CDC Zombie Fever Hit Ohio

From The Marion Star:

COLUMBUS (AP) - A central Ohio county is preparing for a zombie outbreak on Halloween, hoping to train responders for more likely emergencies through an exercise inspired by a tongue-in-cheek blog posting from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that urged people to be prepared for a "zombie apocalypse."

More than 225 volunteers in Delaware County north of Columbus signed up to dress as zombies Monday in a drill for officials who would deal with real-life situations involving hazardous materials and disaster response. Emergency responders will test their capabilities as they use standard decontamination procedures to "treat" the zombies and make them "human" again during the exercise at Ohio Wesleyan University.

"People got zombie fever here in Delaware," said Jesse Carter, a spokesman for the local health district.

Who knew that make-up remover could cure zombies?

CDC at It Again

The CDC marches forward with new zombie apocalypse preparedness materials. Most people would call it a comic book, but they prefer the term graphic novella, which I believe is used by no one else in the comics industry, the publishing industry, or the emergency preparedness industry. Far be it from me to suggest the CDC is out of touch with reality!

Be that as it may, their zombie preparedness book is mildly entertaining bit of edutainment (I would have said infotainment, but as the link clearly shows, that term only applies to television programs). The content is kid-friendly, with no one getting eaten and the worst swear being "Oh my gosh!" Given the twist ending, I was surprised by the disclaimer on the final page that the story is fictional. But of course!

The comic includes a checklist of supplies for an emergency, which is almost as good as actually having the supplies gathered and easily accessible for when you have to hit the road (though in the story, the main characters shelter in place for a whole week, which gave them plenty of time to get their kit together).

Another Government Agency's Zombie Planning

Everyone looks up to Grandpa!

Ace reporter Frank Cerabino from The Palm Beach Post reports on the zombie preparedness plan of Okeechobee County in a recent article sent in by Grandpa.

Following in the vein of the CDC's recent report, Okeechobee County Emergency Management Director Mitch Smeykal unabashedly promotes the work of his predecessor in creating a Zombie Apocalypse Annex. The annex was developed to "spice up" annual planning exercises, which can become rote if the same disaster scenario is run year after year. The result could be zombie-like disaster responders who don't think about the dynamics of an actual response. So the annex isn't really part of their disaster response plan, but it helps to keep it and their people fresh. The web page with the annex has many other valuable resources for a zombie apocalypse, such as this sign:

I wish I had a nickel for every time...

Details of the plan are fairly familiar to anyone whose read The Zombie Survival Guide or The Zombie Combat Manual (see the definitive comparison of those two works here). Find weapons in your home appropriate for your skills (if the only tool you have is a hammer, even a zombie starts looking like a nail) and for knocking down a zombie or knocking its head off. The advice is localized for Florida residents, as reporter Cerabino explains:

Homeowners who don't evacuate are urged to fortify their dwelling in the same way they'd prepare for a hurricane.
"Hurricane shutters strong enough to resist a 2-by-4 at 50 mph will hold up to the breach efforts of Zombies," it read.
We hope.

See, it is just like preparing for any other disaster! The web page even says that the zombie apocalypse is like a "response to a pandemic virus and a civil defense related social uprising" all at once.

Also, I have to admit that in my past, I helped with an unusual disaster preparedness plan annex. I volunteered at an American Red Cross chapter and worked on their disaster response plan. One of the annexes to the plan is a hazard analysis, which listed possible disasters in the chapter's jurisdiction, their likelihood, and their impact. Our little committee had a sense of humor, so in addition to the normal possible disasters we included "Godzilla attacks," which had a very low likelihood but a very high impact on the community if it did happen. The plan made it through the review process with the chapter leadership and the state leadership without comment or deletion. Whenever the people from that committee run into each other, we always smile and say, "Godzilla lives!" It's our secret code word. Well, it's not so secret now. Whoops!

CDC Acknowledges the Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse

Finally, the Feds are taking this whole threat of zombies seriously. Or at least they are trying to convince us to take it seriously. The Centers for Disease Control have released some guidance and a lot of encouragement to prepare for a zombie apocalypse, or, short of that, a zombie outbreak in your own home or hometown. See what they wrote here or here.

The media is picking up the ball and running with it, so to speak. Naturally, the leader of the pack is Fox News, where my wife first discovered the story. They do seem to think the story is a smoke-screen for a secret agenda to get people prepared for any possible emergency.

I first saw the story on Facebook where my friend Mike posted the CDC link with the title "CDC Warns Public to Prepare for the coming 'Zombie Apocalypse'." I appreciate his dedication to disseminate this important news, but I think the scare quotes around Zombie Apocalypse are unnecessary. Isn't a zombie apocalypse scary enough?

The main point of the CDC is that you should have survival supplies (food, water, medicine, etc.) and an emergency plan for what to do and where to go in the event of a disaster. If you want to play a more active role during the zombie outbreak, you might consider joining or starting a local chapter of the Zombie Squad. They've been taking the preparedness message to the public on a grassroots level long before the CDC got in on the act. They describe themselves thus:

Zombie Squad is an elite zombie suppression task force ready to defend your neighborhood from the shambling hordes of the walking dead. We provide trained, motivated, skilled zombie extermination professionals and zombie survival consultants. Our people and our training are the best in the industry. 

See an interview with their upper echelon here. How can you not love an outfit whose motto is "We Make Dead Things Deader"?

I hope you are ready for the zombie apocalypse, or, failing that, whatever emergency might happen in your neck of the woods. I know we've gotten plenty of Costco-sized foods stored in our basement. We even have a plan to flee to England, if necessary!