ORANGE COUNTY, CA — With nearly 2,000 dead since the pandemic began, area funeral homes are running out of room to store the bodies, according to the Orange County Funeral Directors Association.

On Wednesday, Orange County Health Care Agency reported 37 people died of coronavirus. Approximately 2,249 people are hospitalized, and of those, 485 are currently in intensive care.

This week, association Director Kimberly Worl told the media that there is a backlog in the industry. In a pre-pandemic world, families maybe had to wait a week for funeral services. Now, families must wait over two weeks due to the large increase in cases and the death toll that has followed for many.

"We've never seen anything like this before," Worl told ABC7. Funeral home directors across Orange County need more storage for the deceased because of the sheer magnitude of the dying, she said.

In Orange County, mortuary chapels are now storage for the embalmed, awaiting burial. But there is a backlog in embalmings in an industry already pushed to the limit.

With full morgues at area hospitals, such as Orange County Global Medical Center, refrigerator trucks have arrived. Orange County Coroner's Office says that they, too, have recently begun accepting bodies from local hospitals "to assist with the overflow."

The Orange County Coroner's Office is prepared to meet the demand that the COVID-19 virus has created, the office reported.

"When you're having the influx of these death numbers, we just don't have enough embalmers," Worl said. "We don't have enough funeral directors to take care of everyone."

The county and state of California continue to struggle with a coronavirus case surge fueled by Thanksgiving-related family and friend gatherings. Another surge related to Christmas and New Year's celebrations is expected soon. The Southern California region remains at zero ICU capacity.

According to Mid-State Containers co-owner Jake Knotts, a shipping company is sending multiple refrigerated containers across the country. Locally, it delivers "quite a few" to Orange County, at least one to Los Angeles, and eight more containers to Riverside County area hospitals, to Kaiser, Wildomar, Banning and San Gorgonio.

Knotts typically leases his storage containers out to wineries, breweries, restaurants, or to send avocados and strawberries overseas.

Now, each container will hold as many as 50 bodies awaiting cremation or burial.

The company has retrofitted containers with shelf storage to hold the deceased. In Orange County, the refrigeration units will go to area funeral homes, ordered by the county coroner's office.

"That's where the bodies would need to go, eventually, anyway," he says. "It's like a sci-fi film. It doesn't seem real. More calls are coming in for refrigerated units daily."

Like many Californians, Knotts has friends who he says are "anti-maskers" or "say COVID-19 is overblown." To them, he now sends pictures of his storage containers, with racks and body bags inside, sent to funeral homes and hospitals awaiting the dead. "This is crazy. This isn't made up. It's a tragic situation."

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.