Texas County Seeks Morgue Overflow Refrigerators amid Winter Freeze

Galveston County, Texas, officials called for a refrigerated truck to hold an expected influx of winter-storm-related deaths. The county judge said they expect to receive “a couple dozen bodies” from people who died during subfreezing conditions and power outages.

Galveston County Medical Examiners Office told reporters they are expecting to receive a couple dozen bodies of people who died during this week’s freezing temperatures, Click2Houston reported. The official said they are not able to transfer the bodies to funeral homes because of power outages in those facilities.

An update from Galveston County Judge Mark Henry regarding the sustained power outages in the county over the past 2 days. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear the transmission companies or ERCOT are placing any priority on getting @GalvCoTx customers back online with power today. pic.twitter.com/GeRz7Zi9gc

— Galveston County TX (@GalvCoTx) February 16, 2021

“That number is going to climb as we have the ability to do more welfare checks and check on people who’ve been trapped and without power for the last 48 to 50 hours,” Galveston County Judge Mark Henry told the local NBC affiliate. In Texas, a county judge is the chief executive officer of the country.

The bodies will come from multiple counties as Galveston provides services to the neighboring Brazoria and Matagorda counties, Henry explained.

Henry expressed his outrage at the lack of preparedness by those responsible for providing electricity in Texas.

“We were notified of an emergency request about lunchtime today that the medical examiner needed a capacity of at least 20 and as many as 50, in addition to the normal storage,” said County Judge Mark Henry. #BREAKING #abc13 #hounews https://t.co/yOKOHiwDB0

— Steve Campion (@SteveABC13) February 16, 2021

“This was predictable,” the judge explained. “You guys covered it for a week before the event, and yet the Energy Reliability Council, I’d say it’s the most unreliable thing we have around here.”

He said approximately 90 percent of Galveston County is without electricity at the time of the article.