Monday, October 03, 2005 Katrina Victims Can't Find Their Dead in Red Tape LATimes: "When he could finally leave his post guarding a nuclear power plant after Katrina struck, Richard Reysack III sped east of N.O. to the flooded home of his 80 yr old father. 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 the body. 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, they won't even confirm that they have it. The family published an obituary and held a memorial service — all w/out a body. This family is not alone: 100s of families of the dead have been traumatized again by the ordeal of trying to pry their loved ones' bodies from a bureaucratic quagmire. They say they have spent wks being rebuffed or ignored by state and fedrl officials at a massive temporary morgue that houses 100s of decomposed corpses." S.H.A.M.E.F.U.L. |