Swine flu in Exeter
With 72 known cases of swine flu in Devon and Cornwall, Exeter City Council is planning some rather gruesome emergency measures should the “pandemic” reach epidemic proportions.
In the event that cemeteries and the crematorium are overwhelmed by the number of dead bodies, it seems they will be stored in the 19th-century catacombs beneath the city centre.
At present, the old subterranean burial ground in Bartholomew Street West is a tourist attraction for visitors to Exeter. It is thought the new-fangled mortuary would be a safe place to quarantine hundreds of deceased people for as long as it takes to find them a safe place to rest in peace.
A Council spokesman explained, “The 19th-century underground burial chambers are normally a tourist attraction. However, they can be safely used for their original purpose and allow us to temporarily store bodies in the remote possibility that the need should arise.”
There’s something very medieval about the idea, reawakening memories of ancient ossuaries, where skulls were placed neatly along shelves, and bones in neat piles alongside.
Could our nervy rulers possibly be over-reacting?
The National Pandemic Flu Service can be contacted on: 0800 1513100, or online at: www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu.