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Relatives get first look at Plainview Cemetery after storm

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DENHAM SPRINGS – Theresa Perkins and her granddaughters made their first visit to Plainview Cemetery since last month’s historic flooding.

Dozens of vaults and caskets sit on top of the ground. Perkins’ mother’s disturb grave brings tears to her eyes. Her mother is not the only relative buried here.

Plainview Cemetery was the hardest hit by the unnamed storm. Officials say 187 plots were disturbed. The floodwaters came with enough force to unearth entire tombs weighing a thousand pounds.

Sunday was Larry Robinson’s first visit to the cemetery as well. He was lucky, his mother’s grave only suffered minor damage.

“When I look around and see all the other ones that are up and the bodies not in them at all, I think I was somewhat blessed that her grave wasn’t disturbed much,” Robinson said.

Cemetery officials say it will take tens of thousands of dollars to repair the site.

FEMA will pick up the tab, but first relatives will have to identify, if they can, the disturbed graves of their loved ones.

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