Charles Yocke was told by a friend a “mudslide” had taken place at his beloved Mt. Zion Cemetery, but what he discovered the morning of April 3rd was an outright avalanche of mud.
Every single day since the volunteer caretaker has been navigating an unpaved path he hopes leads to a complete restoration, but he’s frustrated he still doesn’t know when the project will begin.
“Pat Henry lives at the top of the hill and he called him early that morning and told me, ‘Looks like you have a mudslide in the cemetery.’ ‘OK,’ I thought, ‘I’d better go see what I have to shovel up.’ Well, that’s not what I saw when I came up here,” Yocke recalled. “I only live the down the road, so I jumped into my truck, and I drove up here. As soon as I got close enough, I saw it and said, ‘Holy sh!t!’
“I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know who to call,” he said. “I knew I had to get the word out and I knew I had to get the place locked up. No way could I let anyone on the grounds, and the graveyard is still closed today. That’s when I contacted some media and they reported what happened.”
W.Va. Gov. Jim Justice has since dropped off $2 million that the Bel-O-Mar Regional Council will administer; thousands of dollars in donations have been recorded by the Wheeling Mt. Zion Cemetery Corporation volunteer Paula Stein, and an endowment fund finances the landscaping upkeep. Last week, 11 counties in West Virginia – including Ohio County – were designated federal disaster areas so the counties now qualify for federal relief dollars to repair damages caused by the double-flood natural disaster.
But.
“Everything so far has been happening really fast, but when will the actual work get done? When will the work begin? I don’t know those answers when our families ask,” Yocke admitted. “We want to get this done as soon as possible, but I don’t even know if we’ll get it started this year. I hope so … it’s only May.
“I know how important this cemetery is to our families, and I know this whole community is supporting us, so for everyone involved I sure hope everyone can get this moving along,” he said. “I keep asking people when we can get started and they have explained that there’s a lot to get straight before we can get moving. That’s frustrating for everyone.”
Piece by Piece
The avalanche originated near the top of the hill near Incline Avenue in the Mozart area, and Yocke estimates as many as 125 grave markers were affected by the rolling mud. Many of those stones, though, were assembled when initially placed, but now they are scattered, buried, and in pieces.
Many of the graves also were decorated by family, and those items – flower vases, picture frames, and other items – will need sorted once movement of the massive amount of dirt begins and the restoration process is launched.
“Until the project begins, we won’t know how many monuments were involved, but we do know several of them were made in parts so we’ll have to see what needs to be cleaned and put back together,” Yocke said. “I’m sure we’ll make new footers for each of the stones, but it has to be surveyed first to make sure we’re putting everything back where it belongs.
“There are some photos, and we know there’s technology that can help, too, but we may need some help from the families because we hope they’ll remember best where they visited their loved ones,” he said. “But we have to get there first. The cemetery has to be closed off right now for safety reasons, and as soon as people can enter safely, we’ll open it up again.”
W.Va. Del. Shawn Fluharty (D-5) was one of the first state lawmakers to contact Yocke once the disaster took place, and last week he collected the names of the American veterans laid to rest at Mount Zion so he can register the project for additional funding. He explained the $2 million contributed by the state will be administered by the Bel-O-Mar Regional Council, a state-created organization that fosters cooperation with community and economic development.
“Since a lot of the funding for the repairs is coming from the state of West Virginia, there will be input from state officials about contractors and some things like that, but this work, I doubt, will be performed by employees of the state,” Fluharty explained. “There will be guidance, and help when it’s needed during this process, and I’m sure the folks from Bel-O-Mar will be keeping track of the progress.
“At the end of all of this, I am positive we’ll have some kind of event because fixing this damage in a historic cemetery like this is a pretty big deal,” he said. “There are more than 400 American veterans who have been laid to rest here, and those families will be part of everything.”
Fluharty also is confident additional dollars will be received thanks to the natural disaster designation.
“Federal funding is another piece to this, but I am encouraged more dollars will be available for what needs to be done here,” Fluharty explained. “When I was informed of this slide, I immediately contacted Sen. (Joe) Manchin’s office because I knew he was traveling to Wheeling on a separate matter. He met with us and told us what needed to happen, and those things have happened so we can apply for more help.
“The documents that Charles gave me included the names of the American soldiers who were interred here,” he said. “They will be honored.”
Meanwhile, Yocke and Stein not-so-patiently await a start date.
“Everyone wants this project to get done the right way, and I know that’s going to take a little time to get things in order,” Yocke said. “Sure, it’s frustrating. It’s real frustrating. People who want to visit the cemetery are getting frustrated, too, and that’s understandable.
“A lot of them thought as soon as we got the ($2 million) someone would be up on the hill fixing it by now, and I get that,” he added. “There’s the mud we have to deal with, but there’s a lot more that needs done to fix it for good, too. Honestly, I’d hate to see what another serious rain would do.”
