GIFFORD — Family of those buried at the Gifford Cemetery gathered Thursday morning as work crews came out to rebury several burial vaults that had become unearthed due to recent heavy rains. The crews pulled the vaults up one by one, digging the wet sand and water out before replacing them.
When done, ABC Vault and Monument employee Curtis Johnson said the vaults would look like they had not been disturbed.
George Wright, owner of the Ft. Pierce-based company, said the Gifford Cemetery is laid out much like other traditionally black cemeteries, with the vaults flush to the ground. Other cemeteries bury the vaults farther underground with only a headstone protruding for identification.
With the heavy rains over the weekend, the water table rose under the cemetery, causing a half-dozen vaults to pop up by about a foot or two, leaving wide gaps between the vault and the surrounding ground.
This is not the first time water has caused vaults to rise from the ground, according to Wright – it happened 15 and 18 years ago, he said.
Family members said it has happened more recently than that – during the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005.
“It’s a shame it’s like this,” said Sherry Judon, whose parents are buried on the other side of cemetery, unaffected by the recent rains.
She and others she gathered with questioned the depth of the vaults’ burial.
A woman who wanted only to be identified as Diane M. said she was under the impression the vaults were buried six feet deep, that she was never told otherwise.
“We should be refunded our money,” she said, explaining that she did not believe the cemetery delivered on what it was paid for.
Members of the Gifford Cemetery Association disagree.
Delores Hayes said when the association is responsible for sell the plots and maintaining the cemetery. When plots are sold, there is no discussion on how the vault will be buried.
“This is the layout,” Hayes said of how the vaults are flush with the ground.
Wright said that he has talked to the association about burying the vaults completely underground to prevent the vaults from breaching the surface again.
Hayes said the next expansion of the cemetery would be done that way – but not the current cemetery.
“We’re doing everything we can for them,” said Clyde Hayes, president of the Gifford Cemetery Association. “It’s going to take a while.”
“We’re very proud of our cemetery,” Delores Hayes said. “We work very hard.”
While family members expressed concern and some anger over the situation at the cemetery, they said they understood the issue with the heavy rains.
“You don’t have control over Mother Nature,” said Sonytalia Washington. “The water’s got to go somewhere.”
She watched as ABC Vault and Monument pulled one vault out of its plot and began to scoop water and sand from the hole.
“It’s a memory now,” she said of burial plots – a place to remember a loved one. Seeing a vault removed becomes part of that memory.
“You want them to be at rest,” Diane M. said of the loved ones buried at the cemetery.
