Graves plan for swine flu pandemic

[efq]

Graves could be dug in advance for victims of swine flu if the pandemic escalates.

A Home Office document published earlier this year sets out plans for how local councils should deal with a high death toll, including setting up temporary mortuaries if necessary.
Estimates of the number of deaths range from 55,000 to as high as 750,000.
So far, 44 people in England have been confirmed as dying after contracting swine flu and another five have died in Scotland.
The document says that while most cemeteries have sufficient burial capacity for a number of years, this could be put to the test at the peak of a pandemic.
"As a back-up option for higher fatality rates, cemetery managers should plan alternative ways of providing graves," it said. "Back-up options are likely to be required should there be an increase in the proportion of burials or if high rates of staff absenteeism are experienced."
It discusses the possibility of using graves for unrelated people.
At the height of a pandemic, there would be a move towards making graves "which can allow interments to be undertaken more quickly".
"One option is prior mechanical preparation of the burial site for multiple graves and consecutive burials.
"This process would allow for, and require, marking of the position of individual burials, and the normal statutory requirements for recording them, but could not normally allow for the adjacent burial of family members."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090819...c-6323e80.html

Do they really need to tell us this :|

[lick]

do you really need to post this

Edited by Robbie! (Forum Super Moderator): Please do not post pointlessly or unconstructively

[-Heart]

do you really need to post this

It's news.

Anyway, this is the best news to come out of swine flu in a while.

[Alexwinnett]

I think it is a bit of a worrying thing to do, i mean, i know that in the winter swine flu is gonna be terrible, but why tell us all this? its like saying to your mum, "i bought your gravestone, look, i had it engraved and everything! Name, Message, Date of birth, date of death..."

[Oleh]

Nice to know if you die you wont go to a landfill

[Hushie]

Haven't only like less than 40 people died from it in the UK?

[jackass]

Seriously, why are they being so melodramatic? :rolleyes:

[Kardan]

Looks like the funeral business is a good one to go into...

[GommeInc]

Oh for goodness sake :/ More ignorant stupidity. Is this actually real? It seems to be an article made and created just to see what the reaction is, there is no way this will have to happen. It's swine flu, a virus... The way people are acting you'd think the black plague has returned. Not many people will die, and not many people have died. The virus is over-glorified and over-estimated dribble and the WHO should be disbanded and closed down for their gross mis-understandings and pointless fear mongering.

Swine flu is dead, no one does and no one should give a rats arse :/

[efq]

Swine flu will hit hard in Winter, no deny it. A lot more people will be sick than usual years. (Well Starting September) The NHS will feel the pressure but its time to test them.
More people will die this Winter than usual but not enough to need to dig graves, unless it mutates in Winter to something like the plague.

If it gets to less-developed countries in a way that was rapidly spreading then they would have big problems.