Lane County calls for mobile mortuary amid recent increase in death toll

Lane County currently has the capacity to store 175 bodies, according to the county. The additional refrigerated trailer would add space for another 60 bodies, bringing the total capacity to 235.

Demand is slowing now, but the county health department has said it wants to be prepared in case they start to rise again.

Having a refrigerated trailer will reduce the logistical challenges that arise when mortuaries fill up, Lane County Public Health said. Some of these challenges include the cost of shipping bodies to more distant locations and the trauma loved ones may face due to the delay in resting the deceased.

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The county averages about two to six coronavirus-related deaths each day, health officials said. There have been 68 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 30 days.

But health officials say it’s not a new problem. The number of annual deaths in Lane County has increased steadily over the past decade.

“They say you also go through a growth in mortality in a community every 10 years or so and that really has nothing to do with, as you say, the pandemic,” said Karen Burns, one of the owners of Burns’s Riverside. Funeral home in the chapel in Florence.

They have space to store up to 16 bodies, Burns said. She said she saw more coronavirus-related deaths in August than she saw throughout 2020.

“In my career, I have never seen any type of refrigerated trucks ever brought into the state of Oregon to my knowledge,” Burns said.

The county said it was trying to buy a trailer to keep even after the pandemic is over. The trailers cost between $ 5,000 and $ 100,000, according to Lane County Public Health. The price will likely increase due to supply shortages caused by the pandemic.

The Oregon Health Authority said the request for the trailer was still being processed and that it did not have a timeline for its arrival.