Loss of bodies adds to grief of many families

When he finally could leave his post guarding a nuclear power plant after Hurricane Katrina struck, Richard George Reysack III sped to the flooded home of his 80-year-old father east of New Orleans. Slogging through the muck, he found his father's corpse face-down in the hallway.

As devastating as that discovery was, at least Reysack had his father's remains. Then even that was taken away. The authorities who moved the corpse to a temporary morgue not only won't return it to Reysack for burial, he said, but they won't even confirm that they have it.

Reysack's family has published an obituary and held a memorial service - all without a body.

"My family has had to endure that memorial service knowing that, Lord knows when we'll get my father's body . . . and put this behind us," Reysack said.

A month after Katrina upended the lives of hundreds of thousands here, families of the dead have been traumatized yet again by the ordeal of trying to pry loved ones'bodies from a bureaucratic quagmire. They say they have spent weeks being rebuffed or ignored by state and federal officials at a massive temporary morgue that houses hundreds of decomposed bodies.

David Zucchino and Nicolas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times, October 2, 2005

tags: grief  loss  body  katrina