Mortician surprised by New Orleans dead

Lincoln Journal Star ^ | 9-26 | Josh Swartzlander

[stan_sipple]

Mark Roper spent two weeks in St. Gabriel, La., this month, moving the bodies of Hurricane Katrina’s New Orleans victims into refrigerated trailers. After watching the steady stream of corpses, Roper’s biggest surprise about the dead: almost all were elderly or homeless. Most of the dead had drowned, Roper said. Others had died of dehydration, probably caused by abandonment, he said.

He was surprised by the number of homicides — people with gunshot wounds to their heads and backs.

Autopsies were performed on those victims, Roper said.

[BenLurkin]

[Bigh4u2]

"Hey, some people don't count so well....
susie"

It's cause of that public edumacation!

[AppyPappy]

AHA!!!!!!

[BenLurkin]

Several first hand accounts of what happened:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476202/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476080/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475595/posts

[BenLurkin]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476417/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1482380/posts

[thoughtomator]

Probably from the condition of the body. I'm sure there are lots of physical signs of homelessness.

[Bigh4u2]

So why would the head of the Lousiana National Guard lie??


If there really were that many bodies, how could he possibly hide it??

[brytlea]

Don't blame me, I teach biology!
susie

[brytlea]

Like what?
susie

[SunnySide]

"He was surprised by the number of homicides"

...

..... of what? Headless chickens used over the decades for voodoo practices. It's no secret, in broad daylight I was walking to the famous Cafe that serves the Beignet doughnuts and almost stepped on a headless chicken laying near a pedestrian walk way. Ewww

[Larry Lucido]

He was surprised by the number of homicides — people with gunshot wounds to their heads and backs.

Would they care to share that number so we can be surprised too? 1? 100? 1000?

[BenLurkin]

I don't know.

I just don't know.

[Bigh4u2]

"I don't know.

I just don't know."

Ok....

I just thought you were trying to say that the articles you posted proved there were more dead than stated by the one I posted that showed only 6 people were found dead in the Dome.

Maybe I misinterpretted your intent?

Could be.

[stan_sipple]

If I were mayor New Orleans, I would yank that voodoo practictioners license, our fortune tellers and voodoo priestesses are much more considerate of others and do not litter

[thoughtomator]

Could be a lot of things... condition of skin, teeth, hair, clothes, or other hallmarks.

[Bigh4u2]

"If I were mayor New Orleans, I would yank that voodoo practictioners license,"

Yeah!

Only the government is liscensed to practice voodoo (politics that is).

[BenLurkin]

These are posted so people can go back and see what was reported by the eyewitnesses and participants.

There seems to be solid evidence, based on first hand accounts, that the Superdome plunged into chaos the first night; not long after losing electricity.

Much of the eyewitness evidence is hearsay "A man was arrested for raping a seven year old in the restroom" and some of it is not; "

Some is not: "Janice Singleton, a worker at the Superdome, said she got stuck in the stadium when the storm hit. She said she was robbed of everything she had with her, including her shoes."

The official death count will be issued and there may even be some official breakdown on the causes of death. But public perception the New Orleans problem had some basis in some reality: "New Orleans Police Chief Edwin Compass said Friday that hurricane rescue efforts were hampered when relief workers came under attack by the city's criminal element, prompting conditions that resembled "urban warfare." "

[geezerwheezer]

Would you stop it, already??? I mean, what's with the voodoo stuff? We all know there was a hex on EVERY DAMN SCHOOL BUS in the city of NEW Orleans before Katrina hit, and the Mayor tried to get it removed.He only needed three more chicken heads and a rotten cantelope before the hex was gone, but the storm surge took all the heads and cantelopes away. IT IS NOT THE MAYOR'S FAULT that anyone was killed in NO or that anyone drowned there. It was BUSH'S fault all this happened. :0)

[ASA Vet]

Zombies??

[jwpjr]

Is this the same doc who arrived expecting to find several hundred dead in the Superdome morgue, only to find there were only 6 from inside the dome? Four died of natural causes, one was an overdose and the other a suicide victim. Four other bodies were found outside the dome, but in the immediate area. There must be a real dearth of good reporters these days. Seems like every story I read leaves out some important piece of information, like how many it took to surprise this doctor. I know a lot of the lack of information can be attributed to editing a story to make it fit the space available, but gosh it seems like they would at least try to cover the bases talked about in the first few paragraphs of the story.