IN LIFE they had names and loved ones. In death they became mere numbers, with only a group of strangers to mourn their passing.
Three years to the day after Hurricane Katrina wreaked disaster in New Orleans and along the Gulf coast of the United States, the last of its victims – including three babies – were finally laid to rest.
But it fell to city officials and volunte
er funeral directors to give them their peace; half the victims, including the babies, remain unidentified and others were spurned by their families.
As a lone trumpeter played Amazing Grace, the last of the bodies – in elegant silver-coloured coffins, one of them transported ceremonially in a horse-drawn carriage – were slipped into mausoleums overlooking a new Katrina memorial in the city's Charity Hospital cemetery.
"Each one of those is a human being who had a life and a love … I often wondered about their lives, who they were, what happened to them," said Dr Frank Minyard, the New Orleans coroner, who led the three-year operation to identify Katrina's 1,400-plus victims. In the chaos that followed the hurricane, there was no proper record of where each body was found or the exact circumstances of their deaths. "There are so many stories we'll never know, including those babies," said Dr Minyard.
"I'm sure there were a lot of mothers holding babies, trying to climb up in the attic, couldn't get out, couldn't break a hole in the roof. We found a lot like that, people that died in the attics. This is a closure for everybody. It's one big amen."
But even as they interred the last of Katrina's fatalities, the people of New Orleans were offering new prayers ahead of the possible arrival of Hurricane Gustav, beginning its furious march across the Gulf of Mexico yesterday.
It had already killed at least 78 people across the Caribbean. Landfall is expected early next week anywhere along the Gulf coast, from Texas to Florida. A separate storm, Hanna, was also building off Florida's Atlantic coast.
Anxious not to be caught out as they were in 2005 city, state and federal officials were putting emergency plans in place yesterday. They had 1,200 buses on stand-by to help evacuate people.
Supplies, including 10.5 million gallons of water and four million meals were dropped at shelters.
Thousands of National Guardsmen and police were also on stand by, nursing home patients were being moved away from the possible strike zone and 9,000 prisoners were moved out of Louisiana.
"I hope those of you who were around during Katrina can see the difference in things this time," said Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary.
Many people were already leaving under their own steam.
As the last of the crypts was sealed, the mayor, Ray Nagin, tolled a bell to mark the moment the first of New Orleans' levees burst three years ago.
Dr Minyard played a jazz version of What a Friend We Have in Jesus.
"I just had to get that out of this trumpet," he said, "It's been in there three years, just waiting to be played for these people."
