A Few Words for the Dead

As the flood waters recede in the Big Easy, operations begin to shift from searching for and rescuing stranded survivors to collecting and identifying the dead. Today's USA Today has a very sobering cover story today about that process. This gives you some indication of what the folks down there are up against:

He and other doctors say the task of identifying the casualties and returning their bodies to families will be difficult, particularly because many of the dead have been submerged in water for more than a week. Facial features of some victims can become bloated and unrecognizable. Even race becomes hard to determine because the skin darkens as the body decays. Dental records of many victims are likely to be underwater in the flooded streets of New Orleans.

Very depressing work, I imagine.

As always, please give what you can to help out down there.