Cape embalmer helps at makeshift mortuary in Joplin

Mark Seesing has a mantra: dignity, respect, privacy.

The Cape Girardeau resident is manning a makeshift mortuary near Joplin, Mo., where the death toll from Sunday's tornado is now at 126 people.

It is a grim and daunting task.

"We try to handle each individual as an individual and treat them with the respect and dignity they are due," said Seesing, a funeral director and embalmer at Ford and Sons Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau. "We perform these tasks as quickly, but thoroughly, as we can so we can get these loved ones released to their families."

He is a member of the Missouri Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association Disaster Response Team. The group of about 20 trains for mass fatality incidents. After being called into action Sunday night the group gathered in Jefferson City, Mo., to pick up supplies for search and recovery as well as embalming, Seesing and team members arrived in Joplin on Monday afternoon.

Since that time they've been assisting the federal Region 7 Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team. Their tasks are recovering, identifying and processing the bodies of victims from a storm now considered the deadliest in the U.S. in 60 years.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety on Thursday assumed control of the process of locating individuals missing after Sunday's storm. The department released a list of 232 individuals for whom an official missing persons report had been filed.

Seesing accompanied the coroner into the center of the devastation and said the experience rendered him speechless.

"It looks like somebody took a big box of wooden matches and just dumped it onto the ground," he said. "You see not only the property loss, but you see the loss on the people's faces."

For security of the victims, Seesing isn't able to describe the location of the temporary morgue or many details about how it is set up.

Families are not allowed to visit the mortuary site, but DMORT has a separate family assistance center. There, representatives meet with families of missing individuals to try to collect as much information as possible to help identify victims, Seesing said. They use DNA, X-rays and dental records.

Once a positive ID is made, families are notified and bodies are released to local funeral homes, Seesing said. He couldn't confirm if any bodies have been released yet.

"It is a heartfelt loss when you lose a loved one to a traumatic situation," Seesing said. "There's shock and disbelief that this happened. Then you come to your senses and realize you need help, that's what we're here to supply."

Seesing said his team hopes to help families get through this portion of the process, knowing that they're just beginning to put their lives back together.

Assisting family members of those who died in the tornado will be an overwhelming task for Joplin-area funeral homes. Seesing said the Missouri Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association will continue to assist by providing additional embalmers who can come to those facilities.

It's unknown how long its Disaster Response Team will continue its operations in Joplin, Seesing said. He plans to stay through Sunday.

Although this is his first disaster deployment, Seesing's been training for this type of event for many years. He is an instructor for a FEMA mass fatality course for first responders, coroners and funeral directors. The Missouri Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association Disaster Response Team just had a mobile mortuary practice exercise in Branson, Mo., May 16 to 19 as part of a FEMA earthquake drill.

"Preparation is a key issue. It's difficult to be totally prepared, but when you hear warnings, heed warnings," Seesing said.

mmiller@semissourian.com

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Joplin, Mo.