Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Louisiana's attorney general filed 34 criminal charges against the husband and wife who own St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish, where 34 decomposing bodies were found after Hurricane Katrina swept through the state.

Salvador A. Mangano and Mable Mangano surrendered to authorities in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, today and are being charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide, Attorney General Charles C. Foti told reporters today at a news conference in Baton Rouge.

``Thirty-four people drowned in a nursing home when it should have been evacuated,'' Foti said. ``They didn't follow the standard of care of what a reasonable person would follow.''

St. Rita's Nursing Home had a plan to evacuate its 60 residents before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on Aug. 29. The couple failed to evacuate the elderly residents though they were required to do so, Foti said, confirming that 34 bodies have been recovered.

`No Mandatory Evacuation'

St. Rita's didn't evacuate the home because the owners didn't receive a mandatory evacuation notice from St. Bernard Parish and thought they'd be risking patient lives by moving them voluntarily, CNN reported, citing Jim Cobb, attorney for the Manganos.

Patients on oxygen and feeder tubes ``won't survive the evacuation if you pull that trigger too soon,'' Cobb said on CNN. ``They saved over 52 lives after the water rose precipitously. They abandoned no one.''

Bloomberg News was unable to reach Cobb immediately.

St. Bernard Parish coroner Bryan Bertucci said last week that he called nursing home owner Mable Mangano during a Parish Council meeting at 2 p.m. on Aug. 28, a day before the storm. He said he asked her why she hadn't followed the evacuation plan she filed with the parish and removed her patients to Baton Rouge and Lafayette on the two buses set aside for them.

``The sad thing is that these people ran a pretty good nursing home,'' St. Bernard Parish Fire Chief Thomas Stone said in an interview. The owners ``just made one mistake.''

Bounded by Water

The one-story facility is about 6 miles east of downtown, where 67,000 people once lived. St. Bernard Parish is a bedroom and retirement community bounded by water on three sides.

President George W. Bush has called Hurricane Katrina the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. The storm caused hundreds of deaths and an estimated $100 billion in damage across 90,000 square miles of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

The staff at St. Rita's managed to save 20 patients by floating them on mattresses across a half-mile of floodwater to nearby Beauregard High School as the water level rose, Raymond Couture, one of the rescuers, said last week.

One died on the way, two died there, and a fourth died afterward in the hospital, he said.

Foti said during the press conference today that the case had disturbed him particularly because his father had died recently.

``The pathetic thing in this case is that they were asked if they wanted to move and they did not move,'' Foti said. ``They were warned repeatedly.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Theresa Barry in Washington at Tbarry2@bloomberg.net; Tim Doyle in Louisiana or tdoyle8@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 13, 2005 21:25 EDT