HOUSTON — One of Houston’s oldest Black cemeteries took a beating from Hurricane Beryl and the May 16 derecho storm.
The group Descendants of Olivewood said dozens of trees fell, damaging headstones and grave plots at Olivewood Cemetery.
“This is disheartening,” Margott Williams said she she walked through Olivewood on Wednesday to survey storm damage that started with the powerful winds of the derecho.
"Then comes Beryl, now we’ve lost more trees, lost more headstones. There was probably a dozen headstones [gone] in May, now we’ve got more headstones that are gone,” Williams told us.
They’re looking for help to clean up the mess at the historic cemetery that is recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a heritage site along their Slave Route Project.
Leaders of Houston’s post-Emancipation era are interred at Olivewood. Others buried there include doctors, lawyers and veterans of World War I and World War II.
“These markers here are people who helped build Houston, helped build Texas, the United States,” Williams said.
Her great-grandparents and grandfather are buried at the cemetery and she’s president of the group Descendants of Olivewood.
Williams says she got the property evaluated after the derecho and was quoted $250,000 to clear the damage. She says the cemetery doesn’t qualify for FEMA assistance.
“It’s basically getting these widowmakers as they call them, out of the tree, you really don’t want those to fall. We really need help from the private sector because we don’t have funding like that,” Williams said.
City Councilwoman Abbie Kamin’s office says they have put Olivewood in touch with organizations to assist with clean-up. Her office is also providing dumpsters to toss out debris.
Anyone interested in donating can find information on www.descendantsofolivewood.org. The group also has volunteer clean-up days on the first and third Saturday of each month.