AT LEAST 2 BODIES OF KATRINA VICTIMS FOUND IN NEW ORLEANS LOWER 9TH WARD
21 March 2006

Seven months after hurricane Katrina devastated the US Gulf Coast, officials have found the bodies of at least 2 more victims, with a third body possibly also that of a hurricane victim. Student volunteers were working to help remove debris and search for still missing victims in the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the most devastated sections of New Orleans, when they came upon human remains. A search dog nearby located a second victim.

The finds make a total of 10 newly discovered victims found since the search resumed this month. On 29 August last year, hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts, killing an estimated minimum of 1,100 in Louisiana and at least another 200 in Mississippi, with isolated deaths reported in Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

Between 300 and 400 missing persons are believed killed by the storm and yet to be recovered from debris in and around New Orleans. Officials initiated a new round of search and recovery operations in order to prevent human remains being removed with debris and lost forever.

A massive proportion of the population of New Orleans has still not returned and experts and local officials believe as many as half may never return, meaning the city now engaged in clean-up and rebuilding may come to be a significantly smaller community than it was less than a year ago.

As is well known, the government response was disastrous on many levels, and new evidence is still emerging of dire warnings given to top officials who simply did not respond to cries for help from the disaster zone. Congressional hearings revealed shockingly harsh conditions for survivors and a situation nearly like military occupation in refugee camps set up on the periphery of the submerged metropolis.

• CNN: "At least 2 more Katrina victims found"