Katrina Coverage

As of mid-November, the number of recoveries had dwindled to a one or two a week, and Kenyon International Emergency Services' contract to do collections ended around that time.
The backstory is in this story from 11/16:
Kenyon… first arrived in the storm-ravaged region Sept. 7 as a short-term contractor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Six […]

From "At Storm Victim's Funeral, a Celebration of a Life and a City":
Only 40 percent of the 883 bodies at the central morgue in St. Gabriel, La., have been released to families, and many victims - out of an estimated total of 1,050 in Louisiana and 230 in Mississippi - remain nameless or unclaimed.
Now, […]

La. Gov. Blamed for Slow Removal of Bodies
Bodies of people killed by Hurricane Katrina went uncollected for more than a week in the New Orleans area as the federal government waited for Louisiana's governor to decide what to do with them, according to memos released Thursday by a Republican-led House committee.
The 38 pages of e-mail […]

The blurb "Katrina's death toll in La. tops 1,000" has a little more on the first part of the title.
The K-R article "Chaotic coordination had government scrambling for body bags" (also here) describes FEMA's frantic search for more bags, all the while that they had thousands of bags on hand, including a thousand at a […]

Unless someone reports something, they've stopped counting in Louisiana:
State and federal agencies have finished their sweeps through the city, but Kenyon International Emergency Services, the private company hired by the state to remove the bodies, is on call if any other body is found, said Bob Johannessen, a spokesman with the state Department of Health […]