At St Rita's nursing home, in Chalmette, St Bernard Parish, east of New Orleans, 34 dead patients and staff members were discovered some nine days after hurricane Katrina hit the US on August 29, 2005. Criminal charges have since been filed against the owners.
Charles Foti, Louisiana's attorney general, charged Salvador and Mable Mangano with 34 counts of negligent homicide for not doing more to save their elderly patients. Mr Foti said: "The pathetic thing in this case was that they were asked if they wanted to move them and they did not. They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming....