Repairs Underway After Flooding Exposes Several Graves At Delaware County Cemetery
COLLINGDALE, Pa. (CBS) -- Repairs are underway at a heavily damaged cemetery in Collingdale. Speculation grew online that vandals were to blame for the mess, but that's not the case as the damage came after the land flooded and eroded during a storm.
Flags and flowers line headstones at Mount Zion Memorial Park cemetery, but beneath the soil was a disturbing find after severe storms prompted flooding. Facebook photos posted this week showed exposed graves in the privately-owned cemetery.
"What I seen on Facebook, I was like shocked. I was like, 'Oh my God,'" Patricia Mitchell said.
Mitchell, of Norwood, rushed to make sure her relatives' gravesites were OK.
"I just wanted to come check on my grandparents and my uncle's graves. They're not near where it's happening but my dad who lives in Florida asked me to come check it out," she said.
Cemetery owner Joseph Barbine says nine headstones were lifted from their original plots after the land flooded and eroded during a storm.
"I was shocked," Barbine said. "Crazy, you know, because I've never seen nothing or dealt with nothing like that before."
Because of the large amount of rain, water from a creek went above a pipe, causing it to flood the cemetery.
The large amount of water caused the ground to buckle and create a 20-foot hole. Barbine says he filled most of that within the first week.
"I'll rebuild the foundation and put them right back on the graves where they're supposed to be on," he said.
Barbine says he still has some smaller dirt holes to fill. He hopes to have all headstones returned over the correct graves by the end of the week.
CBS3's Chantee Lans reports.
