Storm damage delays NYC's potter's field burials
The last trip for the dearly departed is taking a little longer for some -- thanks to Sandy.
The superstorm damaged the boat dock on Hart Island -- the city's potter's field -- so that the normal barge voyages of the unclaimed dead haven't been made since Oct. 30.
The island wasn't damaged by Sandy, said Matthew Nerzig, spokesman for the city Department of Correction, which oversees the burial site.
Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office, said Tuesday that the dock has now been repaired. However, trips by the barge used to transport the deceased aren't scheduled to begin until next week, she said.
On average, about 40 bodies are buried each week on the island, the repository for about 850,000 people whose remains have not been claimed by family or friends for burial. Prisoners from Rikers Island conduct the burials under the supervision of the Department of Correction, placing the wooden caskets in rows within trenches.
Currently, there are between 25 to 28 unclaimed bodies at the Bellevue Hospital Center morgue that are slated to be buried on the island, Borakove said. The remains are generally taken by a truck to a slip at the Staten Island Ferry terminal in lower Manhattan, where they are then moved by barge about three times a week up the East River to Hart Island, she explained.
The trip, which takes about 40 minutes, was called by one 19th century writer a "ghastly, if necessary, traffic."
Located at the western end of Long Island Sound and northeast of City Island in the Bronx, Hart Island is about a mile long and a quarter mile wide. It was once the site of a work house and was a prison camp for captured Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. It has been the final resting place for the forgotten dead of the city since about 1869.
While many of the deceased are never claimed, Borakove explained that families can claim bodies for private burial.
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