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Lost Coffins Remain Part of Katrina's Legacy

Posted Aug 30, 08 11:32 AM CDT in US 

(Newser) – Louisiana is still finding coffins displaced by Hurricane Katrina three years on, the Wall Street Journal reports. Katrina and Rita moved 1,500 bodies from their resting places in the state's swampy south, where floating coffins during floods have long been part of local folklore. Hundreds remain unidentified, and they are still turning up in woods and water.

In one hard-hit parish, Katrina obliterated most of the cemeteries, moving some coffins across the Mississippi River. Couples buried together have been separated, and families fear their loved ones' remains have been lost forever. And as Hurricane Gustav moved closer yesterday, the third anniversary of Katrina, more than 80 of the storm's unclaimed New Orleans victims were laid to rest.

Source Wall Street Journal

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A jazz funeral procession passes new construction on the way to a memorial ceremony on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Friday, Aug. 29, 2008.   (AP Photo/Cheryl Gerber)
A coffin broken free by the crashing waves of Hurricane Katrina remains in the debris of Highway 11 in Buras, Louisiana, on Sept. 19, 2005.   (KRT Photos)
A coffin lies exposed in a cemetery damaged by Hurricane Katrina, on Friday, September 2, 2005.   (KRT Photos)
A coffin and crypt rest on a levee after floating away from an above-ground graveyard during flooding in Plaquemines Parish Sept. 11, 2005, in Port Sulphur, Louisiana.   (Getty Images)
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New Orleanians hold a mock funeral for Hurricane Katrina.   (ludwingguate)

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My mom's body was missing. I went to visit her and nothing was there, and I thought 'Well Lord, how do I find her?'
- Jeanne St. Ann of Plaquemines, Louisiana

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Texas • Hurricane Katrina • New Orleans • Louisiana • Hurricane Gustav • Mississippi • Katrina aftermath • cemetery • coffin • Hurricane Rita


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