Flooding Brings Caskets to Surface in Louisiana

Louisiana officials were forced to retrieve hundreds of floating coffins after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

The relentless rain that soaked much of the South has created a spooky scene in Louisiana.

Caskets unearthed from low-lying cemeteries by more than a week of rain were spotted Tuesday floating in flooded Calcasieu Parish, on the Texas border, NBC News reported.

But as workers from the county coroner's office went out by boat to wrangle the coffins, they did so under partly-cloudy skies — a welcome change after more than a week of rain and violent thunderstorms across the region that killed six people and forced thousands to flee their homes.

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"Do not go to the cemeteries," Zeb Johnson of the county coroner's office warned. "These vaults weigh 1,600 to 1,800 pounds; caskets are full of water. And if they are full of water, we know how to handle that and take care of it."

Louisiana officials were forced to retrieve hundreds of floating coffins after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

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