Home > 75,000 Body Bags Ordered for Katrina Aftermath

75,000 Body Bags Ordered for Katrina Aftermath

by Open-Publishing - Saturday 10 September 2005
4 comments

Catastrophes USA

Modesto company to deliver more body bags to New Orleans
The government’s order for another 50,000 will be filled by about eight firms

By PATRICK GIBLIN
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: September 9, 2005, 04:24:14 AM PDT

The federal government is trying to purchase an additional 50,000 body bags for use in the Hurricane Katrina cleanup and in Iraq, according to an official for a Modesto manufacturer.

Previously, the Federal Emergency Management Administration purchased 25,000 body bags and shipped them to New Orleans.

"We recently delivered every bag we had in stock, which is about 400," said John Hassapakis, manager of Central Valley Professional Services in Modesto. "Those were sent directly to New Orleans."

This week the government put out a bid for 50,000 more bags, he said.

"They are for backup in Louisiana and for offshore purposes, but it will bemonths before they will be able to getthem," he said. "That’s a lot of material."

The Modesto company can make 5,000 bags a month when it’s operating at full capacity, he said, though he added his isn’t the only company making bags for the government.

Besides Central Valley Professional Services, there’s another Modesto business - California Professional Manufacturing - that makes body bags, Hassapakis said.

In addition to the two Modesto firms, there are about a half-dozen other companies in the United States that manufacture body bags, Hassapakis said. All of them are expected to help fill the latest government order.

Officials at California Professional Manufacturing declined to comment Thursday.

In New Orleans, officials have constructed a temporary refrigerated mortuary that can hold up to 5,000 bodies at a time.

Because many bodies have been waterlogged or exposed to natural elements for more than a week, the identification process is expected to be slow, officials said.

That means that there will be an even bigger demand for body bags, Hassapakis said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/1...

Forum posts

  • Somebody is getting really exicted here!

  • wow. it looks like it will be around 1000. alarmists always blow things out of proportion.

    • The propaganda machine is already rolling by saying "the death count doesn’t appear to be as bad as was thought". The media is being shut out of viewing the recovery of bodies. Just as in Iraq we will never really know how many die here... but we can be sure it is higher then whatever count the "Administration" tells us, as they lie about EVERYTHING! With the number of people who have said they saw dead bodies floating you can’t tell me there have only been 200 + found in New Orleans...are they still floating?
      There was a caller on a Radio talk show whose friend was a firefighter working in New Orleans and said he was at a spot that had at least 1200 dead bodies...where are the reports of this! Why does this "Administration" always need to paint a "rosey"picture?

    • What u call "propagandia" machine can be the "4 truth fighting" i got questions i’ll find answers to :

      1* Why did i tought to this story while December Tsunami ? am I a "profiler" or kinda "mad calculator", have i to convert in Machiavelism... ?

      2* Why the 50000 bags , meaning TEN months of plain work for a very "dark/sarcastic" job ( can be , we need stocks for further events,like Red Cross putting 4/5 of recolted funds in bank accounts while tsunami victims wait for reconstruction...again, for further events...)

      3*Prevention is good but the main impact of such catastrophic events , is Immediate, next are complains, that only big rebuilding projects can calm down... they seems to use media/manipulation , plus incompetent federal peeps (not talking about Bush, the BIG, big idiot guy, but about people unable of planning things for such craps, China seems better organized, not talking about Japan... this science exists but people just want the illusion of safety, until their leaders are bunkered...)

      arg, i stop there, to depriming subject ...