WANSHIP, Utah — Heavy rains that pummeled large portions of Utah this week have caused severe damage across the state, including the Wanship Cemetery, where dozens of tombstones that marked graves are now displaced.
The Wanship Info and Happenings Facebook page shared photos of the damage caused by channels of water that ran through several gravesites. The photos feature decades-old headstones strewn across the property.
Jacqueline Ball, who manages the Facebook page, posted a letter she wrote to the Summit County Council requesting help repairing the cemetery damage-.
"I was heartbroken by what I witnessed. Many graves have suffered significant erosion, with deep channels carved through burial sites by rushing water," she wrote.
Ball asked the council to install or improve the cemetery's drainage system and other infrastructure that could cause similar damage in the future.
"Our cemeteries are places of remembrance, respect, and peace," she said. "They deserve to be protected from preventable damage whenever possible."
In a statement, Summit County officials said they were aware of the damage and "will work with the Cemetery District to restore the cemetery as soon as conditions allow."
For longtime Wanship resident Jolene Christenson, these flooding incidents have happened before, but not this extreme.
"It’s always been on this hill, it’s always been no vegetation, no water and stuff,” she said.
“It’s took some hits over the years, but there’s not much you can do about it."
Christenson said she hopes people step up to help.
"If they get the dirt and the gravel and just pick some days and stuff and have a little bit of equipment and stuff and ask the town to come up,” she said. "It’s Mother Nature; it’s just we got to put it back together."
