El Paso was still grieving when the coronavirus arrived. Now, death has overwhelmed it.
EL PASO — The coronavirus has overwhelmed El Paso for months, with few signs of abating.
Inmates were paid to move hundreds of bodies into mobile morgues; the National Guard is now in charge of the grim task. Funeral homes have turned storage closets into freezers to hold the dead. A crematorium broke down from overuse. The city’s convention center has been transformed into a field hospital. The county judge wonders whether the community has enough gravesites.
But for those not on the front lines, the same finger-pointing politics, virus denial, boredom and fear of losing livelihoods that have divided the country are compromising the collective will of a community that is mourning tragedy upon tragedy.
The city unified in the face of hatred last year, adopting the “El Paso Strong” ethos after 23 people were killed in an allegedly racist attack at a Walmart. El Paso is now struggling to summon the solidarity to transcend indifference and fatigue as scores of people are dying each day in a persisting pandemic.
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