NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The unclaimed bodies of close to 80 victims of Hurricane Katrina have finally been entombed -- nearly three years after the storm -- by a group of funeral home owners who said they took it upon themselves to inter the remains because they felt the city and coroner's office were too slow to do so.

C.C. Johnson, a mortician at Littlejohn Funeral Home, said the remains were entombed at the site of a Katrina memorial at the end of a historic streetcar line. The $1.2 million memorial is to be dedicated Friday, the third anniversary of the Katrina disaster.

Seven bodies remain unburied. They are to be carried to the site on Friday during a jazz funeral that will be part of the dedication.

Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard was not immediately available for comment.