Shoshone enters into coroner mutual aid agreement

OSBURN – The Shoshone County Coroner's Office recently entered into a mutual aid agreement with other Idaho counties in an effort to manage the increase in COVID-related deaths that have occurred locally over the last few weeks.

Shoshone County Emergency Manager Dan Martinsen explained that the main purpose of entering into the agreement was rapidly securing a cold storage unit to temporarily store deceased individuals.

"We have experienced a dramatic increase in positive (COVID-19) cases and the associated death rate that came with that, which quickly overloaded the processing capabilities of the Hospital/Coroner/Funeral home," he said.

The Panhandle Health District reported on Monday that Shoshone County has had 15 confirmed COVID related deaths and 196 total cases — 61 of which are active.

Under normal, non-pandemic, circumstances, Shoshone Funeral Service in Kellogg serves as the county's morgue and has always had room to store any sudden deaths. When COVID-19 finally made its impact on the community though, the sudden spike caused a shortage of places where bodies could be stored.

"We went from one death … to 11 within the last two weeks," Martinsen said.

Based on the Aug. 28 Idaho Department of Health and Welfare report regarding COVID-19 and Idaho care facilities, eight of Shoshone County's deaths have been attributed to residents of Mountain Valley of Cascadia in Kellogg.

The report also showed that Cascadia has had 80 all-time confirmed cases between staff and residents, while Good Samaritan Society in Silverton has had nine (all staff) and Pacifica Living Center in Pinehurst has had seven.

Seeing the rising death trend, Shoshone County Coroner Rick Smith reached out to Martinsen and the County Emergency Operations Center group to ask about temporary cold storage options for deceased individuals.

"Our County EOP-Emergency Operations Plan and the Mass Casualty Plan have provisions for large scale temporary storage facilities or conversion of certain locations into storage areas," Martinsen said. "However, this was not going to be able to be implemented soon enough and we are not sure how long we will have this need."

With the help of PHD and the regional Health Care Coalition, Martinsen and Smith linked up with the PHD District 2 Coroner's group — which includes representatives from Clearwater, Idaho, Latah, Lewis and Nez Perce counties having a mutual aid agreement with each other.

Before Shoshone had joined on, the PHD District 2 Coroner's group had procured a “Cold Storage Morgue Trailer” expressly designed for morgue storage purposes and surge events such what the community is currently experiencing.

After conferring with each other, the district determined that the storage unit was available for use and the Shoshone County Coroner/Emergency Management could join their mutual aid agreement.

"The use of the trailer is at no cost to the county other than incidentals and maintenance; which will be covered by CARES Act reimbursement funds," Martinsen explained.

Once everything was official, Martinsen went to Lewiston, picked it up, brought it back, and set it up for use.

"The coroner and Shoshone Funeral Service have been utilizing the trailer since, which took a great burden off of them," he said. "A special thanks should go to Dean Neufeld, PHD and Alana Anderson, PHD and the D2 Coroner's group, and to the Shoshone County Sheriff's Office, who have helped with the logistics in getting this asset functional for our needs."

While the five Panhandle counties have seen their COVID-19 numbers trending down, Shoshone County is still seeing significant increases.

“It hit here a little bit later, so we’re behind the timeline of other regional locations,” Dr. David Lawhorn explained in a previous interview.

With Labor Day weekend on the horizon, Lawhorn believes that Shoshone County could have another spike in cases in mid-September if non-residents flood the area like they normally do around this time of the year.