{"id":745,"date":"2026-05-30T08:34:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T08:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=745"},"modified":"2026-05-30T08:34:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T08:34:48","slug":"sinkholes-spread-in-troubled-pearl-city-cemetery-even-as-improvements-are-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=745","title":{"rendered":"Sinkholes spread in troubled Pearl City cemetery, even as improvements are made"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<section>\n<p>PEARL CITY (HawaiiNewsNow) &#8211; For years, Sunset Memorial Park Cemetery has had to battle with vandals and trespassers. Now, a gate is helping to keep them out.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=743\">High surf advisory posted for south-facing shores<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, there\u2019s a new problem that has surfaced after the Kona lows sent floodwater through the cemetery.<\/p>\n<p>The problem: sinkholes that appeared in the cemetery following a storm in January. Dozens more appeared after the storms in March.<\/p>\n<p>Larry Veray, the president of Friends for Sunset Memorial Park Cemetery, showed some of the sinkholes.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThat goes down about seven to eight feet,\u201d he said as he showed one of the holes. \u201cI was putting a camera down there so I could take a look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most of the sholes go down about three feet and then move horizontally beneath the surface.<\/p>\n<p>A video Veray took after the Kona low storms shows water coming out fo the ground at the cemetery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI counted 35 (sinkholes), and other side, there\u2019s another 15 to 20,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Veray said century-old caskets used to collapse and cause sinkholes at gravesites, but this is new. He says something else is now a factor at Sunset Memorial, which fell into disrepair after the last owner died about 13 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere used to be watercress farms and rice paddies and lo\u2019i all through this area, so that means that there\u2019s an underground source of water,\u201d said Pearl City state Rep. Gregg Takayama.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=741\">\u2018I grew up on that court\u2019: Seabury\u2019s Peterson signs with Chaminade<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He said there will be more neglected cemeteries in the future, especially on the neighbor islands, as more churches that have cemeteries shut down.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a newly-established state Cemetery Office, but it doesn\u2019t oversee abandoned properties like Sunset Memorial.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe cemeteries that the state does upkeep for, they were turned over to the Territory of Hawaii,\u201d said Takayama. \u201cThere have been no more cemeteries that were taken over by the government since then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Veray has explored ways to fill the sinkholes without causing more damage of desecration to the burials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat they recommend is to find where the hole is, where it\u2019s being sucked out, and pour concrete in there,\u201d said Veray. \u201cI can\u2019t get a concrete truck in here to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Veray said he\u2019ll like have to find some good dirt to fill the sinkholes, a process that he says will take months of fundraising and work.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>He and a group of volunteers have already used a $125,000 grant to repave the roadway through the cemetery, install new fencing, and to put up a gate that he found on Facebook Marketplace.<\/p>\n<p>New water lines and other infrastructure improvement are in the works, as well as solar panels to generate electricity that can be sold to neighbors and generate revenue for the cemetery\u2019s upkeep.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=739\">Kailua man pleads guilty to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>That to-do list now includes filling those sinkholes.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While volunteers have made significant improvements at Sunset Memorial Park cemetery, recent heavy rains have exposed a long-standing problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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