‘Very upsetting’: Families locked out of city-owned cemeteries

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Debris clean-up isn’t just causing issues in our front yards.

Families hoping to visit loved ones at local cemeteries are greeted with chained-up front gates and no answers.

Many have been closed since Helene hit, but there’s no word on when they’ll reopen.

Chained and locked gates are the reality for people with loved ones buried at any of the city-owned cemeteries in Augusta.

“There’s a certain amount of peace in this cemetery,” said Thomasine Deer.

Cemeteries are a place meant to bring comfort.

“We grew up coming down to the cemetery, placing flowers on the loved one’s graves. And that comes naturally to us,” said Mary Gill.

Deer said: “It’s something that we do. I know a lot of people don’t do it.”

But no one can get in right now.

“My mother’s birthday was November 3. My father’s birthday was October 11. I like to come down and just bring some flowers. And, of course, you can’t come in,” said Deer.

Gill said: “My sister-in-law passed away, and her funeral was scheduled for October 12. We have no idea when we’re gonna be able to bury Joan. It’s very upsetting.”

You can look across the city and see the progress with debris pickup. But at local cemeteries, it seems like time is at a standstill.

“Every time I ask, it’s, ‘We don’t know,’” said Deer. “There are a lot of families in here that don’t have any family. And we’re speaking for them as well.”

Because for some, coming to this peaceful place is their way of coping with what they’ve already lost.

“One post I read; a lady said it was the first holiday without her mother. She was just very upset about it. And it just means a lot to a lot of people,” said Deer.

Officials say they will be getting to work on parks and cemeteries soon and they have made provisions for burials.

But their focus is completing first passes in neighborhoods and hard-affected areas.

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