All around the net, pictures have been circulating of stacks of rectangular ribbed boxes stored on a parcel of land in Madison, GA just outside of Atlanta. Much conjecture has been made about these boxes, but eventually it was surmised that these boxes were coffins, purchased and stockpiled by FEMA in preparation for future pandemic, biological attack, civil unrest, whatever. Needless to say, it has generated quite a bit of controversy, mostly among conspiracy theorists.
In fact, these boxes aren't coffins. They are burial vaults, specifically grave liners. The base (lid) goes on the bottom, the casket is placed on it, and the box lowered onto the base and sealed. The purpose of these vaults is to seal the grave from water intrusion (think diving bell effect), and to lend strength to the ground above it. Graves are no longer dug six feet down, in most cases as little as 18 inches of dirt separate the grave from the surface. Caskets are not designed to accommodate large amounts of weight, such as the dirt above it (static load), tractors and digging machinery such as backhoes (dynamic load), or impact forces (impact load). Drive a backhoe over a casket with 18 inches of dirt on it, and the casket will crush, and the backhoe drops on your Grandma. Burial vaults, made of heavy duty polypropylene and strengthened with a rib design, protect the casket and provide structural load bearing properties to increase safety for cemetery workers and protect the sanctity of the grave.
There are a number of companies who manufacture the burial vaults, but the ones in question are manufactured by Vantage, Inc; a subsidiary of Hercules, Inc. Vantage has a 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility nearby in Covington, GA. Vantage leases the property where the vaults are stacked from Conyers Welding, a business nearby who had extra room to lease out. Vantage stores the vaults on the property for convenience and cost effectiveness. Many of the vaults are already owned by funeral homes who have made pre-need funeral arrangements, and many have yet to be sold, but Vantage stores the vaults until needed by the end-user. According to Michael Lacy, Vice President of Operations for Vantage, the 50,000 units on the site are not owned by any one individual, company, or the government.
In the US, there are approximately 1.3 million deaths a year, with 900,000 ground burials performed. Many cemeteries are required by law to use burial vaults for obvious safety and environmental reasons; many others require their use by policy. The US Department of Veterans Affairs uses them for each burial they arrange whether needed or not.
There's nothing nefarious going on here.
Yet.....
