Apologies up front for topic: Bodies

[Luv2Roam]

There are going to be several thousands of bodies.
How will this be handled?
Where would they put them?
How would families return to claim the remains?
How would they have funerals?
There will be life insurance policies.But how do they get the death certificate, file a claim, etc when you can't return, are basically homeless, etc.
Most say they could not afford to leave. Now they can't afford (and blocked) to return.

 

[Deb in IA]

I'd think it would be similar to 9/11, with temporary morgues, refrigerator cars, and a long, painstaking identification process.

 

[SueM in MN]

I'd think it would be similar to 9/11, with temporary morgues, refrigerator cars, and a long, painstaking identification process.

I have heard that they ordered body bags from all over the US.
From things I have read, they would be doing things keeping track of exaclty where bodies were found, because some will be people who died (either drowned or died later) in their houses. The location and description of the person found would be helpful since (as opposed to 9/11, many people are going to be found in their house). They also would be taking digital pictures and DNA samples to pair with the pictures.
Given the length of time involved, they might just seal the body in the body bag after taking pictures.

 

[C.Ann]

Considering the conditons of the bodies (and I won't go into the gory details of what they will be) I would guess there will be many, many cremations.. Even for families who would prefer not to go that route, if they too have lost everything - home, possessions, autos, jobs - they may have no choice..

 

[JimMIA]

I'd think it would be similar to 9/11, with temporary morgues, refrigerator cars, and a long, painstaking identification process.

It will be, but obviously on a much larger scale -- both in terms of numbers and geographic area.

It's a grizzly subject, but there are protocols in place for handling mass casualties. The EMS/law enforcement/medical communities practice them on a regular basis. Unfortunately, this time it's not a drill.

We don't think about stuff like this much here in the U.S., but mass casualties happen all the time overseas -- the tsunami, earthquakes in Iran and South America, etc. The difficulty in this particular case will be in balancing the need for public health/epidemic control with our desire for respect and dignity. That part will be much more difficult than 9/11.

 

[momof2inPA]

Because the flood presents such different public health issues than 9-11, I don't know if they'll be able to keep all the corpses. We'll have to see.

 

[phorsenuf]

Since the subject has been brought up I have another gruesome question.

The news reports are saying there are bodies in the water everywhere. Why is it tho that if there are supposably many, how come you don't see them? I mean I know they are not going to specifically show them but when they do these big overhead shots and fly-overs I never see them.

Why is that? Do you think maybe they are just not as many as we are being led to believe (would like to hope that!)

Just a morbid curiosity......

 

[Viking]

As a former paramedic I can only tell you that a body which was in the water for some time -especially in a warm climate like LA- is nothing you want to show the family - and most probably they couldn't identify it anyway. This situation is comparabel to the aftermath of the Tsunami. In April I flew back from Thailand and coincientally had teh chance to be seated next to some experts from our German FBI who spent a month there to identify the victims. They only could use the dental status and DNA due to the damage done by water and tropical temperatures.

 

[mom2boys]

Since the subject has been brought up I have another gruesome question.

The news reports are saying there are bodies in the water everywhere. Why is it tho that if there are supposably many, how come you don't see them? I mean I know they are not going to specifically show them but when they do these big overhead shots and fly-overs I never see them.

Why is that? Do you think maybe they are just not as many as we are being led to believe (would like to hope that!)

Just a morbid curiosity......

Same reason they stopped show the people jumping to their deaths on 911. It is difficult & upsetting to watch.

 

[JimMIA]

Because the flood presents such different public health issues than 9-11, I don't know if they'll be able to keep all the corpses. We'll have to see.

I started to answer this and then realized medical professionals and cops would understand my answer but others would only be more troubled rather than helped.

The authorities will deal with the remains in a respectful way and do what they need to do to establish identities, but without jeopardizing public health. Nobody is insensitive about stuff like this.

 

[phorsenuf]

Same reason they stopped show the people jumping to their deaths on 911. It is difficult & upsetting to watch.

I can understand stop filming the jumping, just turn the camera away, but when they are filming from helicopters as they go thru neighborhoods how would you edit that out? Are they filming certain areas where there are none?

I guess I am just hoping that because we don't see them that maybe there aren't as many.....

 

[Luv2Roam]

I think they are going to find a lot under debris and inside buildings.
I have seen shots from heliocopters of bodies, but understandably they do not linger. And in some of the views it is not even obvious that people are standing on roofs, until the camera zooms in.
So I think much they don't want to show, and some would have to really be zoomed in on. They are flying quite a distance overhead.

 

[JimMIA]

Since the subject has been brought up I have another gruesome question.

The news reports are saying there are bodies in the water everywhere. Why is it tho that if there are supposably many, how come you don't see them? I mean I know they are not going to specifically show them but when they do these big overhead shots and fly-overs I never see them.

Why is that? Do you think maybe they are just not as many as we are being led to believe (would like to hope that!)

Just a morbid curiosity......

Part of the answer is there is a touch of exaggeration in the stories of "bodies floating everywhere." Part of it is that the media are probably exercising a touch of sensitivity, as they did with much of the 9/11 footage (despite the awful stuff you saw, there was a LOT more you didn't see).

The third part has to do with biology, chemistry and physics. If you REALLY MUST know, I'll PM you the answer to that one.

 

[C.Ann]

I would rather have seen dead bodies floating around in the water - out of their misery - than people screaming, crying, pleading and begging for food and water day after day..

 

[SueM in MN]

Since the subject has been brought up I have another gruesome question.

The news reports are saying there are bodies in the water everywhere. Why is it tho that if there are supposably many, how come you don't see them? I mean I know they are not going to specifically show them but when they do these big overhead shots and fly-overs I never see them.

Why is that? Do you think maybe they are just not as many as we are being led to believe (would like to hope that!)

Just a morbid curiosity......

I think they are trying not to show shots where they are visible, out of respect. But, I would guess from things reporters have said, that some of the bodies are visible when looking, but not flying over or are at least partly covered.

 

[KathyTX]

In the tsunami and on 9/11, we were talking about a small geographic area.

This time, we're talking about a huge area. Victims aren't going to be concentrated into a small area. And, as others are pointing out, many of them are trapped and hidden inside buildings.

 

[phorsenuf]

In the tsunami and on 9/11, we were talking about a small geographic area.

This time, we're talking about a huge area. Victims aren't going to be concentrated into a small area. And, as others are pointing out, many of them are trapped and hidden inside buildings.

I wasn't trying to be gross when I asked or seem fascinated by seeing it, I was just curious.
Like I said I was being hopeful it wasn't as bad as the media was saying.

I rememebr seeing footage of the tsunami and they were evident. Thats why I was confused.

 

[SueM in MN]

I think with the sunami, most people were outside, so when they were killed, their bodies were out right out there.
Because of the hurricane, most people were holed up in their houses.

 

[Deb in IA]

Since the subject has been brought up I have another gruesome question.

The news reports are saying there are bodies in the water everywhere. Why is it tho that if there are supposably many, how come you don't see them? I mean I know they are not going to specifically show them but when they do these big overhead shots and fly-overs I never see them.

Why is that? Do you think maybe they are just not as many as we are being led to believe (would like to hope that!)

Just a morbid curiosity......

Can you imagine, phorsenuf, how unthinkable it would be if you saw a body that you recognized ("That's Aunt Mabel's orange paisley shirt!"), as a floating corpse?

It's respect for the dead, and their families.

 

[Luv2Roam]

What made me think about this in the first place was seeing a backhoe picking up debris.
First, how do they know WHAT is in that backhoe pile?
Second, WHAT are they going to do with all that debris?