Floodwaters take toll on Franklin cemetery
By KATY YEISER Staff writer Franklin Journal
June 13, 2008
Mark Webb didn't know where to start when he saw the cemetery after floodwaters had
receded Sunday.
Massive headstones in Franklin's Greenlawn Cemetery were toppled.
Eighty percent of the cemetery had been underwater.
Newly dug graves were sunken in, the cemetery's equipment was waterlogged, and
century-old documents were soaked.
And he thought of the families for whom their loved one's burial services would be
delayed.
"You're in shock, and there's not much to do," Webb said.
The idea of having services within a week of the flood seemed impossible.
But help came, and he plans to have two services today and one Saturday.
Webb and his seven workers received days of help from funeral directors John Jessen of
Whiteland and Jerry Maguire of Franklin.
The directors helped power-wash equipment, clean out Webb's office and salvage
cemetery documents.
He also picked up donated dirt from John Hoskinson of Rest Haven Cemetery in Edinburgh on
Thursday morning to fill newly dug graves that had sunk from the water.
Scott Swartz of Swartz Family Community Mortuary and Memorial Center, which is across U.S.
31 from the cemetery, will let Webb use office space temporarily.
The help from the funeral home community was monumental, Webb said.
"It gives you a good feeling after such a bad feeling. I'm just so happy that
things have gone on the way it has," Webb said.
Two of the deceased are at Jessen's funeral home and are to be buried in Greenlawn
today. Jessen said the service will help the families with closure instead of having to
wait for weeks.
"The longer they wait, the more trying it will be," Jessen said.
One deceased person at Flinn & Maguire Funeral Home will be buried Saturday.
Jessen and Maguire helped clean tools such as mowers, tillers and shovels that were muddy
from being submerged in the cemetery's equipment shed, which is just south of Youngs
Creek.
They also helped gut Webb's office.
There was about 5 feet of water in the shed. The pressure of the water pushed a support
pole out a couple of inches, Webb said.
An intersection of lanes near the creek was destroyed.
Water in his office and soaked planners and record books from the late 1800s, which were
kept in a safe.
He said he brought out six boxes full of wet documents and books and hopes they can be
saved.
About 22,000 people are buried in the cemetery, and dozens of headstones were knocked over
by the flood. Workers won't know what damage was done to the stones until they are
picked up. Hydraulic tools will be needed to lift the heaviest stones, he said.
Franklin street department workers are cleaning and repairing the cemetery's equipment
and tools, Webb said.
The cemetery is closed off to vehicle traffic, but people can walk in to check on loved
one's headstones, he said.
On Thursday afternoon, Webb was optimistic, a turnaround from the devastation he felt just
days before.
"I feel a lot better today than I felt Monday ... or Sunday or Saturday," he
said.
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