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Cindy Dickerson posted on September 26, 2012 15:22
BRAITHWAITE, La. (BP) – Jerry Jones and the crew of seven Texas Baptist Men are pretty stout “men’s men” but they didn’t sign up for the macabre assignment of casket retrieval following recent flooding caused by Hurricane Isaac in this southeastern corner of Louisiana.
Along the Louisiana Gulf Coast – from Braithwaite to New Orleans – it’s common local practice to bury loved ones in above-ground crypts because of the area’s high water table.
But after above-ground tombs in English Turn and Promised Land Cemeteries near Braithwaite were inundated by Isaac’s flood surge, dozens of caskets – s ome new, some decades-old – simply popped out of the ground. A third area cemetery was completely engulfed. Some flooded-out mausoleums contained as many as four coffins.
Even heavy, concrete-laden crypts and vaults could be seen floating like corks throughout the area. Some became lodged in trees and bushes, while others floated for miles. And as the water receded, some vaults and caskets were suddenly “parked” in the middle of roads and highways, where drivers had to slow down to avoid them.
“According to the Plaquemine Parish Sheriff’s Department, two coffins even came across a levee as the water surged and they floated all the way across the Mississippi River,” said Jones. “I know that’s hard to believe.”
Jones, usually the mass feeding coordinator for the Texas Baptist Men in Dallas, knows how to run big feeding operations during disaster responses. But he said he was taken aback when Joe Detterman, state disaster relief coordinator for Texas Baptist Men, called and asked him to put together a crew of several TBM volunteers to go to Louisiana’s Plaquemine Parish to intercept runaway caskets.
“Our initial job was to collect and help load caskets on trucks to be taken to a central processing center, where LSU forensic anthropologists and funeral home directors were waiting to ID the displaced remains.
“But we didn’t know we actually would be opening up caskets,” said Jones, 71, a retired supervisor with Eastman-Kodak in Longview, Texas, who’s been involved in Southern Baptist Disaster Relief since 1996. “Some lids were already gone and skeletal remains clearly visible.
“Up front, we had a meeting to discuss what was expected. We gave any guys who wanted a chance to drop out – with no questions asked. But everyone agreed that the Lord called us to do this ministry and He would give us the strength and courage to do it. And He did.”
Their first task when arriving on the scene – with rain still pouring down over displaced, muddy caskets and even remains – was to erect privacy fences with tarps and install a lighted, air-conditioned tent for the Louisiana State University forensic experts. They also were forced to use plastic roofing tarps as body bags.
“Of course, very few of the remains in the floating caskets had identification on the bodies, so it was the LSU folks’ job to identify them using casket serial numbers or serial numbers from hip, knee or other body implants,” said Jones.
As Christians, Jones and his TBM team showed maximum respect to the dead and to the living. After a day or so, family members of the displaced deceased began showing up to locate their loved one’s remains.
“There were a lot of tears and grief, and we tried to console them as best we could,” said Jones. “We had some ex-military personnel who had skills at handling these kinds of situations.”
Gibbie McMillan, state DR director for the Louisiana Baptist Convention said the casket retrieval operation will take another month to six weeks, now run by volunteers from the Louisiana state convention who took over from TBM. He said six-eight volunteers a week are needed to complete the morbid yet highly sensitive job.
“There’s no telling how many caskets are in the woods,” McMillan said, adding that the State of Louisiana may have to do an aerial reconnaissance mission to find them all.
Four weeks following Hurricane Isaac’s landfall on Wednesday, Aug. 29, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers from a dozen state conventions have posted 7,121 volunteer days; 224,914 meals prepared; 1,011 chainsaw and mud-out jobs completed; 222 roof repairs; 141 children cared for; 8,628 laundry loads and showers for victims and volunteers; 13,487 ministry and  chaplaincy contacts; 244 Gospel presentations; and 37 professions of faith.
By Mickey Noah (Mickey Noah writes for the North American Mission Board.)
Please continue to pray for the TBM volunteers and the Hurricane Issac survivors.
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SUBTITLE: Serving in a unique way.
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