- Title: Funeral homes in Haiti are working at full capacity after quake
- Date: 18th August 2021
- Summary: LES CAYES, HAITI (AUGUST 18, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF NAKED CORPSES INSIDE MORGUE VARIOUS OF CORPSES COVERED WITH BLACK PLASTIC BAGS AND WITH SHEETS MORGUE WORKER AND CORPSES IN MORGUE FUNERAL HOME SIGN (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) 'SHALOM' MORGUE DIRECTOR, JEANTINE PROSPER, SAYING: "From Saturday to Sunday I received 41 corpses. I cannot receive more than that, we prepare them
- Embargoed: 1st September 2021 19:00
- Keywords: Haiti Les Cayes death earthquake funeral home morgues
- Location: LES CAYES, HAITI
- City: LES CAYES, HAITI
- Country: Haiti
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,South America / Central America,Earthquakes/Volcanoes/Tsunami
- Reuters ID: LVA001EQT25AF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES AND PARTIAL NUDITY
Funeral directors struggled on Wednesday (August 18) to deal with the number of corpses that have arrived since last weekend's devastating earthquake in the southern Haitian city of Les Cayes, with bodies left piling up outside some facilities.
Authorities said on Wednesday that the earthquake had killed at least 1,941 people and injured some 9,900 others, but with rescuers still pulling bodies from the rubble the tally looks set to rise.
Jeantine Prosper, director of the "Shalom" morgue, said he was having trouble finding places to store the bodies, tarps to cover them from the sun, and enough electricity to keep the corpses cold.
Several bodies lay beneath sheets on the patio behind the building.
"From Saturday to Sunday I received 41 corpses. I cannot receive more than that," he said.
In his small business, corpses lay head-to-toe on the tiled floor of the refrigerated room, which was being kept cold thanks to a generator.
He said the morgue has received 41 bodies since Saturday (August 14), including 6 children, and he was keeping his operation open even though he and his family were left homeless by the quake.
A few streets away, another morgue had received 90 bodies since Saturday.
It was the most corpses the facility had received in its 15-year operation, director Michel Vladimir Lamothe said, including after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which struck closer to the capital Port-au-Prince.
(Production: Robenson Sanon, Herbert Villarraga, Nina Lopez) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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