Workers clearing debris have pulled two more bodies from the rubble of homes on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, bringing the state's death count from Hurricane Katrina to 224, state officials said Friday.
"We do expect to find a couple more,'' Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove said. "We're working with debris removal companies to make sure we don't lose any of our citizens.''
The bodies were found in Long Beach and Pass Christian within the last three days, Hargrove said.
So far in Harrison and Hancock counties, two of the areas worst hit by Katrina, 27 of the deceased remain unidentified, Mississippi Commissioner of Public Safety George Phillips said at a news conference.
Gov. Haley Barbour said Monday that as many as 80 people had not been identified, most of them in the coastal counties.
Identified bodies have been turned over to family members, Hargrove said. The unidentified are still in morgues.
"In all the talk about recovery and restoration, we can't lose sight of the fact that a lot of people were killed in this disaster,'' Phillips said. "We lost a lot of people, not just a lot of property.''
Investigators have turned to DNA to help identify remains after fingerprints, X-rays and medical records proved unsuccessful, Hargrove said. Many dental records were wiped out in the storm, he said.
"We feel confident we will get all of them identified,'' Hargrove said. "But I don't want to get everybody's hopes up.''
Of the 771 missing persons reports filed in Harrison and Hancock counties, a team of investigators has cleared 717 cases. Officials said they were working on leads for remaining 54 cases.
Some coast officials fear Katrina's powerful storm surge simply pulled people away.
"I have no doubt that a number of them were washed out to sea,'' Pass Christian Alderman Lou Rizzard said this week.
Officials also said Friday that 120 of 150 noncompliant sex offenders living on the Gulf Coast have been located and identified. Investigators are working to find the other 30, said Lt. Col. Michael Bertay of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
To be compliant, sex offenders must register and update their locations with the state Department of Public Safety, Bertay said.
Mississippi changed its sex offender registration law this past July. Under the new law, every convicted sex offender will be issued a card similar to a driver's license.
Every offender will have to report to a Department of Public Safety driver's license station every 90 days to have a new photo taken and to update information about where he's living, working or going to school.
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