Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Okay, this may sound like a dumb question, but I'm serious. If you die in North Dakota during mid-winter, can you be buried there or must the ground thaw out first?
A potential customer called me today, and during the discussion she told me that her mother had died in North Dakota in February, but that in ND they don't do burials until spring thaw. I could possibly understand that in some remote graveyards, but she insisted that it's state-wide. True or false?
It may require a wait til Spring, especially in small towns as the cost of digging, snow removal and warming the ground may be cost prohibitive. But as the article states it varies, and in larger communities winter burials are held, though it may costs more.
We built a house, with the digging to start in February. What the contractor did is to put a tarp over the area to dig and put heaters under it to thaw out the ground some to allow diggers come in. I suspect the same is done for winter burials.
So in short answer...yes you can bury in the winter. But it can vary depending on the winter conditions and on the funeral home and location.
Thanks, Dan. I suspected it didn't include larger city cemeteries, but the gal was insistent that it was all of ND. She too was a little upset about it, that they couldn't bury her mother at the time of the funeral.
It really depends on the cemetery. Many family plots in older graveyards are difficult to access in the winter without the risk of damaging other graves, simply due to the way the snow lies. So there is a certain amount of city vs. rural difference, simply due to other access issues (low-maintenance roads). But even in a larger town, if snow has drifted over a good portion of the stones, they'll leave it until spring to avoid doing more harm than good.
A few years ago I lost my father. The contankerous old fart decided to die on Jan 5. We buried him (in South Dakota) and it was -7 with about 14 inches of new snow on the ground. They didn't charge extra and they didn't wait til spring.
They cleared all the snow for about 100 ft around it. Then placed tarps around the grave that went back about 20 ft. They even put up a tarp wall on one side to block the wind.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
