell (even i w. my limited sense of smell could smell that), part of it was that coffee smell from that plant (i'm forgetting where but it was near the vietnamese area) that put out the rotting coffee smell

a cadaver dog could have sorted it all out i'm sure but i don't blame the human nose for failing

[NYC]

18. I have a feeling

that smell is all over the place.

[pitohui]

20. well if a smell is everywhere it's nowhere

it's like with a paper mill the worst smell on god's green earth

as you may know -- if you drive thru a paper mill area you just want to puke out the window, but if you are there awhile you can't smell it any more

i really just don't smell anything any more so i can't judge

[malaise]

21. How sad

that bodies are showing up nearly one year after Katrina.

[intheflow]

22. K&R for the dead and the living and the still missing.

I've seen it firsthand, and know it's very possible for human corpses to be under furniture in New Orleans. The house interior photos up-thread are run-of-the-mill down there. :cry:

[Kurovski]

23. Kick.(nt)