Looks as if the Black Voice’s efforts were in vain. Mark House and his volunteers were prevented from assisting in the recovery of bodies in New Orleans:
Local community organizers raised funds to send Mark House, owner of Winthrop Industries and a team of experienced volunteers to help in the recovery of bodies. Those efforts have now been blocked by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in favor of a Texas based firm being paid more than $118,000 a day to recover and process remains.
[…]
House said he responded initially to a request that went out from New Orleans for morticians and law enforcement officers and since, he and his team both felt they could help. After failed attempts to contact FEMA, the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT), and Homeland Security, he was able to contact a source in the office of Dr. Louis Cataldie, the medical incident commander for the recovery of deceased victims of Katrina for the state, who said, “We no longer have a need for you.”
[…]
[T]he money initially raised will be returned and used for other victims of Katrina.
Last time, you Tribunes might recall, I wrote about this issue in this diary, “Black newspaper spearheads coalition to help bury Katrina blacks.” Unfortunately, no one is going to be allowed to cut into Kenyon’s profiteering.
The sadness and consternation resulting from this failed effort is palpable and may have ramifications elsewhere. Kenyon’s cushy no-bid contract has also guaranteed that local black morticians will be driven out of business.
This development is yet another blow to the black middle-class of New Orleans, a middle-class that may not be able to stand as a pillar from which the community can rebuild and grow. Many of the black middle-class made their livelihoods (and sometimes fortunes) from the funeral, insurance, personal grooming (barbering, hairdressing, cosmetics), haberdashery/tailoring and medical professions–that is, providing services to the black community that whites once refused to perform or to provide. While the country has become more integrated, however, the black funeral business continued more or less to flourish while other businesses (black resorts and vacation parks, for example) faded into memory.
The situation has Rev. Raymond Turner, President of the Inland Empire Concerned African American Churches IECAAC) and others in the local area very upset. […] He remembers when white mortuaries didn’t do black funerals.
“I am from the South,” said Rev. Turner, one of the co-sponsors of the candlelight service. “White mortuaries would not touch a black body. They do not understand our culture when it comes to death,” he continued.
FEMA has not only left heads shaking in the Inland Empire, but also has upset the Rhodes and the Crescent City Funeral Directors [as well as] the community. In addition, [it has] frustrated Coroner Frank Minyard, who complained Tuesday that Federal regulations had unnecessarily slowed the recovery and autopsy process. He said that FEMA, responsible for keeping the morgue operational, sometimes shut down early.
“We are often told to shut down at 11:30 AM despite a backlog of 300 bodies,” he said. Minyard said he needs more pathologist and volunteers to help with autopsies but FEMA would not allow its doctors or staff members to assist. He also said FEMA told him that their doctors could not help for fear of being tangled up in lawsuits. “Bureaucratic obstacles are a constant frustration.”
Only 73 bodies have been positively identified. The death count currently stands at 1078. Little by little, body by body, though, the count is rising as residents return from temporary shelters around the country. Eleven family members that past Sunday (October 9) had discovered three bodies of relatives in the wreckage and stench of their homes.
No good news today, I’m afraid…
Not as toxic to humans as some might have imagined…
http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20051017h
But this doesn’t bode too well for the fish and other water-dependent entities in the Lake and in the River:
Don’t count on shrimp, blackened redfish, crab, oysters, and other delicacies too soon.
.
WASHINGTON Oct. 18, 2005 — As Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans on Aug. 29, Michael D. Brown, then director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appeared confused over whether Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had put him in charge, senior military officials could not reach Brown and his team became swamped by the speed of the unfolding disaster, according to e-mails to and from Brown.
… The e-mails also show that the government’s response plan, two years in the making, began breaking down even before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Before the storm hit, Brown’s deputy chief of staff, Brooks Altshuler, said White House pressure to form an interagency crisis management group was irrelevant, even though a task force and principal federal officer are key parts of the plan.
… The Post obtained copies of 20 of about 80 e-mails to and from Brown between Aug. 23 and Sept. 12.
There are many gaps in the record. For instance, there are few references to Chertoff or the White House. Brown has testified that he was in at least daily telephone or e-mail contact with Chertoff and White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. or his deputy, Joe Hagin.
… “Davis wants to know if Michael Brown had it right. Does Secretary Chertoff agree that FEMA has grown emaciated, that its budget’s been hijacked and that it’s been organizationally undermined since Congress folded it into DHS?” Davis spokesman David Marin said.
… The first FEMA request to the Defense Department was not reported in Brown’s e-mails until 10 a.m. on Sept. 2 — nearly three days later — seeking “full logistical support to the Katrina disaster in all [emergency] declared states.”
