Science Friday - How Louisiana Is Coping With Flooding In Cemeteries

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

Emily Dalfrey lives across the street from Niblett’s Bluff Cemetery, where generations of her family are buried, in Vinton, Louisiana.In 2016, a period of prolonged rainfall caused flooding so severe that people could drive boats over the cemetery. The water put so much pressure on the graves that some of the vaults, which are located near the surface, popped open. Some of Dalfrey’s own family members’ caskets were carried away and deposited in her yard.Unsure how to restore the cemetery, the community contracted Gulf Coast Forensic Solutions, a company that helps people locate and rebury loved ones after natural disasters damage cemeteries.Read the rest of this article on sciencefriday.com.Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Climate change doesn't just affect the living. It disturbs the dead, too. When you bury your family, you think they're there forever. It's Tuesday, May 7th, and just like every day, today is Science Friday. I'm SciFri producer Kathleen Davis. Flooded cemeteries have been a problem in Louisiana for decades. With climate change eroding coastlines and making storms more powerful, the problem is just getting worse. There's a need for expertise on how to protect burial grounds across the country from not just flooding, but other natural disasters too.

So all eyes are on the few experts there are in this field for guidance. Joining me now to talk about this is my guest. Eva Tass Fai, coastal reporter at WNO in New Orleans, who reported this story in collaboration with Science Friday. Eva, welcome back to Science Friday. Thanks for having me. So to start, give me a sense of the scale. of this issue in Louisiana. I mean, how common is it that a cemetery gets flooded? Yeah, so it happens pretty much with every major storm. The company I spoke to that recovers cemeteries, they've

been working since Katrina. They've done it during Rita, Ike, Harvey, Laura, Delta, Ida. It's also just known to happen when there's really bad flooding. There doesn't even have to be a storm. So there were floods in 2016 that we can get into a little bit later. Okay. So cemeteries are set up differently across the U.S. How are people buried in Louisiana cemeteries? So the unique thing about Louisiana is often the grades are above ground. We have a lot of mausoleums, a lot of what are called surface vaults where most of it is in the ground and there's just kind of a slab on top. And in New Orleans, like a tour guide will tell you that has to do with the city's high water table. It's not actually super clear if that's true or not. But it was probably mostly due to the traditions from the

state's historical ties to Spain and France. So have there been situations where caskets have literally floated away? Yes, that's exactly what happens. Water pressure from the flooding builds on the surface vault, and that causes those vaults to pop open, and then the caskets will get swept up by the water. Ugh, awful. You spoke with Charlie Hunter, who's an expert in the field of rebuilding cemeteries after natural disasters.

What did you learn from him? He owns the company Gulf Coast Forensic Solutions that I talked to. And like I said, I learned just how common this problem is. Here is a clip from him. It is worth every second. You know, it's being able to give families a little bit of peace at the end of the day is a really big thing. So it's a never-ending job. I also learned how much work it is.

So obviously, first you have to find the caskets, then you have to identify them. We often don't know who those people were, where they were buried. And so that's often the hardest part is just like figuring out who these people are. And then you have to contact their families and then you have to get them re-buried in the places that they were originally buried. So Hunter says that it's a lot of work that he does on the front end before he even gets paid because he has to find those caskets and figure out who they are before he can even approach the families who will be the ones to pay for this.

And this leads into this question of, you know, it's one thing to say have like a municipal building damaged by a hurricane. It's an entirely different thing to have a cemetery affected because people's loved ones have been laid to rest there. It's an emotional place. Did you talk to anybody who's dealt with their loved ones remains being affected by a natural disaster? Yeah, I spoke to Emily Dalfrey. She's a high school teacher in Vinton, Louisiana, so that's in southwest Louisiana, where this problem is just huge. And she lives across the street from her local cemetery, Niblitz Bluff. And during the floods I mentioned in 2016 that were all across the state, they affected 74 cemeteries across the state. Her family members were swept out of the

cemetery and actually washed into her yard with a bunch of other people. Wow. To give you a picture of like how bad that flooding was, she says the water was so high that they were driving literal boats over the cemetery. It was like higher than some of the trees that were in there. Wow. So does the emotional aspect of trying to recoup a cemetery affect how experts like Charlie Hunter go about their work? Yeah. What I heard a lot when talking to these experts is that they recognize that often these people are trying to rebuild their lives because obviously the flooding didn't only affect cemeteries. So it's the last thing on their mind. So they're really aware of that and they try to take as much of this burden off of people as much as they possibly can. Like I said, they do a lot of that work on the front end.

