The owner of Funerales Huerta, David Méndez Huerta, questioned the official number of people who died in Hurricane Otis, explaining that there were bodies buried without permit.
“Funeral businessmen estimate that there are about 100 bodies that we bring. The San Pedro funeral home has between 18 and 20 buried in the Eterno Descanso pantheon, and Gayosso has 10 as support for families under the income Because of the typhoon, we suffered 10 Personally, I estimate about 400 victims,” he said.
The undertaker, with 43 years of experience, pointed out that “that there are 40 deaths due to the typhoon is not true; I estimate that there are about 400 people who died due to the typhoon, in addition to those who are missing.”
He added that in the Forensic Medical Service (Semefo) alone, according to a medical examiner he spoke to, there are 50 bodies, which only arrived during the contingency due to the typhoon, and that only they can be counted by the federal government.
Méndez Huerta disclosed that there are burials without registration in the municipal offices of Panteones due to the destruction left by the hydrometeorological phenomenon in this port and in the neighboring town of Coyuca de Benítez.
“Most funeral directors in Acapulco were buried without documentation. Many are buried in ejidal cemeteries where no documentation is required. Others were buried, taking caps wherever they could. In the case of San Pedro (Funeral Home), which has the Eternal Rest pantheon, they buried about 20 without documentation,” he said.
He added that many death certificates were issued as deaths due to heart attacks and other causes, without mentioning the typhoon, even though it was the cause.
He said there are 21 funeral homes legally registered with the Directorate of Pantheons, to which are added five irregular ones that issue apocryphal death certificates.
In addition to this, there are 103 ejidal cemeteries in Acapulco where many victims can be buried without needing documentation, which is why he said that the official death toll from the typhoon is still questionable.
“There is no clear figure, because we cannot find the dead unless there is an ocular visit and we see the freshness of the graves. In the case of us (morticians), Semefo delivered the dead body to us six days ago because there were no conditions for them to work. But we really hit 400 dead, it’s true, plus the missing. Many bodies will continue to appear. Among the 21 funeral homes, there are 100 bodies, and they all tell us that the missing are missing,” he repeated.
In addition, he indicated that until last week, cremations were carried out in Chilpancingo, which did not count in Acapulco.
“Last week, when I did a funeral service for a friend who died a natural death, we took the body to Chilpancingo to be cremated, and while I was at the crematorium, five funeral homes from Acapulco arrived to cremate the people who died because of the typhoon,” he recalled.
