El Morro Cemetery, Puerto Rico. Photo source: ©© Kevin Baird.
“Cemeteries by the sea are silent sentinels. Like lighthouses and coastal fortifications, they bear dates of former times when they were on high and dry land…”—William J. Neal & Orrin H. Pilkey (2013-©)
Excerpts;
A cemetery is a place of respect for the dead and its location is chosen with the expectation that it will be there for generations. Cemeteries in coastal areas were not located with the expectation that they would flood or fall into the sea. But most of the world’s ocean and estuarine shorelines are eroding — some slowly like California’s rocky coasts, and others rapidly like the Carolinas’ barrier island coasts.
Coastal cemeteries around the world are in imminent danger of falling into the sea…
Read Full Article; The News & Observer (05-29-2018)
Erosion at New York’s Hart Island graveyard unearths human bones; CBS News (04-25-2018)
Hart Island, a massive burial ground near the Bronx borough of New York City, is eroding, unearthing human bones along the shoreline. Advocates said the city hasn’t done anything – until now…
Cooks government ready to deal with vulnerable cemetery, Radio NZ (02-22-2016)
The Cook Islands government says work on a retaining wall that will protect a cemetery from losing more graves to the sea is going to start immediately…
Kiwi graves disappearing off cliffs in Rarotonga ‘like no one cares’, TVNZ (02-23-2013)
A cemetery in the Pacific nation literally washing away, and the Cook Islands government is refusing to do anything about it…
Rising Seas Wash Dead Away from Marshall Islands Graves, Guardian UK (06-06-2014)