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) requested 40,000 U.S. troops on Aug. 31.
Brown’s e-mails show that FEMA leaders acted on information that conflicts with the timeline released by Homeland Security a week after the hurricane. Altshuler’s e-mail of Aug. 28, for example, referred to White House pressure to create the interagency team that would include FEMA, the Pentagon, the State Department and others.
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
From the Times-Picayune dated Monday the 17th:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1129529245307670.xml
Looks like at least 260 have been identified and are ready for release. And that’s just from the 842 moving through the main facility. You have to figure some of the other 200 have been handled by now as well. That’s a far cry from 73.
While I don’t doubt Kenyon has a sweet deal, complaining that they are putting black morticians out of business is wrong. First, the bodies are released to the families for burial and undoubtedly they will be handled via traditional funeral homes. Somehow, I don’t think FEMA is providing caskets/chapels/transportation or any of the other typical funeral services. Second, do you really think there will be any need for the beauty services etc for these poor people whose corpses lay rotting for days?? No way, no how are there going to be any open caskets…. Sorry to be so gross but this is a ridiculous complaint.
The article from the Black Voice is dated October 15. The newspaper is a weekly, not a daily. Therefore, information could have been delayed. I have no idea where they are getting their numbers from, but I am sure that they did not consult the Times Picayune and that they spoke with locals.
No matter what the numbers, this effort is going too slow. It is weeks since the disaster.
Another piece from the BV article showed that family members in Baton Rouge are still being barred from knowing more about the fate of their loved ones especially that of the Eleby family described in the T-P article.
This is what the T-P says:
You also claim that 260 bodies have been IDed. The fact remains that only 132 bodies have been released to their families, only a little more than what the Black Voice reported.
You do not understand that no matter what the condition of the bodies, the relatives want closure, with the funeral company of their choice. They want their relatives handled by black hands, and there could be a particular, psychological need for this beyond the ceremonies blacks hold for their dead. Because, in the past, black bodies have been defiled even more under white supervision. This is an old, sad story, but from the account that I read here, this possibility may not be so. Then again, we don’t know what is occurring after the reporters leave.
You forget that Kenyon is handling the service, not just FEMA. For these people, there will always be suspicion, especially because Kenyon’s practices have been less trustworthy in the past.
I remember, in the aftermath of 9/11, and there were not whole bodies of some casualties left to be released to family members. Instead there were body parts. A hand, perhaps.
I’m sure the families had to be content with that, and buried the body part of the loved one in a closed casket just to know that what they did was right.
I completely understand the families want their loved ones back. I completely agree that this is taking way too long. I grew up in the South with some relatives that considered blacks sub human. I understand exactly what you are saying as to why you don’t trust Kenyon or the LA govt to do the right thing. But that doesn’t constitute proof.
You can’t just seize on the info that fits your story without checking for other sources of info. Roughly 4X as many people have been identified and readied for family pickup than you stated using old data. The fact that only 132 bodies have been release doesn’t make the others that have been identified but not yet picked up by the families just not count. May fit your view, but it’s dishonest.
There’s enough mud to sling in this mess around Katrina without having to manipulate/misreport data. It undercuts your credibility.
You can’t just seize on the info that fits your story without checking for other sources of info.
But aren’t you doing the same thing with <u>using just the Times-Picayune</u> as your source?
I’ve used several other newspapers for one diary, sometimes only one. And it is not the first time that I have done so.
I am giving, for once, what black New Orleanians think and feel, through their own newspaper. I admit that information may have been delayed or misinterpreted due to time constraints. I think that it is important to allow black residents to tell their story. And if it is slanted, so what? That’s no different than what other news sources put out. I claim facts, but I do not claim to be the only worthwhile source.
For example, now everyone wants to say that rapes did not happen at the Dome, when they did occur. More probably occurred outside the Dome. These rapes did not occur in the wholesale manner that was originally reported. But they did occur.
Unfortunately, it appears that the T-P has joined the chorus of news outlets that nothing untowards happened at the Dome or outside the Dome. We’ve missed many opportunities to allow these women to report rape incidents so that they could later get help and assistance. All because these incidents have been swept under the rug as being too sensational to believe. Besides, it cottons to yet another old, sexual canard and stereotype that <u>black women cannot be raped</u>.
There’s enough mud to sling in this mess around Katrina without having to manipulate/misreport data.
