When Hurricane Matthew overflowed the Neuse River near Goldsboro, North Carolina in 2016 almost 40 caskets floated from their grave sites and into the rushing and rising water.  That caused city administrators the problem of eventually returning the caskets to their rightful grave spaces.  As of last week 16 of those caskets that were disturbed by the flooding two years ago have yet to be re-interred pending DNA analysis to get to the proper graves.

All of the displacements that occurred during Hurricane Matthew involved “surface burial vaults” that were buried near ground level.  According to an article you can read here, those types of burials have now been outlawed by the North Carolina Assembly.

This year, prior to Hurricane Florence hitting North Carolina, city employees of Goldsboro placed 1,200 sandbags on top of the 200 some surface vaults that are buried in Goldsboro’s Elmwood Cemetery.  It is because of that precaution that only two of the caskets buried in the cemetery dislodged and floated away.  Those caskets have since been recovered and will go about the procedure of being identified by family members and re-interred.

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