CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon yesterday to find out why the identification and release of Joplin tornado victims' bodies is taking so long. In one case, Cooper said that a family was told it would take two weeks for a family to get in to identify the body of their child.
Nixon told Cooper that help is on the way, and the process should be speeding up. He also told a horribly timed joke about looting. "We're in the Show-Me State, but we're not in the Take-Me State." Cooper wasn't amused. Watch the video after the jump and also see the list of people still missing.
This is the list of people still missing as of 10 a.m. May 27.
The death toll is now at 132, according to the Associated Press.
H/t: TKC.
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Dude, I think you need to read the article again. They're talking about families SEEING and identifying the body not forensics doing the ID.
"it would take two weeks for a family to get in to identify the body of their child"
Which certified forensic expert said that two weeks to identify a body is "too long"? Anderson Cooper? With over 120 dead, there will be some identifications that may take more than a month to accomplish. Officials have only one chance to scientifically examine, confirm and protect the death investigation and subsequent identification of a recovered body. Future criminal, civil claims and insurance benefits are only preserved if the recovery, investigation and identification are meticulously accomplished. In a disaster morgue or examination center, this work cannot be rushed. There are no "full time" disaster victim identification teams in the United States. All these functions are imported to the disaster site and take lots of time to move, set up and become operational. The number of bodies processed per day is also very small. The public and the media have an unrealistic expectation of how long it takes to do this kind of work in the middle of a disaster area. CSI is fiction! If the science is ignored or rushed and mistakes are made, the integrity of all future litigation, liability and ability for a family to move on will be brought into question. There is a report that a body was released to the wrong family due to people being in a hurry and not using established scientific/forensic procedures to perfom this work in an unrushed manner. I agree it is agonizing to wait. But it is more agonizing to bury your loved one only to be told that the body belongs to another family months after the disaster. Let the professionals do this important and difficult work and give them some room. There are plenty of things to criticize during a disaster. This shouldn't be one of them. This same uninformed media reported that the Japanese Government failed because they reverted to "mass graves". The practice of "temporary interment" was the perfect, acceptable solution and was applauded by those that plan for catastrophic disasters. The media and public expectation of death care in a disaster is wildly misinformed as to what TV tells us should happen and what is actually possible.
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