The images are impressive. More of a dozen military trucks passed through the city of Bergamoin northern Italy on Wednesday night. Altogether they transported more than 60 coffins, to nearby cities such as Modena, Acqui Terme, Domodossola, Parma and Piacenza. With the municipal crematorium running around the clock, local capacity is not enough. And that’s why the Mayor, Giorgio Gori, wrote a letter to the mayors of the neighboring cities, calling on them to help, as Corriere della Sera tells.

The army is therefore in charge of transporting the bodies to the neighboring crematoriums and of bringing the ashes back to Bergamo to deliver to the families. On social media, photos and videos of those who captured the moment of the passage of the column of military trucks multiplied.

It doesn’t exist a word to define this image.

Those military trucks across Bergamo are carrying coffins to other cities of Lombardy region so to proceed with cremation process, as the city and cemetery morgue can’t take the overload.

This is how far #coronavirus went pic.twitter.com/SkvdLZdlic

– Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) March 18, 2020

THE #Bergamo hanno dovuto chiamare l’esercito per caricare camion and camion di bare da destinare a crematori fuori regione. Primate of lamentation of the proroga del #lockdown riguardatevi sto video in loop.#coronavirusitalia pic.twitter.com/ofR1raGVTb

– Alessandro Zanoni (@ AlexZan87) March 19, 2020

“Unfortunately, there are many deaths and our cemetery is under considerable strain,” wrote Gori in the letter sent to the other mayors, according to the local newspaper L’Eco di Bergamo. “Most families choose cremation. As a result of this choice, the municipal administration and the company that manages the crematorium, SCB, are unable to manage it normally, taking into account the dramatic situation that has arisen, even though they are working continuously. ”

The deaths in Bergamo continue to happen at a daily pace. According to Corriere della Sera, this Wednesday alone another 93 deaths by Covid-19 will have been registered, in this city with about 120 thousand inhabitants. And the number, according to the mayor, will default by default, since many people are dying from pneumonia that is not even tested for the presence of the virus.

Funerals take place constantly. Two Reuters journalists on Monday witnessed a cadence of two funerals every hour. A video released by Il Messagero shows a series of coffins, all lined up, in a local chapel – they are waiting to be cremated.

To The Guardian, Antonio Ricciardi, director of the largest local funeral home, explained that the average of 120 funerals per month skyrocketed to 600. “A generation died in just two weeks. I’ve never seen anything like this and it just makes me want to cry ”, he told the newspaper.

Ricciardi further explained that the situation is particularly dramatic due to the conditions in which funerals take place: “Families cannot see their loved ones or give them a decent funeral and this is a major psychological problem. But also because many of our workers are sick, we don’t have enough people to transport and prepare the bodies. ”

The dimension of the Bergamo tragedy became visible after a resident, Giovanni Locatelli, shared a video comparing the obituary section of L’Eco di Bergamo on 9 February, which had only one page, with that of the edition of March 13, when they had to be printed 10 pages to record all deaths.

A powerful video.
At the heart of Italy’s Coronavirus outbreak, Giovanni Locatelli compares the obituaries page of local daily newspaper @webEcodiBergamo on February 9 and March 13. pic.twitter.com/DrnShYtrOF

– Naomi O’Leary (@NaomiOhReally) March 14, 2020

The bishop of Bergamo, Francesco Beschi, revealed to ANSA news agency who received a personal call from Pope Francis. “He called me this morning,” he said on Wednesday. “The Holy Father was very affectionate in showing his paternal closeness to me, to the priests, to the sick, to those who care for them and to our entire community”.

He wanted to know details of the situation in Bergamo, about which he already knew a lot. He was very impressed with the suffering of so many deceased and with the distance that families are forced to live, in a very painful way ”, he added.

That same suffering was expressed in a video shared by Roberta Zaninoni, daughter of one of the victims in Valle Seriana, in the Bergamo region. “Here you can only hear the sirens of ambulances and the ringing of funeral bells. Perhaps those who do not live here have not noticed, but in our valley one dies as if we were at war“, He said in a video, shared by La Repubblica, where he also said that people “die like dogs”.

“We live our grief alone”, adds Roberta Zaninoni. “I give more than ten condolences a day to friends and acquaintances on Facebook. Funeral homes are forced to accumulate coffins in churches, as if the bodies were numbers. ”

Roberta, who lost her father, Giuseppe, takes the opportunity to make one last appeal: “At the beginning I wrote posts ironic. Please don’t underestimate this: it kills not only the old and the sick, but also the youngest. Don’t make the same mistake as me. Stay at home, even if you are young. Protect those you love. ”