The Storm After The Storm Submitted By: N.O.V.A Source: Times Picayune 10-28-2006 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** The Storm After The Storm They died after Katrina, after evacuating to unfamiliar cities, after losing everything to the storm and, often, their will to live. A new project seeks to add them to the official Katrina death toll. One lived in Gentilly, the other in St. Bernard Parish, but their lives proceeded in many way on parallel tracks. Yvonne Aubry and Sam Cerniglia lived long and prosperously, both in homes they owned, still independent, married to longtime spouses, both retired from accomplished lives -- she as a 30-year New Orleans public school teacher, he as a Charity Hospital maintenance engineer who treasured a Purple Heart he had earned in World War II. Both saw all the trappings earned over a lifetime, along with their communities, obliterated in a single August day last year. And then life became a slow slide to death, the relatives of both said, as they succumbed to medical conditions both had managed before the storm. "She couldn't believe that the house was destroyed, that the water came in and took everything that they had," said Aubry's daughter, Yvonne Clark. Did Hurricane Katrina kill them? Their names cannot be found on the official state list of flood-related deaths, yet their stories hold particular interest for Columbia University professor John Mutter, who is gearing up an inquiry about far-flung Katrina victims. He relies on Internet searches and public feedback. He vows an almost indefinite commitment to recording their deaths and, when possible, the details of their lives. Gaps in knowledge "The sad thing about these events, not just in our country but all over the world, is people have short memories of these things. There's a weariness in hearing about it," Mutter said. "They get tired and they say 'What's the point with continuing on with the funding of these" identification efforts? Mutter said that, based on preliminary findings, he believes hundreds of people could be legitimately added to Katrina's death toll. State officials have vowed to work with him to improve Katrina-death identification work for which federal financing has run short. The New York environmental sciences professor and a research associate, Amatulla R'id, are using published stories and obituaries, Internet searches and, beginning this week, a Web site appeal, to develop leads or information about people who died or may have died as a result of Katrina. That includes people who succumbed to health problems or committed suicide long after the storm or hundreds of miles away from the disaster zone. As deputy director of Columbia's Earth Institute in New York, Mutter studies the "demography of vulnerability" in connection with people killed by natural disasters around the globe, and he is troubled by persistent gaps in data available about Katrina's victims. "I keep thinking that somebody else must be doing this, but I keep finding out that nobody else is," said Mutter, 58, who hasn't visited the New Orleans area since Katrina. "The scale of the tragedy is measured in the death toll. It's very important to get as accurately as possible what the real number was." It also is essential to learn more about victims already identified by government officials, victims who comprise the bulk of an official count of nearly 1,700 in Louisiana and Mississippi, Mutter says. A gray area The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has documented the deaths of 1,464 people in or from southeast Louisiana as a result of the storm, and before Oct. 1. The agency also has released a list of 828 names, drawn from bodies examined at federally financed morgues set up after Katrina. The ramping up of the Columbia project comes amid some state officials' frustration that federal financial support for a finer accounting of those killed by Katrina has tapered off. The Find Family National Call Center shut down weeks ago, and bureaucrats in Baton Rouge have shipped DNA samples off to a north Louisiana crime lab. Ezra Boyd, a researcher at the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center who is studying the geographic distribution of Katrina's storm victims, said the work of the Columbia researchers probes a vital "gray area" of storm effects that so far has received little attention. "Take a million people, take away their homes" and temporarily disperse them, and all manner of fatal effect can be expected in the aftermath, he said. "I think a few hundred is possible," he said of unrecorded deaths. Beyond the basics of age, race and gender, the researchers are asking relatives and friends to add information about marital status, location of death, dates of death and birth, employment, if the victim was a renter or homeowner at the time of the storm, and car ownership. Those responding also are asked their opinions about whether the victim died as a direct or indirect result of Katrina. The name and a phone number for those offering information is requested, but Mutter said he tries to avoid calling immediate family members, hoping not to cause them any more grief. State help pledged Louisiana's medical examiner, Dr. Louis Cataldie, said the Columbia effort seems well crafted and that he will talk with Mutter to establish a link between the project and Louisiana agencies. But Cataldie noted that other Web sites gathering information about Katrina victims have come and gone, and he wonders if the Columbia effort will be short-lived. Mutter said he believes that within six months the flow of useful data will taper off. But he has no plans for shutting down the Web site and said his search for more information about victims will continue "essentially indefinitely." Information is collected through the Earth Institute's Web site and, after screening, it is posted on the site for public viewing. So far the researchers have assembled and posted information with various levels of descriptive detail about nearly 1,200 people. Some of the posted details are surprisingly personal. The first victim listed, for example, 64-year-old Wayne Aaslestad , a Lake Catherine resident -- also included in the state's official list of victims -- is described on the Columbia Web site as "poor" under a social-status column, and, citing Web blogs and other sources, it adds: "From South Louisiana; grew up on St. Roch Avenue in Gentilly; sold his parents' house in 1995; lived most of his life at his camp out on Highway 90, Chef Menteur Highway. His home rested atop pilings over Lake St. Catherine amidst an assortment of odd vehicles, including trucks and boats. He planted fig trees in his yard and grew tomatoes." Familiar names While most names are drawn from Louisiana and Mississippi official lists, many were hunted down through other sources. Some of those listed through the Web site, but not in records kept by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, already are well known as a result of tragic events after the storm. One is Sgt. Paul Accardo of the New Orleans Police Department, who committed suicide six days after the storm devastated the city. Others include hip-hop musician Jerome "Slim Rome" Spears and his fiancee, Rachel Harris. After Katrina drove the two out of New Orleans, putting both out of work, Spears fatally shot Harris then killed himself in January, at a rental home near Atlanta. Most of the victims' names the Web site is uncovering are not well known. They include Cerniglia and Aubry, reluctant evacuees who, like thousands of others, thought they would soon be returning to tidy up their properties. Their children say there is little doubt that, while not listed on the death certificate, Katrina was the central event that brought about their deaths. Cerniglia's son Ray said his father and mother, Dorothy, bounced among the homes of relatives before taking up residence together at the Hammond Nursing Home because they could no longer care for themselves. Both were distressed about the high cost of repairing their flooded home and fretted at being told they could not return there. "He kept asking about the house, everything like that," Ray Cernigla said. "He couldn't take care of her, she couldn't take care of him." Dorothy Cerniglia, 90, died June 4 at North Oaks Medical Center. Like her husband, she didn't make it on the state's list of Katrina victims, and she hasn't yet made it onto Columbia's. Grieving and wasting away physically, Sam Cerniglia, 84, died Aug. 8 at the nursing home. "A lot of elderly have died in the last year," Ray Cerniglia said. "It was just too much stress on them." That view is echoed by Yvonne Clark who, having lost her own eastern New Orleans home in the storm, struggled in Texas to help her parents after their evacuation there. Her mother, the retired teacher, had faced a flurry of medical problems, including a stroke, and died Sept. 8 at Baylor Medical Center in Irving. Clark now focuses her concern on her father, retired Loyola University education professor Alvin Aubry. He grieves for his wife, can no longer live alone and misses New Orleans terribly, she said. "Right now, he's in a skilled care facility because his diabetes was acting up," the daughter said. "He would love to come home, but he can't come home." Information about the Columbia research project and access to posted data is available through the web site www.earth.columbia.edu =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= KATRINA: THE UNCOUNTED VICTIMS While Louisiana's official count of 1,464 victims includes those who died before Oct. 1, 2005 with a direct link to the storm, a Columbia University scholar is documenting later deaths that could be tied to trauma from the devastating event. Selected deaths not included in the official state list: Yvonne Badon Aubry, 90 A teacher for 30 years in Orleans Parish public schools, Aubry died Sept. 8 after suffering a stroke in Irving, Texas, where she had moved after Katrina. A parishioner of St. Raymond Catholic Church, Aubry displayed "thoughtfulness, generosity and love for people," her obituary said. She and her husband, who remains in a rehabilitation center in Irving, were devastated by the destruction of their Gentilly home. Mervin Joseph Bachemin Sr., 71 A retired administrative assistant for New Orleans public pchools, Bachemin, a New Orleans native, died of a heart attack Dec. 10 in Houston after Katrina forced his move there. He had maintained close friendships with many New Orleans school workers. Dorothy "Miss Dottie" Bradley, 86 Bradley, a former New Orleans resident, loved the Mississippi Gulf Coast and built a home there with her husband in the 1950s. They raised their four children in Long Beach, and their home weathered a hit by Hurricane Camille; it fared poorly when Katrina came ashore. Bradley moved to California after Katrina and died there Aug. 21. "She was a friend to so many," her funeral notice said. Bernice Rae Schwartz Brill, 81 A lifelong New Orleans resident and advocate for great restaurants and the arts, Brill died March 22 in North Carolina after a brief illness, after Katrina forced her and her husband to relocate to Durham. A chef well known for her shrimp remoulade and chicken clemenceau, Brill founded the Blue Roof Pottery Shop in New Orleans, which specialized in works of craftspeople from around the region. Sam Salvadore Cerniglia, 84 Born in New Orleans and a resident of St. Bernard Parish, Cerniglia died Aug. 8 at Hammond Nursing Home after evacuating and staying in the homes of relatives. A retired maintenance engineer with Charity Hospital, Cerniglia was a World War II Army veteran, and was awarded the Purple Heart. He and his wife Dorothy, who died two months before he did, were distraught over the loss of their home. John Lawrence Mascaro, 73 Mascaro, a retired real estate executive and philanthropist, died Sept. 13, 2005, from heart problems in Houston, where he had evacuated. A lifelong New Orleans resident, Mascaro was a past vice president of Frischhertz Electric Co. and was instrumental in developing shopping malls, apartment complexes and medical office centers in the New Orleans area. He also was a previous minority owner of the New Orleans Saints. Mascaro helped found the St. Augustine Campus of the Society of the Divine Word Missionaries in Bay St. Louis, Miss.