azsnowman wrote:charley wrote:Don't water-logged bodies weigh a whole lot, regardless of what the person weighed when they were alive? I don't know that all adult bodies would weigh 250-300 pounds, but I'd bet many will, especially adult males.
I think that was the point the other poster was trying to make, not that everyone in NO is overweight.
Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I recall, human tissue can absorb a lot of water and a dead body becomes extremely bloated and water-logged when immersed in water for days (not to even get into what decomposition is like for those water-logged bodies). It's very reaistic to think many would weigh 250-300 pounds. Regardless of weight, it's going to be a gruesome task retrieving those people.
Talking from experience here, they do weigh more, I just did a water recovery 3 weeks ago, a 16 yr old male drowned at a local lake, my cadaver dog made the "hit".......divers were sent in where my dog indicated, pulled the remains out 2 hours later.
It is something that you NEVER get used to, I've been dispatched to MANY a death scene and all of them are just like the first one, but you find a way to muddle through it. Being in the "Brotherhood" of law enforcement, you rely HEAVILY on your partners, your brothers for strength.
Dennis
Wow, cadaver dogs can hit on people who are underwater? I did not know that. A gruesome subject but that's an interesting fact. I apologize for details but do you let the dogs swim around? How do you know when they find someone?
BTW, a city 20 miles to the north is poised to send a big team of rescue/cadaver dogs to the area. I understand from waht I've read that the dogs are unhappy if they find too many people deceased, so they have to stage fake rescues from time to time where they find a live person to keep their spirits up. I thought that was fascinating.
