Catia La Mar, Venezuela (EFE).- The municipal cemetery in La Esperanza, expanded to accommodate victims of the Jun. 24 double earthquakes, continued burying bodies, as crematoriums in Caracas and the La Guaira morgue continued to operate 24/7 to handle the increasing number of casualties, which reached 4.118 on Friday.
As of Friday, about five coffins were waiting to be buried at the La Esperanza cemetery, located about 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the center of Catia la Mar in the Carayaca parish.
«They’re preparing to have a capacity of about 2,000 to 3,000 graves. The cemetery has been at full capacity for some time, and work to expand it has been underway since the night of the earthquake,» one of the security guards, who preferred to remain anonymous, explained to EFE.
He estimated that about 600 people have been buried there so far.
«Families come to the burials, but unidentified bodies are buried in numbered graves so their names can be added once they are identified,» the guard explained.
He insisted that everything is being conducted with great dignity and is «normal.»
«People can rest assured that the deceased are receiving proper burials. There are no mass graves,” he noted.
Throughout La Guaira, the epicenter of devastation caused by the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude twin earthquakes, bulldozers are clearing debris and recovering bodies, especially in the towns of Catia La Mar and Caraballeda.
The latest government figures, released Thursday, put the death toll at 4,118, a 219-person increase from the previous day.
No data is available on the number of missing persons, but some citizen initiatives estimate that about 30,000 people have not been contacted.
At the makeshift morgue in Los Silos, next to the port of La Guaira, dozens of body bags were seen outdoors under gray tents, awaiting identification.
On the other side of the morgue, hundreds of coffins are stacked next to port containers.
«20 bodies arrived tonight,» explained a volunteer serving meals to workers at the site, speaking with EFE.
The facility was set up after the disaster and has been operating 24 hours a day for over two weeks.
Some bodies are brought there by family members who found them in the rubble, while others are brought in by rescue teams.
A tent and some plastic chairs have been set up at the entrance of the morgue for family members waiting to identify the bodies.
«The family member identifies the body, receives the death certificate and the permit for cremation or burial, and then takes the body to the crematorium or cemetery,» explained Joel Urribarro, president of the National Chamber of Funeral Homes, to EFE.
«Today, identified deceased individuals are released immediately. Most of the deceased have already been identified and released,” he added, emphasizing that the number of bodies released has dropped significantly since the tragedy began.
The crematoria in Caracas and La Guaira, which can cremate 300 bodies per day, are operating around the clock, according to the industry representative.
However, confusion persists among some of those affected. On Friday at the Los Silos morgue, a woman was waiting to find out where her relative’s ashes were.
“The funeral home called me and said they brought them here,” she explained, bewildered. EFE
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