El Paso Faces Surging COVID-19 Deaths as Thanksgiving Celebrations Loom
As deaths mount in the Texas border town, one local funeral director worries large Thanksgiving gatherings could push funeral home capacity over the brink.
Nov. 25, 2020
“With the city's morgues overwhelmed with dead bodies,
dozens of National Guard members arrived to assist over the weekend. On Tuesday, Samaniego
announced a new curfew for the county over the holiday week, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott agreed to.“
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“What have the past few weeks been like there at the funeral home?
It's very sad because we're seeing people that shouldn't be passing away from this unfortunately passing away. You see healthy people, you see families that we've talked to that were like, 'You know we were just in Ruidoso [New Mexico] last week horseback riding, and three days later he's gone.' We've had [families] where they lost three family members within two weeks. We know what type of industry we're in, but I don't think anybody wants to see this many people passing away.“
We have four funeral homes here in El Paso, and our refrigeration units are pretty much almost at 50% capacity or a little bit over that. Right now, we're handling over 55 COVID families. So we're seeing an increase, and I just hope during this Thanksgiving that it does not get any worse than what it is now.
It's just overwhelming. We're doing services every day, taking care of these families that lost a loved one unexpectedly due to the COVID, so it's just a harsh, harsh situation. As a funeral industry we've never seen something like this before.“