Disaster Mobile Mortuary in Charlotte, ready to deploy when state hits mortuary capacity
— A team of forensic pathologists, funeral home directors and DNA specialists is assembled in Charlotte to help state and local officials if the North Carolina death toll from Tropical Storm Helene continues to climb and the challenge of identifying bodies becomes unmanageable.
Suzanne Sellman, a spokesperson with federal Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, said the Disaster Mortuary Response Team is ready to mobilize as soon as it is needed anywhere in the state. The team arrived in Charlotte Oct. 2 and 3.
The DNA specialists and forensic pathologists, along with refrigerated trucks and mobile mortuaries, will leave Charlotte to begin providing services where needed once the state reaches its "mortuary capacity," Sellman said.
The state said it could not immediately specify what that capacity is. But "we have subject matter experts working with the state to assess where the help is needed and then provide assistance," Sellman said. "If the state comes back and says we can't handle processing the remains or finding the remains, then our team is ready."
As of Saturday, the state Department of Health and Human Services' official count of deaths attributed to Tropical Storm Helene was 68. That is lower than the 115 storm deaths local officials are citing. Kelley Richardson, a department spokesperson, said the local figures are not necessarily incorrect — only that all of the deaths have not yet been officially confirmed as storm-related by the state's Chief Medical Examiner's Office.
Sellman said that when mortuary teams are dispatched, they haul the refrigerated trucks to a designated location and set up a mobile mortuary. Forensic pathologists and DNA specialists then begin to assist local and state officials with collecting DNA samples from relatives of the dead in order to identify bodies.
Sellman said the process is similar to what occurred in 2020 in New York City, when the hospitals and medical examiners' offices no longer had the space for the number of dead from COVID-19.
"It is hard to talk about," she said of the possibility of such a need, "but we do have that capability."
She said the mobile mortuaries are built in the same manner as the mobile emergency room the federal agency set up in tents at HCA Mission Hospital in Asheville.
Mission Hospital is not serving as the Asheville community's morgue. The federal government is responsible for efforts regarding fatalities in a community after a disaster, and Mission Health system, through an agreement with Buncombe County, is assisting that effort by providing off-site facility support.
Those looking for missing family members in Buncombe County should call Buncombe County's Family Assistance Center at 1-828-820-2761.
