As climate change brings a greater frequency of extreme weather events, so cemeteries, churchyards and burial grounds alike face issues ranging from coffins floating in newly dug graves to floodwaters breaking open mausolea and dispersing bodies from their previously final resting places. Newspapers seize upon such events with great sensationalism, but this paper takes a more measured and pragmatic look at the technical, financial and emotional challenges flooding can bring. Floods can be caused by a range of mechanisms including pluvial, fluvial, and groundwater sources. While each of these brings a different suite of issues, they share commonalities in the impact that they can have on burial grounds. Structural damage to the site and individual graves is one major aspect. When flood waters recede, they can reveal damage to memorials and burial ground infrastructure which presents challenges from both technical and economic perspectives. But, perhaps more significantly, flooding also has emotional and mental health repercussions for the family, friends and community of the deceased. This paper draws on conversations with cemetery managers, churchwardens and community members to explore what it means for our burial grounds to have such an uncertain future. It argues that the social and personal costs of flooding outweigh the financial impacts in many ways and presents the case for community engagement as a fundamental strand of both flood planning and flood recovery for burial grounds.