Funeral Director Daily’s Monday morning round-up of death care related items we discovered over the weekend includes a wide variety of topics again this week.  We’ve got information on where to find articles on how funeral homes in Miami are coping with the loss of power after Hurricane Irma, an article that has been published on at least three continents that is a public relations nightmare for a Louisiana funeral home,  some progressive Texas funeral directors being very proactive with cremation in their market, and an enjoyable article about a young British lady who has left the cosmetology industry and found her niche in funeral service.

• So what happens to a funeral home when a major hurricane hits an area and all the power goes out for days?  An interesting article in the Miami Herald gives a glimpse of what death care industry companies had to deal with during the hurricane and the immediate time after.  Many death calls went straight to voice mail as the power was interrupted.  Some funeral homes that could actually go and make removals had no way to process the death certificates and arrange trade call flights because the internet system for the area was out. Cemeteries that were in the path are still restoring their tombstones and such.  You can read more about Hurricane Irma’s effect of funeral service from the Miami Herald here.

• Another story I found interesting from this weekend was a story about a plumbing mishap in one of Dignity Memorial’s Baton Rouge, Louisiana funeral homes pertaining to a fluid running from the funeral home into the parking area.  A story in the Baton Rouge Advocate relates that the city-parish environmental services confirmed an incident occurred, but there was no danger to the public.  More public scrutiny of funeral homes in Louisiana may be a result of the leak as the Department of Environmental Services has now stated that they maybe need to move funeral homes up the list to be inspected.  An interesting thing I noticed about this story is that I saw it come over wire services in Great Britain and Australia as well as the United States.  Just goes to prove that a strange story can really have legs.

• The Putnam Funeral Home in Kingsland, Texas is not waiting for the cremation business to come to them.  They are proactively opening a center in their area specifically for cremation families.  The Putnams have noticed that the funeral industry is changing – even in traditional areas of the country – and have opened the Putnam Cremation Advocate business in an office.  Jessamyn Putnam says, “What we are finding is that people want something less formal, more intimate.”  This is a really good article on how the Putnam’s look to expand the numbers that they serve.  You can read about it in the Daily Trib.

• Finally, it is always interesting to see how some of our colleagues came about their role in funeral service.  We found an interesting article in the United Kingdom’s  Daily Record about 27-year old Raegan Drew and her transformation  from cosmetology student to funeral director.  It is a very interesting article that also includes topics on what she does as an everyday funeral director and the rewards she shes thru this work.  You can read about it here.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]