So I’m pretty sure we all see the importance of being prepared for emergency situations, whatever they may be. Thanks to the Red Cross I know my First Aid and disaster response. I know how to keep myself healthy during a pandemic. And I am fairly confident our community businesses and schools could operate during and after a disaster. There’s just one thing I’m not so sure about…Zombie Attacks.
Yes, you heard me right. Zombie Attacks. I thought I was prepared for just about everything, but it has recently come to my attention, I was forgetting a major category of disaster preparedness.
But thanks to the University of Florida, Zombie Attacks (which have seemingly escaped the nation’s radar until now) earned a chapter in the University Emergency Response plan, along with chapters on hurricanes and pandemics.
The emergency management plan details how students and staff would respond to attacks by the “flesh-eating, apparently life impaired individuals.” In an excerpt from the plan, from a
local website, we are encouraged to listen for “lots of strange moaning” and to do the following:
·Equip all staff offices with “blackout curtains” to prevent identifying worker locations to zombies;
·Equip all offices with easily barricaded doors able to withstand prolonged zombie incursion attempts;
·Equip staff with laptops and ensure IPCC software is installed, tested, and working for staff who may find commuting to work to be difficult;
The plan, which was written by a University Professor to “add a little bit of levity to disaster preparation discussions,” began as a small joke and ended up earning national headlines.
As not to make light of a serious subject, the University has since pulled the Zombie Attack plan from their website. But if you ask me, I think it has already served its purpose. Emergency Preparedness can be overwhelming, so whatever gets people talking about the topic is alright by me.
So I salute you, oh writer of the Zombie Attack Plan, because if and when a Zombie disaster strikes, I will be ready.
Lindsey Weber is the Marketing/Communication Associate for the American Red Cross St. Louis Area Chapter.