Refrigerated Carriers Turning Into Temporary Morgues

Among the starkest examples of the horror associated with Tuesday's terrorist attacks in Manhattan is that emergency response officials have asked refrigerated carriers to supply trailers as temporary morgues.

Bodies reportedly are being taken from the World Trade Center wreckage by truck and boat to various locations in New York and New Jersey.

Gail Toth, executive director of the New Jersey Motor Truck Association, said that local emergency relief personnel summoned trucking companies to provide trailers that are being used to carry and store the dead.

Emergency personnel also have set up a staging center at the parking lot of the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, N.J., as a delivery point for emergency supplies destined for New York, Toth said.

From there, trucks with emergency supplies are being escorted by police through the Lincoln and Holland tunnels connecting New York and New Jersey.

Toth said her members are poised to offer equipment. She added that blood and other medical supplies, asbestos suits and emergency generators are coming into the Meadowlands from all over the country.

7830