Louisianians search for survivors, rebury the dead

Raven Harelson, 59, carries a drawer Saturday to the trash heap in front of the home of Sheila Siener, as friends and relatives help clean out the flood-damaged home in St. Amant, La.
Raven Harelson, 59, carries a drawer Saturday to the trash heap in front of the home of Sheila Siener, as friends and relatives help clean out the flood-damaged home in St. Amant, La.

ST. AMANT, La. -- Recovery efforts after devastating floods continued Saturday, with search parties on the lookout for survivors or bodies trapped by flooding so powerful that in some cases it disturbed the dead and sent coffins floating from cemeteries.

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AP

Daniel Stover, 17, floats belongings away from a friend’s flooded home Saturday in Sorrento, La. As recovery efforts from widespread flooding continued, some families were faced with trying to rebury loved ones whose coffins were unearthed by the rising water.

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AP

Daniel Stover, 17, loads personal belongings from a friend’s flooded home Saturday in Sorrento, La.

At least 13 people died in the flooding that swept through parts of southern Louisiana after torrential rains lashed the region. An estimated 60,000 homes have been damaged, and 102,000 people have registered for federal assistance so far.

While the waters recede, the hard work of rebuilding lives is just ramping up, with people cleaning out their homes while others struggled to find a place to stay. Debris pickup was to begin Monday in much of East Baton Rouge, Mayor Kip Holden said.

Some families were trying to rebury relatives whose coffins were unearthed by the floods.

[VIDEOS: Click here for videos of the flooding in Louisiana]

At Plainview Cemetery in Denham Springs, relatives gathered to see what had become of their plots, only to find a chaotic mess with some vaults overturned and in other cases only empty outlines of graves remaining.

"This is bad, it's just bad. You can't even come to see people. You don't know where they're at," said Ravonte Thomas, whose relative's casket was missing.

In southern Louisiana, the water table is so high that people generally cannot be buried 6 feet under. Coffins often are encased in vaults that are partially aboveground, said Zeb Johnson, with the Calcasieu Parish coroner's office, who has extensive experience with recovering coffins scattered by flooding or hurricanes.

At least 15 cemeteries across seven parishes have been disrupted, the Louisiana Department of Health reported, although it didn't yet have an estimate of how many graves, tombs and vaults were damaged.

The department was reaching out to affected parishes to do assessments. In most cases, the disinterred caskets and vaults were still within the territory of the cemetery, although one casket ended up in a nearby backyard. One funeral home had already recovered and re-interred the small number of caskets that surfaced.

In Livingston Parish, which was hit hard by the floods, John Marston from the coroner's office said his office has received reports of about 30 caskets unearthed, and they anticipate finding more when waters recede off the southern part of the parish.

"As the water table gets high and the ground gets saturated, it's just like a boat. It's going to float," he said.

The problem was so widespread that the government asked people who have seen any problems with cemeteries as a result of flooding to contact law enforcement agencies.

In other areas the search for the living continued.

Search teams were to be deployed at least through the weekend, said Brant Thompson from the State Fire Marshal's office. Breaking down the various parishes where floods swept through on a grid, search teams went door to door, checking for signs of life such as fresh tire tracks or piled-up debris that indicates someone is already inside cleaning things out.

Volunteers said that when going door to door, they hope for the best, but with catastrophic floods that caught many by surprise, they're also prepared for the worst.

"If we go by and this house has waterline up to the roof line, no one's been there, there's no trash piled out by the road, we want to check that house to see if anyone inside that, maybe, perished," said firefighter Clint Sistrunk. He and colleagues from of the Monroe Fire Department in northern Louisiana arrived Wednesday, part of waves of first responders who have been arriving from all over the state and country to help clean up.

Driving through neighborhoods where water was still pooled outside and families were ripping out carpets and carrying waterlogged sofas to the curb, the searchers looked for houses with little activity. In many areas the water was still so high that people were rowing boats out to their houses to see what the situation was like inside.

"It is devastation, absolute devastation. I mean these homes, there are areas that have not flooded. They never flood and they flooded," said Stacey Rand of the State Fire Marshal's office. "It caught everyone by surprise."

Information for this article was contributed by Joshua Replogle of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/21/2016

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