By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

ts-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

THE Disaster Reconstruction Authority defended the government’s mass burial of 55 Hurricane Dorian victims amid criticism and protests from some in Abaco.

The mass burial cost in excess of $245,000, however officials revealed only three of those buried have been identified by DNA thus far. One official suggested some protesters at Friday’s service had ulterior motives and were not in any way tied to the victims.

The Disaster Reconstruction Authority, headed by Kay Forbes-Smith, held a Zoom press conference yesterday outlining steps leading up to Friday’s service. The mass burial took place in a public cemetery in Central Pines, Abaco while many victims of the killer storm remain unaccounted for.

Due to social distancing guidelines, only a handful of people were allowed at the graveside, however more than a dozen protesters gathered at the outskirts, some shouting to be let through barricades so they could grieve properly.

Some also jeered government officials, saying they did not know who were in the coffins and cannot visit their dead after burial.

The country’s coroner, Janeen Weech-Gomez, said there is no way for someone to visit one of those graves knowing who is in it.

“At this point the answer, simply put, is no,” she said. “That won’t be possible until further DNA evidence has been obtained. There should have been three presumptive death certificates, but other than that there are the other fifty-two bodies. So the answer to that is no. Once we get DNA then certainly that could be done. The bodies are identified currently in such a way that when DNA evidence is concluded, proper identification could be done at that point.”

Relatives of the deceased have to go in and give blood and other DNA samples to match the dead to make a positive identification. For now the bodies and graves are just marked with numbers.

Randy Curtis, member of Bahamas Funeral Directors Association, seemed disappointed at the protestors and accused the media of spreading misinformation.

“I believe one of the problems we had was that there was a lot of misinformation and propaganda, for whatever reason, being disseminated,” Mr Curtis said. “I hope though that after today, those persons who were propagandising people’s bereavement and persons who were most insincere in really not appreciating and valuing the lives that were lost would understand going forward that they could have contacted the relevant authorities to have the correct information.

“I was advised that some of the persons who were trying to disrupt the service did not even have a family or blood (connection) to persons who were being interred. I think the media houses now understand the negative impact of mis-information and the Bahamas is so small that if proper investigative contact was made a lot of the fears would have been answered.”

Mr Curtis said there were some glitches in communication in organising the event, but the glitches were not because efforts were not made. He Abaconians were incited by people with ulterior motives.

Asked about a video circulated on social media with a coffin mishandled and slipping into a grave horizontally, President of the Bahamas Funeral Directors Association Kirsch Ferguson offered apologies to the bereaved for the mishap.

“With respect to what was witnessed on social media what you actually saw was personnel from the construction companies who were engaged by the funeral directors to assist,” Mr Ferguson explained. “This is a standard practice throughout the Commonwealth whenever we are interring caskets. When there is a variable in the dimensions of the grave, you have to pause and the contractor becomes involved. The personnel from the funeral homes were on standby giving instructions. Unfortunately, two persons on that team lowered their ends too soon hence causing the casket to go down vertically. Be mindful of the fact that while we had complete coordination of the lowering of the casket aspect, because the funeral was a community focused event, every effort was made to engage the services of local organisations and the like to be a part of the casket lowering aspect of the service.”

Mr Ferguson said unfortunately this did not come through as anticipated and the entire interment team from the association had to take on the weight of that burden.

“The caskets had to be lowered manually without the aid of any mechanical device that we would normally use in our cemeteries,” he further explained. “Many of our members got to the point of complete exhaustion due to heat and manual labour. With that said and what was witnessed, we wish to offer a humble and sincere apology. The situation was corrected and the casket was brought back up and properly lowered into the grave.”

Asked why some Abaco residents are upset over the service, Abaconian Silbert Mills said: “I think it was a snowball effect and you can’t identify one single element as to why there was this outrage and opposition.

“It started way back, prior to the DRA becoming the lead in this charge. This hurt and anger started back in late September 2019 and people knew that they had brought relatives in and they were not being told why they could not get the remains, I think DRA ended up inheriting the situation.”

Mr Mills noted that there are a multitude of issues that the people in Abaco feel need to be addressed which includes not being able to receive the bodies of their loved ones to lay to rest in the cemeteries of their choice.

When asked, there was no explanation given for Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ noticeable absence