They just try to offer their expertise to make it easier for those people. So Dalfrey mentioned that, like, her house was destroyed. And she got help from Gulf Coast Forens Exclusions. The whole cemetery did. And this is what she said about it. We truly would have not gotten it done if we would not have had that guidance and that help. Because, I mean, when you bury your family, you think they're there forever. It's common enough in Louisiana that people are starting to know that they should check.

cemeteries whenever there's a major storm event. But you know, a lot of people are just not thinking about that because, like she said, you don't really expect this to happen. Right. Are some cemeteries more vulnerable than others? Yes. I spoke to a researcher named Jennifer Blanks. She studies cemetery preservation and management at Texas A&M University. And she actually published a study where she found that black cemeteries are more likely to be in the way of danger in Louisiana. And there are multiple hazards that are affecting these cemeteries. So it's not only just flooding, but it's also from their proximity to chemical plants. And these cemeteries are there partly because after enslaved people were freed,

a lot of them stayed settled near the plantations. Or a lot of the cemeteries ended up there because the land was cheaper. It was just undesirable. So we just see a lot of those environmental justice issues playing out also with cemeteries where these cemeteries end up in places that are flood prone. Louisiana actually now has a state task force to address cemetery recovery. What does this task force do? Yeah. So it's called the Louisiana Cemetery Response Task Force.

And kind of like Hunter, they help find, recover, identify lost caskets. and they work with contractors like Hunter to make sure the reburial process goes smoothly. One of the main things they also do is help people get access to FEMA money. There is money available through the individual assistance program. So that means that families would have to apply for this money to get their loved ones reburied.

Like a cemetery can't get that money. And so that process can also be confusing and complicated. Like I said, people are dealing with other things. Ryan Seidaman, who I spoke to, to who's the chairman of this task force, says that was part of the reasons that they started it in 2016. And it was started after all that flooding that affected Dalfrey and her family. It was created to kind of help with this lack of federal assistance and also because there's not a lot of people left in these places that are managing the cemeteries.

Here's what he said. A lot of folks have moved away over the years. There really weren't a lot of people to speak for those decedents who had taken off and floated away with the storm surge. The task force automatically gets activated when two things happen, when there's a disaster declaration from the state and when there are reports of cemetery damage. And it's actually been activated since Hurricane Ida in 2021. So you can see that there's clearly a need for this.

Okay. So other states are dealing with more natural disasters than they have before and not just hurricanes. Are other states now turning to Louisiana for health? for how to protect their cemeteries. Yeah. So both Hunter and Seidaman, so both Gulf Coast Forensic Solutions and the Cemetery Task Force, told me they get calls from other states. And obviously, you know, you see that mostly along the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic where there are lots of storms and flooding. But there's even places

like Tennessee, California, New Mexico. Cideman told me he's the one who got the calls from New Mexico. And he said that was because wildfires destroyed this underbrush that was under the graves and then the rainstorms then wash those caskets away. I also talked to a woman in Port Charlotte, Florida, who got help from Gulf Coast Forensic Solutions. Her name is Eva Kenner. She was affected by Hurricane Ian in 2022 and it knocked over a bunch of trees and it damaged close to 100 gravestones. They thankfully did not have any caskets come loose, but she said that kind of damage was

unprecedented. Here's what she said. I've been there 20 years working at the cemetery and we'd never had damaged headstones from a storm before. That was the first time. So what strategies are there for making cemeteries more resilient in the future? I mean, extreme weather is not going anywhere. Yeah. Everyone I talked to said the main thing that would really, really help is having thorough documentation for all these cemeteries about who's buried where, contact information.

for those people's next of kin. People are starting to make way on this. Like Louisiana does have a law that was put in place after Hurricane Katrina requiring some sort of identification on caskets. But Siedeman says that's not really enforced very well. Jennifer Blanks, the researcher, suggested that whoever's managing a cemetery should just like start creating maps, even just drawing them yourself. Another solution, you know, the experts I spoke to said that we really should be

burying these caskets deep underground. And that's exactly what Dalfrey did when she reburied her family. In fact, the cemetery, Niblitz Bluff, actually started requiring that any new interments would be underground. And Dalfrey says that none of the graves that have that have come unburied since. Eva Tessvi, reporter for the Coastal Desk at WNO, reported the story in collaboration with Science Friday. Eva, thank you so much for this. Thank you. And if you want to read the full story, head to our website, ScienceFriday.com slash cemeteries. And that's all the time that we have for now.

A lot of folks helped to make the show happen this week, including Annie Nero. Jason Rosenberg. Rasha Ridi. Shoshana Buxbaum. And many more. Tomorrow, we'll talk about how studying other planets can help us better understand Earth. But for now, I'm Cyfry producer Kathleen Davis. We'll catch you next time.