Saving Selma: Clean up efforts move forward at cemetery

From the West Alabama Newsroom–

The January 12th tornado downed a lot of trees in New Live Oak Cemetery in Selma. And the clean-up effort there — has been moving forward — carefully and methodically.

The EF-2 tornado tore down countless trees at New Live Oak Cemetery — including the tree line barrier — between the cemetery and Dallas Avenue.

The effort to clean up the cemetery after the storm — has been a long — slow — and demanding process.

“We had to have special people to come in, the historic people to come in and look at it. And make sure the ground wasn’t disturbed. They had to examine all of that before we could move it,” said Cemetery Director Reginal Wells.

“And then we had to remove it a certain kind of way. We just couldn’t drag it out of here. It takes time and it’s meticulous work.”

Now cemetery department workers are cleaning up all the debris — left behind by the special crews.

“You had the teams come in and move the big trees and the major stuff. We’re going through here fine tuning it. You know bringing the cemetery back to its beautiful state, its sacred state,” Wells said.

New Live Oak Cemetery is more than just a cemetery in Selma. It’s also a place many residents can go to walk — run — and even ride their bikes.

“There are people that we call regulars. If we don’t see them we looking for them. Because they’re here everyday walking and exercising in the cemetery. Some just sitting here visiting their loved ones. So this cemetery, it has its own life.”

And life is not something often associated — with a cemetery.

“It has life. It has life. And the life it has is called peace,” said Wells.