Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
A community below a graveyard in Baisden said they're on edge, worried and even scared about what could happen to several homes and their family graveyard the next time it rains hard there.
The New graveyard is above several homes in Baisden where the family of the people buried there said a company working on gas lines on the mountain have diverted the earth so that when water runs off the mountain, it floods directly into the graveyard. They said they're also worried about that flooding hitting their homes further down the mountain.
"That's my wife's daddy. I've got an uncle. She's got a brother, Craig Steven New here, nephews," Jeffery Thompson said, pointing at his family's gravestones.
The graveyard was flooded twice earlier in August.
"We got scared," Tyler New said. "The first time it happened, it worried us and it scared us. We went and talked to my grandpa, went to the main office -- K & N's main office -- the people working back there and talked to them. They came up here and fixed it, well, cleaned it, I'm not going to say fixed it. TC Energy came up here and talked about what we could do to try and help fix this."
New and Thompson both have family members in the graveyard.
"There's going to be caskets in this creek and in our yards, laying in this road," New said.
New said the companies he mentioned are working on lines above the graveyard and had diverted the land so that when it rains, water now goes directly into the graveyard his loved ones are buried in. He said they haven't gotten solid answers from either company about what's going to happen if it's flooded again.
Thompson said they had to bury a loved one outside the graveyard, which his family built, earlier this month because of the situation.
"The old man has worked his life away in the coal mines," Thompson said. "He's been gone 18 years and I would hate for him to be alive. He dug all this out with a shovel and an automatic. He used to have a dog kennel here where he coon hunted. Never did have a problem here. Lived here 70 years."
There have been talks about having to move the graves, which they said even if that's a solution it isn't fair to their families and would disturb the dead.
"Even moving these you're going to create a problem," Thompson said. You've got a four-foot wide, eight-foot long grave there all that dirt in there when they fill it back in, when rain gets in there, it can't go nowhere but down. It can only come up so far and it's going to shove more that way. It's going to help it break off."
They both said that they worry, if the graveyard floods again, water could flood multiple homes nearby as well.
WCHS reached out to both the companies that New said were working in the area. Neither company gave us a statement as of late Tuesday night.
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A community below a graveyard in Baisden said they're on edge, worried and even scared about what could happen to several homes and their family graveyard the next time it rains hard there.
The New graveyard is above several homes in Baisden where the family of the people buried there said a company working on gas lines on the mountain have diverted the earth so that when water runs off the mountain, it floods directly into the graveyard. They said they're also worried about that flooding hitting their homes further down the mountain.
"That's my wife's daddy. I've got an uncle. She's got a brother, Craig Steven New here, nephews," Jeffery Thompson said, pointing at his family's gravestones.
The graveyard was flooded twice earlier in August.
"We got scared," Tyler New said. "The first time it happened, it worried us and it scared us. We went and talked to my grandpa, went to the main office -- K & N's main office -- the people working back there and talked to them. They came up here and fixed it, well, cleaned it, I'm not going to say fixed it. TC Energy came up here and talked about what we could do to try and help fix this."
New and Thompson both have family members in the graveyard.
"There's going to be caskets in this creek and in our yards, laying in this road," New said.
New said the companies he mentioned are working on lines above the graveyard and had diverted the land so that when it rains, water now goes directly into the graveyard his loved ones are buried in. He said they haven't gotten solid answers from either company about what's going to happen if it's flooded again.
Thompson said they had to bury a loved one outside the graveyard, which his family built, earlier this month because of the situation.
"The old man has worked his life away in the coal mines," Thompson said. "He's been gone 18 years and I would hate for him to be alive. He dug all this out with a shovel and an automatic. He used to have a dog kennel here where he coon hunted. Never did have a problem here. Lived here 70 years."
There have been talks about having to move the graves, which they said even if that's a solution it isn't fair to their families and would disturb the dead.
"Even moving these you're going to create a problem," Thompson said. You've got a four-foot wide, eight-foot long grave there all that dirt in there when they fill it back in, when rain gets in there, it can't go nowhere but down. It can only come up so far and it's going to shove more that way. It's going to help it break off."
They both said that they worry, if the graveyard floods again, water could flood multiple homes nearby as well.
WCHS reached out to both the companies that New said were working in the area. Neither company gave us a statement as of late Tuesday night.
_________________________________________
Follow WCHS on social media:
Facebook: facebook.com/eyewitnessnewscharleston
Twitter: twitter.com/wchs8fox11
Instagram: instagram.com/wchs8fox11
For the latest local and national news, visit our website: wchstv.com
Sign up for our newsletter: wchstv.com/sign-up
