Hurricane Richard destroys family’s tombstone

There are many stories of how people were affected by Hurricane Richard. The next interview shows how the hurricane also impacted those that have passed away. Nora Slusher’s father died in 1995 and her mother passed away in 2008. Their caskets were placed in the same tomb but a tree crushed the tomb during Hurricane Richard on October twenty-fourth.  Slusher is upset because for a long time now she has been asking the City Council to cut the tree to avoid any such incident. She now wants City Hall to reimburse her for the expenses she bore to remove the tree and repair the tomb.

Nora Slusher, Parents Tomb Destroyed During Hurricane

Nora Slusher

“A tree grow in a grave just beside my parents’ grave, for the past fifteen years. I always ask them why they no cut down the tree, but nobody respond. In May I asked Mister Neal, the deceased caretaker, why they don’t cut down the tree and he said that the people, who own the grave, neglect the grave. And now the hurricane come and it just gone over my parents deh grave and completely destroy it. And so I call City Council Monday and ask them to please remove the tree so that I can get somebody to fix the tomb. They went, they cut about three-quarter and they left the rest there. I called back Tuesday and they got mi from line to line until finally I got through to some Miss Jones and ih is ih mi wah send somebody there and nobody gone. I had to get a private person yesterday to finish cut the stump and then dah soh they had to redo the tomb. I have to make them understand me; it cost me over a thousand dollars to put back that grave. I noh seh the hurricane noh destroy but no other grave destroy only that one and dah because the tree was so close. Just a foot. You could see in the picture just a foot.  So the whole tree was over the tomb. Completely destroyed.”

Jose Sanchez

“So you would like the city council to assist you with some of the cost?”

Nora Slusher

“With something. Assist me with something. At least they coulda mi remove the tree completely or something, but it look like they only interested in the living, but we have loved ones too. Everyone has love ones up there. Check the burying ground, cut down the lot of big trees deh. We don’t need all the big trees in the burying ground.”

Richard was calamitous for at least two persons, but its fury also extended to two that had passed on.