The long-term temporary morgue at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal holding 750 bodies — not all victims of Covid-19 — is a reminder of the crush of coronavirus fatalities that overwhelmed city hospitals, mortuaries and funeral homes last spring.
“Long term storage was created at the height of the pandemic to ensure that families could lay their loved ones to rest as they see fit,” said Mark Desire, a spokesman for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner.
The last time New York resorted to such drastic measures was after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when the medical examiner’s office had to identify tens of thousands of body parts from the 2,753 people killed in the World Trade Center collapse.
Desire said the medical examiner’s office is assisting families in making arrangements for final resting places for the dead.
“With sensitivity and compassion, we continue to work with individual families on a case-by-case basis during their period of mourning,” Desire said.
Desire said the temporary morgue at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal “was established to provide longer term storage for decedents during the peak of the pandemic when the funeral industry was stressed.”
“This additional storage capacity gave the families the time they needed to make final disposition arrangements,” he said.
Source : Nbcnewyork