Ike's Aftermath: Reburying The Dead

IN THE MARSHES OF CAMERON PARISH, La. (AP) - Beyond the usual,
dismal rebuilding, Hurricane Ike left another grim task when it
struck last month: Its 13-foot storm surge washed an estimated 200
caskets from their graves.
The surge ripped through most of Cameron Parish's 47 cemeteries
and others in Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas. Some coffins
floated miles into the marsh.
At Hollywood Cemetery in Orange, Texas, Ike unearthed about 100
caskets. Dozens more were disgorged in hard-hit Galveston.
Officials in coastal areas have long struggled with burying the
dead as caskets buried in low-lying areas are susceptible to being
belched up by floodwaters. Some areas - most notably New Orleans -
house the dead in above-ground crypts to keep them from drifting
away in storms.
For many of the dead forced up by Ike, it wasn't their first
disturbance. About 80 percent of the caskets in southwest Louisiana
displaced by Ike were rousted by Hurricane Rita just three years
earlier.
Of the caskets ejected by Rita in September 2005, 335 were found
and reburied, but 18 were never found.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)