Excuse me, buster, but the fact remains that the process is taking too damn long and that many survivors are very upset about it. Survivors, bit by bit, are returning to New Orleans and are going to stay there. And for me, this footdragging constitutes proof while other states like Mississippi have long been through with this kind of thing. Furthermore, it seems that money is not an issue with some of these survivors. You seem to want to find fault with every diary I write, and methinks that this is really no accident, but A PLANNED ATTACK. Dishonest, am I? BULLSHIT. You just have a name here. You just sign on to attack. You have no e-mail address to track you. I’m part of this community; I am proud of being a part of this community. You claim no community whatsoever with Tribunes. Fuck YOU.
If you feel that the real story about New Orleans and its recovery is not being told, then write your own damn diaries about New Orleans. I’m sure they’ll smell like lilies trying to cover up the foulness.
because Louisiana required autopsies for all of the bodies. They are trying to nab mercy killers, which did occur in some of the hospitals. This is conservative, pandering to their base politics at its worse. There were mercy killings because local, state and federal officials haven’t done their job in years in terms of protecting and rebuilding the Louisiana coast, and planning for such a storm to get the people out who don’t have transportation, and evacuating the hospitals, quickly, before and after the storm.
The chickens have come home to roost, but guess what, it’s still the little guy suffering, and the rich getting richer off of the no-bid contracts that are still in play, despite promises to the contrary.
In Mississippi, bodies have been quickly identified and released. Even Mississippi did that better than Louisiana, no offense to Mississippians.
Suspiciously, before the lower ninth ward was open for inspection by its residents, the city suspended the official search for bodies, although volunteer police groups from elsewhere continued the search, notably a group from New York that searched each home that placed a 9/11 call.
Predictably, New Orleans residents have found bodies in their homes in the lower ninth ward. One young man found the woman who raised him, an auntie, melted into the floor of his home. Authorities had reported to the family that this woman had died, but the body was never collected.
If the city leaders really cared about the lower income blacks repopulating the city, they would not have prematurely suspended the body search, and the above horror would have never happened. What better way to say, “We don’t give a shit about you,” than to not bother completing the body search and retrieval.
Let me also reiterate one more point: that black morticians–small business owners–are being run out of business because the slow processing of bodies.
As I said before, black morticians and funeral directors are the backbone of the black middle class in the South and elsewhere. The black middle class of New Orleans has been almost completely wiped out in the aftermath of Katrina. You would think that BushCo would have thought about that possibility when they rung up their pals in Texas. It would have made Mehlman’s work a bit more palatable.
And you wonder why only 2% of blacks like Bush?
this is crap.
They are being run out of business because half the town is still in not around. And you have to figure that the old, sick and dying are not rushing back to do cleanup and recovery and therefore are dying in other locales. Hard to pin that one on the man other than the general incompetance from the top down for a couple of generations that has led to a weak levee system and a city/state as corrupt as can be.
Many of these people that are dead are from the poorest most damaged parts of NO. Don’t you think that even if the bodies had been released that the funerals would have taken place whereever the remaining family is sheltering? Would many of these folks even have the funds for a funeral after having everything they own washed away? Aren’t the funeral homes destroyed too?
You seem to be just throwing rocks hoping you’ll hit something.
They are being run out of business because it is taking too long to process bodies.
Some of the survivors did at least have funeral insurance. This is a long tradition among blacks in New Orleans. Some are finding their loved ones at home, dead, long after the waters receded. The funerals would have taken place in outside of New Orleans where the cemetaries are on higher ground. I have a grandmother in Metairie, which is across the river; while a grandfather’s remains are in a potter’s field near the City of the Dead. No doubt, the potter’s field was flooded out.
And as for these pieces of wishful drivel:
Don’t you think that even if the bodies had been released that the funerals would have taken place whereever the remaining family is sheltering?
As I understand it, it would occur just outside of New Orleans. It would not automatically occur where the family members are currently staying. That would be too much expense. There are graveyards in Jefferson Parish, for example, which is on high ground. They probably could not bury in the potter’s field or graveyards inside the city limits.
Would many of these folks even have the funds for a funeral after having everything they own washed away?
The families either would borrow or pool their resources to get their loved ones buried properly. Or they would wait. And while they may not have a paycheck, some are already on public assistance or unemployment insurance or getting help from the Salvation Army or other charity groups.
Aren’t the funeral homes destroyed too?
Apparently you didn’t feel like reading. The Rhodes Mortuary, for example, did report missing employees and damaged cars. They did not say, however, that their place of business was damaged or destroyed or their expertise, equipment and supplies was lacking. Apparently they are open for business, that they welcome business, or they would not have been complaining. I’m sure that they would be able to pool their resources with the other black funeral directors as well.
You seem to be just throwing rocks hoping you’ll hit something.
I could say the same about you, idiot troll. You keep throwing darts and keep missing the point. Try another tack some other place.