The religious ceremony was planned for Thursday with an national period of mourning running through Friday.

"There is a culture of the dead in Haiti,'' Steven Benoit, a member of Haiti's parliament told The Miami Herald. "They want to take care of their dead."

The Herald said Wednesday that the rescue and recovery work was winding down at the College La Promesse Evangelique, which collapsed last Friday, trapping scores of students and adults.

The government has pegged the death toll at 89 with another 115 injured. The numbers weren't expected to rise even though some bodies had yet to be recovered.

Benoit said the government planned to issue aid checks to the families of the victims as soon as the identities of those killed are finalized.