Nearly a month after an EF-1 tornado ripped through the Allegan County community of Gun Plain Township, one cemetery is still buried under debris.
Three graveyards in the area were damaged by the storm. The worst destruction was at the Woodside Cemetery on Miller Road.
On Tuesday, township supervisor Michael VanDenBerg said Woodside is still inaccessible, due to the number of downed trees that litter the area.
And while the township’s insurance will cover the tree removal and damage to the cemetery’s gate, VanDenBerg said damaged grave markers are not the township's responsibility.
“If they're just knocked over, we will set them back up to the best we can. But the township has no liability for stone damage [from] storms," he said.
He added that markers damaged in the storm would need to be replaced by the family members of the deceased, or a third party with the family’s permission.
The graveyard dates back to 1830 and it's not clear what might happen with older headstones that have no one to tend to them.
But VanDenBerg added that relief might come for the graves of the service members buried at the site.
“I do know if they're a military or a veteran, there's some different veterans’ groups that go through and try to reorder new stones for the veterans,” VanDenBerg said.
"Once we get the trees out of there, we'll have to take a look at that and see if that is the possibility to redo the military stones."
VanDenBerg said the township doesn’t yet know how much it will cost to clear the cemeteries, nor when the trees at Woodside will be removed. But he advised family members of those buried at the site to check on their graves once the cemetery is accessible.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
