Too painful a wait for families
Relatives of Guatemala volcano victims are losing patience over the recovery of bodies for a proper burial.
Escuintla: At an improvised morgue in the Guatemalan town of Escuintla, dozens of people stand around in an anguished daze, clutching photos of their loved ones, hoping to recover their bodies for burial.
This small town, some 35km southwest of Guatemala City, was nearly wiped off the map last Sunday by the violent eruption of the Fuego volcano and the crushing avalanches of earth, ash and glowing lava that followed.
The eruption claimed at least 110 lives and left dozens missing, according to an official tally. And some 4,500 people have no homes to return to.
“They are not animals, they are people,” said Boris Rodriguez, 24, who managed to recover a dozen corpses shortly after an avalanche devastated the village of San Miguel Los Lotes. Along with many others, he is waiting for the bodies, still in the morgue, to be returned to family members for burial.
But some families are losing patience as authorities conduct the methodical process of identifying bodies in the makeshift morgue set up in a local school. Dozens of the dead are being kept there.
Rodriguez has been biding his time at the morgue since yesterday. Almost a week after helping recover the corpses of 10 relatives, they have yet to be formally identified.
“It is simply too painful to pull those bodies out and not be able to keep vigil over them,” he said, standing near a stack of coffins provided to those unable to afford one.
The identification process is slow, involving DNA testing and interviews with relatives. So far, only 41 bodies have been formally identified, according to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences.
Many residents say the tragedy could have been avoided if civil protection authorities had issued a timely evacuation alert.
So said Enma Pamal, 46, who took the first available flight from the United States – her home of 26 years – upon learning of the catastrophe. Back in the now-devastated community where she was born, she discovered she had lost 18 relatives.
Standing with her 27-year-old brother Gerson, a survivor, she said people were beginning to lose “patience, if not hope” as the identification process drags on.
Pamal, who has provided medical examiners with DNA samples and details of the victims’ moles, scars and other physical characteristics, was visibly annoyed by the delay. “They should stop telling us to be patient,” she said.
But some victims have been identified, and one solemn funeral procession on Sunday drew some one thousand family members and friends.
Carlos Garcia, 16, walked alongside the coffins carrying the bodies of his sister Griselda Cortina, 27, and his nine-year-old niece Meylin Johaly Chavez as it moved toward a cemetery in the town of San Juan Alotenango.
Garcia was saved because he lived farther downhill than his relatives and escaped when he saw neighbours running in terror.
“Nobody warned us,” he said.