3 More Bodies Found in Block of Lower 9th
    By Walt Philbin
    The Times-Picayune

    Tuesday 21 March 2006

Storm victims may be difficult to identify.

    Fire Department recovery workers, tipped off by student volunteers who were clearing Katrina debris, found three bodies on the same block in the Lower 9th Ward, a New Orleans fire chief said Monday.

    The discovery of the bodies in the 2400 block of Tupelo Street, near the St. Bernard Parish line - two of them within 20 feet of each other in the same debris pile - brings to seven the number of bodies discovered since the special operations unit of the Fire Department resumed recovery work on March 2, said Fire Chief Steve Glynn, chief of special operations for the New Orleans Fire Department.

    He said six have been found in the Lower 9th Ward, and one in Lakeview. Most have been found under the debris of collapsed or shifted houses. Only one has been found in a house that was still standing - in an attic.

    None of the bodies has been identified, and all are so badly decomposed that the Orleans Parish coroner's office couldn't determine their genders.

    The coroner's office couldn't provide an updated total number of bodies found since recovery efforts resumed last month, but John Gagliano, the coroner's chief investigator, said that about 10 bodies whose deaths were related to Katrina had been found in New Orleans from the middle of February through the first week of March. It wasn't immediately clear how many of those are included in the seven found by the Fire Department recovery team.

    The special unit, which assisted in many boat rescues after the storm, recovered the bodies of 68 storm victims in neighborhoods across the city from October through December, Glynn said. Its 16 members carefully search debris piles or houses where people missing since Katrina once lived, or debris piles blocking the rights of way before the debris is removed by the Army Corps of Engineers, Glynn said.

    Lists of the missing people, provided by a "Find Families" group, led to the discovery of three of the seven bodies found since early March, Glynn said. Dogs have sniffed out two others, and two have been found as a result of tips from people working with the corps or student volunteers.

    Sunday about 2:30 p.m., a group of students, who were volunteering their spring break to help clean debris from homes, noticed what looked like human remains in a pile of debris where a house once stood in the 2400 block of Tupelo, Glynn said.

    After recovery workers uncovered those remains, a dog and handler from a Shreveport fire department indicated the presence of another body about 20 feet away, Glynn said.

    Workers used a Bobcat to uncover the second body within a half-hour, Glynn said. Gagliano said the two are believed to have come from the same house.

    On Monday about 9 a.m., members of a corps team thought they noticed remains in a house that had shifted into the street in the same block as Sunday's discoveries. A third body was recovered, Glynn said.

    Glynn said it is hard to tell how long the recovery efforts will take. Recovery workers have to be painstaking as they clear away sludge and debris in a house or a debris pile so that human remains aren't overlooked.

    "A lot of people don't realize, they are surprised that we're still finding bodies - the first workers who showed up after the storm were rescue workers, and they really were looking for survivors, not dead people. And they didn't have a list like we do of missing people, and it was so difficult to get through these houses sometimes, they just had to call and listen for a reply. You see how many times you see they wrote NE on the houses - that means no entry. So no, it doesn't surprise me that we are finding people still."