BOISE, Idaho — Before the COVID-19 pandemic even started, the Ada County Coroner's Office was near capacity almost every day.
“We run about 90% on a normal day,” Coroner Dotti Owens said.
That lack of space is just one reason why Owens got a refrigerated trailer. It will give her more storage space for bodies in uncertain times.
“If we have a big event of any form in this area at all, we are not prepared for it,” she said.
A big event could be the current health pandemic the world is facing right now. It could also be a natural disaster or a mass casualty event.
“We need to make sure that we're fully functioning and prepared for anything of that nature at all,” Owens said.
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There are several reasons why the capacity issues have only gotten worse in the middle of the pandemic. For one, the policy the coroner’s office uses when they must test and store someone who might’ve died from COVID-19.
“So, we're storing additional individuals and decedents while we're waiting for that testing,” Owens said. “When we're operating on a daily basis at capacity, that really puts a strain on our system and lack of space and lack of cots.”
Another reason is that when there is an unexpected death in the community, that case goes through the Treasurer’s office as an indigent case. While the coroner is working on the paperwork to send over to the treasurer, that body is stored in the morgue.
Owens said normally this process doesn’t take that long. Because of the pandemic though, the treasurer’s office is taking longer to process these cases, and the bodies need to be stored longer.
“It’s the combination of all of this,” she said. “Where we’re getting hung up and why we decided at this point where we run virtually full capacity as it is anyways.”
While Owens said the move is necessary, there were some on social media who said it feeds hysteria, asked if it's needed, or called it extreme.
“I felt really irresponsibly by not doing something to make sure we had the necessary storage,” she said.
So, it’s not that the deaths reported by the state in Ada County are overwhelming the coroner’s office. It’s that there are a bunch of factors in this pandemic that are affecting the storage capacity.
“It pushed us into the decision to do it,” Owns said.
Altogether, the trailer cost the county around $114,000. This includes the trailer itself and the racks that will go inside to help store the bodies. The trailer arrived at the facility late last week, and Owens said it's now ready to be used on Tuesday night.
The Ada County Coroner also serves 36 other Idaho jurisdictions. The coroner said that’s another reason why space is limited.
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