WEST SENECA, N.Y. — Families impacted by that ongoing effort to relocate caskets at St. Matthews Cemetery in West Seneca, plan to file complaints with the state.
Many of those families met Thursday afternoon to talk about what they're going through after the cemetery decided to move caskets for safety reasons, but neglected to tell families about it.
Everyone involved in this situation admits this is just awful what's happened there at St. Matthews Cemetery.
Those families first heard caskets were being moved early this week, eight days after the process started.
Forest Lawn says it didn't have time to notify families immediately.
About 80 families met at the Back To Basics Outreach Ministry in Buffalo.
Many of them sharing their own stories of who they have buried at St. Matthews and their outrage that they weren't told about issues there a month ago when Forest Lawn says engineers learned that a portion of the cemetery was unsafe and collapsed along Cayuga Creek.
Forest Lawn's president says staff worked in an emergency situation to move 220 graves.
Families say the situation was totally mismanaged.
"It just opened up every last thing like I was going through it again, making arrangements, you understand what I'm saying. I haven't gotten any sleep," said Anita Hudson of Buffalo.
Forest Lawn says the relocation process is expected to be finished either Thursday or Friday morning.
Assemblymember Patrick Burke says he's concerned the cemetery may have broken a state regulation that says caskets cannot be removed without consent from a family member or a judge.
Forest Lawn responds to that saying it's aware of the law, but that state law is not clear on what's allowed during an emergency situation.
Still, many of those families affected say they plan to file state cemetery complaints, which will be sent to the State Department's Division of Cemeteries, which is investigating St. Matthews Cemetery.
A lawsuit against the cemetery has not been ruled out.
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