California refines mass casualty procedures

Long-time readers know that we are ambivalent about California, what with the thin intellectual air down south and the dangerous earthquake fault lines up north. Both have their risk — cultural death versus actual death — and we are not sure which we would prefer. Nevertheless, we were glad to read that something is being done about the latter. According to Government Technology, California is now hard at work on its mass fatality management system, a process that has sparked state planners to create a new organization, the State Mass Fatality Management Committee, whose principal duties are to refine existing plans and ensure compatability with California’s Standardized Emergency Management System and the federal government’s National Incident Management System.

In contrast to other states, California eschews the role of state coroner in deference to county sherrifs and coronors’s offices. When one of these finds his morgue overflowing, he uses the California Master Mutual Aid System to help coordinate the movement over overflow bodies. Nevertheless, this system has rarely been used and is not seen as reliable in case of major catastrophe. In such cases, Government Technology reports, California will have to rely on other states and federal authorities for such issues as body recovery and temporary storage, family assistance, and victim identification. To assist in this, the new management committee will develop standards and procedures to assist, working under the guidance of county coroners and the understanding that the recovery, identification and final disposition of the dead be performed “with dignity and respect.” The committee may also form various subcommittees on DNA protocols, database development, and management of the “death care” industry.