HUNTSVILLE – Cleanup efforts by large crews and damage assessment continues more than a week after what has been updated to an EF2 tornado hit Maple Hill Cemetery on a 10-mile path that began in the Old Town community.
The tornado continued to the Five Points-Blossomwood area that is divided by the cemetery. Its path continued to Monte Sano and into the McMullen Cove area.
City officials expect the removal of large tree limb debris at the cemetery to be finished by early next week from the May 8 storm. Large stumps from fallen trees will take longer to remove, they said. The cemetery reopened with signs advising people to enter at their own risk.
Cemetery Department Director Tara Sloan said crews will be removing still-standing trees severely damaged by the storm over the next three to four weeks.
Assessing the damage to cemetery markers continues as cemetery officials inspect each block. Weather permitting, plans call for that process to be completed by next week. Families are being notified when damage to a loved one’s marker is discovered.
The Huntsville Pilgrimage Association and Skip Stinson, the cemetery’s restoration specialist, have joined the effort to inspect markers in Blocks 1-15, which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As money is available, the association will fund repairs in those areas along with damaged portions of the cemetery’s stone wall.
Maple Hill Cemetery, established in 1818, is the oldest and largest municipal cemetery in continuous operation in the South. Among the notable figures whose final resting place is within Maple Hill are five U.S. senators and five Alabama governors.
Donations to the HPA for storm damage repair can be made here.
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