Hurricane death toll now 118
2005-09-09 08:04
Baton Rouge - The official death toll from Hurricane Katrina has risen to 118 in and around the swamped city of New Orleans, officials said Thursday.
"Today it has been confirmed that they are 118 deceased," the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said, adding the number of fatalities had risen from 83 since the last toll was announced on Tuesday.
About 67 corpses have been taken to a morgue in the state capital of Baton Rouge that was set up earlier this week, while the other bodies were released to local coroners, the health department said.
Officials, including Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, have said the final death toll could be in the thousands or even exceed 10 000 once the bodies of victims have been recovered from the putrid water that still covers much of New Orleans.
But collecting the corpses has been slowed by the still-high water levels.
The process of establishing that retrieved bodies were victims of Katrina and then registering then is also time consuming, officials said.
The United States Federal Emergency Management Agency has contracted a firm of international body retrieval experts, Kenyon Worldwide Disaster Management, to help with the grisly harvest.
Meanwhile as officials move to clear the 10 000-odd residents of New Orleans still in the city, some corpses still remain lashed to telephone and street signs to which they were tied to stop them floating away.
- AFP