They haunt Cataldie, the former coroner now in charge of the special morgue in St. Gabriel built for victims of the storm. The facility has examined 883 bodies since the storm struck Aug. 29; parish coroners have handled the rest of the dead.
Figures released in recent days put the Louisiana death toll at 1,076, up two from last week. In Mississippi, Katrina killed 228 people.
''I won't see light at the end of the tunnel until I see the families for these people found," said Cataldie, head of Louisiana's Katrina body recovery and identification efforts. ''And we're not even close to seeing that."
In Louisiana, the search for bodies was called off Oct. 3, but emergency workers and residents returning to destroyed houses continue to find the dead. In heavily hit St. Bernard Parish, south of New Orleans, authorities are using helicopters in a last-ditch effort to find bodies in marshes.
Leila Haydel recently went to the home of 93-year-old Olga Northon, a family friend, even though the house had been checked. She and her husband found the decaying body of the elderly woman in the living room.
''I can't tell you how horrible it was to find just the sweetest lady in the world in that situation," Haydel said.
Of the 321 nameless bodies at St. Gabriel, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, 181 could possibly be identified by dental records or other traditional means -- if the records were available.
The other 140, however, are so severely decomposed it will take DNA testing to determine their identity. Like much of everything else at the morgue, however, getting DNA testing set up has been slow and frustrating.
Initially, the Louisiana State Police lab was going to handle DNA tests, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency refused funding twice because of bureaucratic rules that limit how much and who the agency can pay. FEMA and Cataldie hope they have solved the issue by having the US Department of Health and Human Services handle the testing, although it hasn't started.
''DNA is our weapon of last resort," Cataldie said. ''And I'm at that point."
