Sinking cemeteries in Louisiana

In this Dec. 29, 2012, photo, South Lafourche Levee District General Manager Windell Curole, who also serves on the state's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, walks through his small family cemetery which sits along the bayou near Leeville, La. Some 11 cemeteries in Jefferson Parish have repeatedly flooded since Katrina, and in Lafourche, Terrebonne and Plaquemines parishes, more than a dozen others have succumbed to tidal surges. Curole said saltwater from the Gulf is causing a crippling subsidence problem.

In this Dec. 29, 2012, photo, South Lafourche Levee District General Manager Windell Curole, who also serves on the state's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, handles pieces of headstone at his small family cemetery which sits along the bayou near Leeville, La.

In this Dec. 29, 2012, photo, water washes around and against the tombs of those buried in a Leeville, La., cemetery. What's left of the old Leeville cemetery is only accessible by boat.

In this Dec. 29, 2012, photo, South Lafourche Levee District General Manager Windell Curole, who also serves on the state's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, talks about his small family cemetery which sits along the bayou near Leeville, La.

In this Dec. 29, 2012, photo, water washes around an infant's tomb in a Leeville, La., cemetery. What's left of the old Leeville cemetery is only accessible by boat.

In this Dec. 29, 2012, photo, water washes around and against the tombs of those buried in a Leeville, La., cemetery. What's left of the old Leeville cemetery is only accessible by boat.

In this Dec. 29, 2012, photo, water washes around the tombs of those buried in a Leeville, La., cemetery. What's left of the old Leeville cemetery is only accessible by boat.

This Dec. 29, 2012, photo shows a small family cemetery along the bayou near Leeville, La.