Oakland Cemetery hit hard by tornado

Metro Atlanta

Oakland Cemetery hit hard by tornado

Oakland Cemetery hit hard by tornado

Charles Lynch (right) and Davant Turner inspect an old comfort house, or rest room, at historic Oakland Cemetery.

Oak trees lie across a road in the cemetery.

A statue of former Georgia Gov. Joseph E. Brown lies broken.

A marble monument to Civil War Gov. Joseph Brown lies on the ground as Georgia State History professor Charles Steffen photographs the rest of the monument.

A Dougherty family statue lies broken in Historic Oakland Cemetery on Saturday. Sam Reed, sexton of Oakland Cemetery, said he was in the cemetery's bell tower when high winds hit Friday night. He believes 50 to 60 trees in the cemetery were damaged or destroyed, as well as many gravestones and memorials.

A Gramling family monument lies broken across a path.

Volunteers Mary Woodlan (left) and Beth Fenger check out a grave marker upheaved by a fallen tree.

Betty Anne Lynch (left) and sister-in-law Susan Lynch check out a grave marker that a fallen tree lies on.

More destruction at historic Oakland Cemetery.

The Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts (left) seen from the cemetery.

Volunteers Mary Woodlan (right) and Beth Fenger hug.

A Confederate grave marker is surround by fallen tree limbs.

Environmental historian Stephanie Madson (from left), archaeologist Sara Sanders and cemetery volunteer Charlie Miller sift through dirt from toppled trees.

Sam Reed, sexton of Oakland Cemetery, stands by the fallen Winship family obelisk Saturday.

Gordon Ponsford (from left) sculpture conservator, Kevin Kuharic director of restoration and Dustin Hornsby, restoration tech, approach the Winship family obelisk lying across a path in the cemetery.

Restoration technician Dustin Hornsby surveys the damage.

Another toppled tree.

Dustin Hornsby, an Oakland Cemetery employee, looks among the root balls of trees toppled by the tornado at the 48-acre cemetery to see what might show up.

Damaged trees have been marked with green or orange paint, depending on the level of damage and need for removal.

A downed tree finds its final resting place in the Confederate burial section of Oakland Cemetery, where approximately 6,900 Confederate soldiers, including 3,000 unknowns, are buried.

The cemetery will open briefly on Confederate Memorial Day for a chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The organization's members will gather near the obelisk that remembers the Confederate dead.

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Charles Lynch (right) and Davant Turner inspect an old comfort house, or rest room, at historic Oakland Cemetery.

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