Handling Mass Fatalities

How the bodies of the dead were handled after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast last August will be the topic of research conducted by Dr. Henry W. Fischer III, director of the Center for Disaster Research and Education (CDRE) at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. Fischer received a $13,400 follow-up grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct the research. His team will be in Louisiana and Mississippi April 23-29, 2006.

"They continue to find bodies in the region," said Fischer in a release. "When our team was in the Gulf Coast in October, the forensics people were overwhelmed. They're happy that we're coming back now."

Fischer, along with Dr. Kathryn Gregoire, MU social work professor and CDRE research associate, and two MU students, Lynn Letukas and Joe Mellon, traveled to the Gulf Coast in October to help the emergency responders document what went well in their view, and what will be amended for the future. That same team will be responding this month to see how the mass fatalities were handled and continue to be handled.

This builds on Fischer's work in Asia after the December 2004 Tsunami. At that time, Fischer received a $68,000 grant from the NSF to research the handling of bodies in Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. Fischer found that the Buddhist religion's custom of wrapping and burning the bodies was not abandoned as had been reported.

"Prior to arriving in Thailand we heard reports of mass burials, and we even saw photographs of mass burials," said Fischer. "When we started our interviews with local people and they said they didn't have mass graves, we thought they were hiding something. It turns out there were never any mass burials and they didn't even think about that possibility."

The information from Fischer's work in the Gulf Coast will be shared with the research community via a San Diego State University supercomputer.

"The Gulf Coast is threatened by hurricanes on a regular basis," said Fischer. "We will help the emergency responders document what went well in their view, and what will be amended for the future. This is valuable information that will help others prepare for such events in the future."