The Discrepancy
Between Missing People And Confirmed Fatalities In Mississippi
By Dr. Ben Marble
07 October, 2005
Opednews.com
There
has been a considerable discrepancy between the 1172 individuals reported
as 'missing' in Harrison County, MS. and the 96 confirmed fatalities.
This, of course,
has led many people to wonder where those people might be located? My
own personal theory was that as the 30+ feet storm surge receded many
of the people were likely swept out to sea into the Mississippi Sound.
For example, I had heard of one report of an Asian woman in Biloxi who
had climbed to the top of a tree to hang on for her life who witnessed
a mother and her four children being swept away by the water. I also
find it interesting that the Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove himself
expressed similar concerns in a recent interview in the local newspaper
where it said, 'Hargrove fears some of the caskets could have been swept
into the Mississippi Sound.'
All this time I
had assumed that someone was out on the Mississippi Sound looking for
and recovering these bodies but then last week I heard reports from
local law enforcement that said that there was still no one in charge
of recovering bodies from the Mississippi Sound . All efforts had focused
entirely on recovering bodies on land only. Local law enforcement had
not been allowed on the water as the water was officially off limits
to everyone including local law enforcement as per Coast Guard orders.
So naturally the local law enforcement was frustrated knowing that no
one was recovering the bodies at sea.
Allegedly the Coast
Guard did not have orders to recover bodies from the Mississippi Sound
as their primary mission was to restore the shipping lanes. I was told
that the Coast Guard crews were seeing bodies floating amongst the debris
while sharks fed on them but were forced to leave them. Of course, this
upset the Coast Guard crew members because they were not allowed to
recover the bodies because they had no "orders" from above
to do so. So some local law enforcement members knew of my encounter
with Mr.
Cheney and they contacted me to see if I could raise awareness to this
issue with my contacts in the national media. I reported what I knew
to Op Ed News who proceeded to begin investigating.
Perhaps it was mere
coincidence but the very next day the Mississippi Sound was officially
opened back up so that was the first day your average person could go
back out on the water. I had every reason to believe these reports were
accurate and so I decided to go out myself and see what I could find.
The idea was that if we found any bodies we would attempt to notify
the Coast Guard with the GPS coordinates and see how they responded
and/or recover them ourselves if we must.
So this past Saturday
I recruited my brother, who is a deputy Sheriff, and my father to go
out on the water to see what we could find. The primary problem was
that we were now almost 5 weeks out from the storm and so it was likely
that if there were any bodies many would have either been eaten, sunk,
or washed far out to sea. We were in a relatively small boat and so
we went to Cat Island, Ms. which is about 8 miles south of the coastline
because we had heard that they had found numerous dead animals washing
up on the shore there. We saw quite a bit of debris along the way and
had to drive the boat fairly slowly in order to avoid sinking. On the
island itself we found numerous wrecked cars which is odd considering
that there are no roads on Cat Island. We also saw a dead dolphin, a
dead boar, a dead deer, a dead snake, a live snake, and a dead sea turtle
(endangered species). There were numerous wrecked boats. One was named
"My Lady Too" and was from Mandeville, Lousiana which is just
outside of New Orleans. We checked the wrecked boats for dead bodies
but found none. We also found shoes, clothes, all sorts of other random
debris and a suitcase with a label that said "New Orleans".
Of course, I documented all of this with my videocamera/digital camera
and will soon have the images up on www.hurricanekatrinasucked.com .
Though we found no bodies I still have every reason to believe the information
I heard was true. Finding bodies at this point would be much like finding
a needle in a hay stack. Still I would like to get to the 'bottom' of
this and find out exactly what was the official policy of the government
and especially the Coast Guard with respect to those victims of Katrina
that were lost at sea. It appears the golden opportunity to recover
our dead may have been lost forever leaving numerous local families
in limbo. And so I would ask the following questions:
Was there anyone
in charge of locating/recovering bodies from the Mississippi Sound and
if so exactly when did they begin looking?
How many bodies
did your crews see floating in the water?
If you saw bodies
why weren't they recovered?
How many boats and/or
aircraft were actively searching for bodies in the Mississippi Sound
in the weeks after the storm?
I would also encourage
any crew members that were on any boats in the Mississippi Sound in
the days and weeks after the storm to contact me at [email protected]
to share what info they may have.
People who can verify these reports will have their anonymity respected
if they so desire. Thanks for your help in helping us answer these very
important questions.
Ben Marble, M.D.
PS I would also like to make sure everyone is aware of my announcement
last week that even though I lost my home and my recording studio I
will be donating my share of the proceeds from my EBAY auctions/sales
at cafepress.com/benmarblemd to the SALVATION ARMY since my grandmother
worked for them for several decades.
Dr. Ben Marble www.hurricanekatrinasucked.com
recently achieved national prominence when he told Dick Cheney on CNN
live to go fuck himself. He is an ER doctor with a new child born during
the days following Hurricane Katrina