A mother and three of her children were laid to rest on Friday as a sense of unimaginable heartbreak engulfed Bush Lot in Region Five as friends and relatives said a final goodbye to the latest victims of Guyana’s worst maritime disaster when the MV Barima that capsized last Saturday night, with unofficial figures indicating that more than 100 people may have died as a result .
The caskets bearing the bodies of Rachel Wells, her children Natalia, Ezekiel and Matevik were wheeled into the yard of their West Coast Burmese home as persons overcome with grief wept openly.
Wells, along with her husband, the three children and other relatives, were travelling to Region 1 to visit her parents for the first time in nine years and in a tragic twist of fate, her husband was among the few who survived the tragedy.
Among those paying their final respects was Minister of Education Sonia Parag, who in offering words of comfort and support extended heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family.
“On behalf of myself, my family, on behalf of the President, the Vice President, Prime Minister and our Cabinet, I extend our deepest condolences to this family and I pray that they find the comfort and strength to carry on every day,” she added.
Prime Minister Mark Phillips, who has dismissed calls for Public Works Minister Juan Edghill to resign as a result of the incident, saying this is a matter for President Irfaan Ali to determine, told the daily news conference on Friday evening that so far 22 funerals have taken place and that the search and recovery operations remain a national priority with personnel and resources fully committed to the effort.
“These operations will continue for as long as necessary to ensure that every possible effort is made to account for those affected with the utmost care, dignity and respect. A night of reflection and prayer will be held at Mavuruma this evening…as the nation continues to mourn those who lost their lives in this tragedy,” Prime Minister Phillips told reporters.
He said that the government “continues to stand with the families of those we have lost and all those impacted by this tragedy”.
Prime Minister Phillips said one more body had been recovered on Friday, bringing the death toll to 73, with 69 of the bodies already identified by relatives following last weekend’s incident when the 87-year-old vessel capsized after being hit by a wave, as it made its way from Georgetown to Port Kaituma, a small village within the Barima-Waini administrative region of the country.
The official manifest had 116 passengers and a 17 member crew, but the authorities said that as many as 179 passengers and crew may have been on board the vessel.
“I don’t have a report of (the bodies) of foreigners being recovered from this tragedy. I heard somebody talk about some Sanish-speaking people, I don’t know if they are reallty foreigners or how long they have been in Guyana and whether or not they are Guyanese…we will have to do some investigations,” Phillips told reporters.
He said that the authorities are still compiling information regarding the number of people who were on the boat.
“We’re still working on that information.We’ve established yes, there were people on the ferry who was not on the manifest,” Phillips said, adding that “as we identify more and more people, both the survivors and those who would have unfortunately left us and as we identify, that will help us to achieve an accurate list.”
He said that the figures would be released on an ongoing basis and so far out of 179 (passengers) we’re at a stage where there are 76 survivors, 76 people were rescued, 73 bodies recovered so far.
“Out of these 73 bodies recovered, as I mentioned, 69 of that figure had been identified,” he said, adding “as we get the bodies and we identify the bodies, we keep compiling, compiling, compiling the list.
“We don’t want to give you among the survivors so much who are on the manifest and so much who are not, and then among the bodies recovered, so much who are not. We want to give you one list which says out of 179, so many were on the manifest, so many were not on the manifest.”
Earlier, President Ali, speaking with the relatives of those persons still unaccounted for said that attempts were being made on Friday to move the wreck.
“It has some challenges for us. For the divers going down all the time, we have a number of divers who got sick. So a number of divers had to come back in,” he said, adding that he is hoping for more improvement.
“In the event that we don’t get the type of movement that we want with the boat, the divers are able to do the number one, to go back …to try to go into the vessel and try to release as much as they can release.”
He said if there is not the “type of result we want…the only other option after that, which we don’t want to get to, we’re trying to avoid as far as possible, with family members., is to try for a full salvage of the vessel.
“That has a challenge of disrupting whatever is there. But we are hopeful that we don’t get to that,” Ali said, adding “if we get to that, all of us together will have to make a decision as to the best option”.
Prime MInister Phillips told reporters that part of the operations today included the preparation to move the vessel and also to search the vessel.
“There has been no movement of the vessel. So it’s just strictly diving in keeping with those two tasks,” he said, adding that the divers are experiencing a number of challenges.
“ Well, there will be challenges. They’re on the current. There’s a challenge. The water is not only murky but muddy, and therefore visibility is a big issue, but they have their equipment.
“So they are experts in their field, and they will determine whether they can go and when they can go,” he said, adding that some vessels have been deployed to the area “standing by just in case we move to the next phase, which may be the righting of the vessel.
“As you know, the vessel is lying on its side right now, okay? So to put the vessel or right the vessel is to put it on its keel. No such activity has been done as yet. Strictly diving operation in progress. So those vessels there, they just mobilise just in case we move to the second operation, which is righting the vessel,” Phillips said.
He said that the divers did not report seeing any more bodies and that they were primarily preparing themselves for further dives on Saturday.
“So, I would envisage that as they continue going down, obviously they will ease up from now on and go down again tomorrow, they may find more bodies. But there is a view that if we right the vessel, that itself may lead to us finding some more bodies,” Prime Minister Phillip told reporters. (CMC)