Dead to be buried in Mai Khao

PHUKET: Phuket is preparing a 10-rai plot of land at the Sea Gypsy cemetery in Tambon Mai Khao to bury victims of Sunday’s tsunami waves.

Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura said after a meeting with local officials at Phuket Provincial Hall today that the dead will be kept until then in four 40-foot cold-storage containers.

Officials will begin moving the bodies to Mai Khao tomorrow. Photographs of the dead will be available for viewing.

Relatives will have just two days to identify bodies before they will have to be buried, the Governor said.

Facilities in Phuket for keeping bodies are very limited. For example, the morgue at Wachira Phuket Hospital, the island’s largest, can keep only 10 bodies in cold storage at any given time.

Patong Mayor Pian Keesin, who attended the meeting, said that there were now 120 corpses at Patong Hospital, where a makeshift coffin-building facility has been set up in the parking lot.

Those wishing to view bodies being kept in the refrigerated containers should go to the Sea Gypsy cemetery, on the left side of the main highway leading off Phuket, approximately one kilometer beyond the Tah Chat Chai police checkpoint, shortly before the Sarasin Bridge.