No one wants to think about a catastrophic tragedy hitting their area. It is typical of human nature to want to put our collective heads in the sand and pretend it won’t happen here.

But reality is different; none of us are immune.

Fortunately Lawrence County has a strong and active Emergency Management Agency staffed with capable individuals who are constantly making sure we are on the cutting edge of technology should the worst happen.

One of those was recently introduced to the county’s first responders.

It is a portable morgue with the capacity of holding 32 bodies. There is a state of the art refrigeration system where cooling units would be placed on each of the body bags. Those would then be placed in the racks that can be disassembled when needed for storage.

EMS director Buddy Fry said it would be used if there were a plane crash, terrorist attack or house fire where there were multiple victims. Unfortunately, that latter event is something that has happened in the past.

At first thought, having a portable morgue may seem at the very least a pretty far-fetched item for the county to acquire. Surely, if it were needed, there could be other ways of dealing with the need for a morgue.

However, since the morgue was purchased through a grant from the health department, its purchase just makes good sense.

The county needs to be able to handle any kind of emergency, no matter its extent.

We applaud those who took advantage of an opportunity to handle something, we hope never happens.