Recent Rains Blamed For Sinking Headstones At Fort Bliss Cemetery
EL PASO, TX – Officials at Fort Bliss are blaming last week’s heavy rains for the hundreds of leaning and sinking headstones at Fort Bliss National Cemetery.
According to officials at the cemetary, 438 headstones or graves have been damaged. No sections of the cemetary were spared, they said.
Nearly 44,000 service members are buried at the cemetary and the rains have altered the once perfect lines of headstones once lining the cemetery. In other areas, the ground has simply opened up and swallowed the headstone in the surface area above the casket.
The ground around some of the graves began to crack and is in danger of collapsing completely, officials said. As a result, visitors are being cautioned to step lightly and approach graves with caution.
Several people visiting the gravesites of loved ones told ABC-7 they are very upset about the situation. “It is sad for those that do come see loved ones buried here,” said Christel Mendez, who visits her grandfather’s grave every month with her mother Ruby Foerster.
“These people have served our country…I think they deserve better than this,” said Foerster.
Gene B. Linxwiler, Director of the Cemetery, tells ABC-7 the situation is a result of the geology of the grounds, the composition of the soil and drainage. “Over the years, when the water soaks into that ground above the grave, it gets heavy and can no longer be supported,” he said,” it just drops down.”
Linxwiler added it is a recurring problem that is hard to prevent and has nothing to do with recent xeriscaping at the cemetery that replaced grass with gravel. “We have much less damage in the xeriscaped sections than we do in the sections that have not undergone the process,” he said, adding that sinking due to heavy rains is going to be a problem in just about every cemetery.
Last year, Fort Bliss officials repaired more than 2,600 graves due to flooding from Storm 2006.
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Written and reported for broadcast by Darren Hunt
Written for the web by Joe Villasana
