The CDC has stepped up its game. It went from an afterthought to an attention grabber with one blog post—“Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse.”
Emergency preparedness is not the most exciting conversation piece, something that might have bothered CDC Assistant Surgeon General Ali Khan. But by connecting the subject to a zombie attack, the blog went viral so quickly that the CDC web server actually went down for a few hours while people tried to view the link en masse, according to Fox News.
“So what do you need to do before zombies…or hurricanes or pandemics for example, actually happen?” the post reads, “First of all, you should have an emergency kit in your house. This includes things like water, food, and other supplies to get you through the first couple of days before you can locate a zombie-free refugee camp (or in the event of a natural disaster, it will buy you some time until you are able to make your way to an evacuation shelter or utility lines are restored).”
Suggested supplies for the emergency kit included water, food, medication, hygiene products, clothing and copies of important documents.
With that, the blog said that having a family emergency plan is crucial. Think of the type of things that can happen—earthquake, fire, nuclear attack—and map out different strategies for different disasters.
This got me thinking about my grade school days.
One of the most boring things I remember about school was the day that some emergency preparedness expert came to address the class. It always ended with the same warning: “Now, make sure you ask your parents when you go home tonight if you have an emergency plan. And if you don’t, help them create one!”
Who actually did that? I know I didn’t. So I asked some friends and acquaintances if they did.
Nine out of 10 said they had no plan, not now, not growing up.
One friend told me that his father (jokingly) would tell him and his brother: “If anything happens, it’s every man for himself and God for all!”
The one person that did have a plan didn’t have a very extensive plan.
“All I knew was to go to our church and wait if something happened at home,” he said.
Case in point, it’s difficult to get people to care about preparing for an emergency. But the threat of a zombie invasion may get more kids to actually go home and ask their parents to create a plan.
Moral of the story: With a little creativity, you can make emergency preparedness cool.
