[MSN] Lessons from Hurricane Katrina to help area cemeteries

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Lessons from Hurricane Katrina to help area cemeteries
By MATT CASEY
Evening Sun Reporter
Article Launched: 02/18/2007 07:55:35 AM EST

Area cemeteries will be better protected in the near future thanks to a
Hanover conservator and wisdom gained from Hurricane Katrina.

The infamous storm's wind and rain led to the destruction of numerous
historic landmarks, according to Robert Mosko, owner of Mosko Cemetery
Monument Services.

Mosko said he was contacted about a Louisiana graveyard where floodwater
and debris pushed gravestones up to a quarter mile away. Mosko said he
could reassemble the headstones, but the waters destroyed the records.

"Without records you're looking next to impossible," Mosko said. "You
don't put a gravestone on just any grave. You just can't do that."

He recently attended a class held by the Shady Side Rural Heritage Society
in Maryland to help prevent this from happening to his clients, churches
and other stewards of area cemeteries.

"Our question to them is, 'How are you going to protect these documents,'"
Mosko said.

He said the solution starts with making sure his clients know what to do
in the event of a disaster.

The ideas he learned at the class apply to more than just cemeteries,
Mosko said. He said one group talked about moving historical collections
to an attic when a flood is expected, or moving them to a bank vault if a
real catastrophe is on the horizon.

Kristen Harbeson, education and outreach director at Preservation
Maryland, said keepers of historical items should also familiarize
emergency workers with what's most important in their collection.

In more localized disasters, like a fire, Mosko said emergency workers
could bring extra personnel and try to save the collection.

"If they don't understand the significance of what's important in your
museum," Harbeson said, "then their response will be different."

Harbeson said her organization helped set up the class, which filled to
capacity and drew participants from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.

She attributed the enthusiasm in part to document-preservation awareness
due to Hurricane Katrina.

"People are seeing what happens when disasters strike historic resources,"
Harbeson said.

For Mosko, the biggest disaster his clients have to worry about is a tree
falling on a monument, but cemeteries still need their documents in those
cases, he said.

"Fifty percent of our workload is that of documentation," Mosko said.

Contact Matt Casey at mcasey at eveningsun.com.

http://www.eveningsun.com/