A man and a woman whose bodies were too decomposed to identify were buried in Pascagoula, Mississippi. No names adorned their headstones and no relatives mourned their passing. Predictably, in a region where African-Americans bore the brunt of the devastation, both were black.

Vicki Broadus, the Jackson County Coroner, said: “I think five months is long enough to keep the bodies. It’s time to give them a proper burial.”

The graveside ceremony may be the first of many. Of the official death toll of 1,417, more than 114 are unidentified because fingerprints, dental records and DNA tests have given no clues as to who they are. More than 3,000 people are listed as missing and 118 bodies have been identified but remain unclaimed. Ray Nagin, the Mayor of New Orleans, is seeking federal money to build a mausoleum for unidentified and unclaimed bodies.

One of yesterday’s victims was a man in his sixties, with a tattoo of the number eight on his left forearm, who was found west of Pascagoula. The woman was found wearing a University of Michigan T-shirt. The community in Jackson County came together for the ceremony. A funeral home donated the fibreglass caskets, a florist gave flowers and the Rev Rex Yancey, pastor at the First Baptist Church, volunteered to officiate.

“Even though we don’t know their names, God does,” Mr Yancey said. “They’re not friendless because there are people standing with them.” Two dozen people attended, many placing red and white roses on the caskets. “A lot of people identified with these unidentified dead because they very easily could have died in the storm,” Mr Yancey said.

Meanwhile, anger at the Government is growing. The authorities have allocated $85 billion (£48 billion), but the cost of the damage is thought to be twice that. President Bush was criticised for devoting only six sentences to the Gulf Coast in his State of the Union address. Yesterday he said that he would ask Congress for a further $18 billion in aid.

On Wednesday a Congressional report concluded that the White House and Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security chief, had failed to provide decisive action when Katrina struck.

In its preliminary findings, it said that the White House had no clear chain of command in place and suggested that Mr Bush, rather than the former federal emergency chief Michael Brown, should shoulder much of the blame.

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