If You Are Ready for Zombies, You Are Ready for Anything

One of the problems that governments and disaster aid organizations (like the Red Cross) have is getting people to prepare for disasters. We all know that we should set aside some food, water, cash, and other emergency supplies in the event of an earthquake, flooding, and so on, but it just isn't interesting enough to motivate people. The threat of a zombie apocalypse, however, makes preps far more interesting.

We all know how the CDC has a zombie-survival page up to interest people in disaster preparation. Now, according to this article from Wired, British Columbia has gone even further:

The Canadian province of British Columbia is taking a different approach to emergency preparedness this year. To get the message through to residents, the government mixed a big dose of zombie survivalism into its messaging. According to the website, the rationale is thus:

And while the chance of zombies a-knockin’ on your door is pretty slim, we do believe that if you’re ready for zombies, you’re ready for any disaster.

I can’t say that I would argue with that logic.

The Emergency Info BC website has been transformed into a zombie survival guide, which has accomplished the difficult feat of getting the message of preparedness into the news before there’s an actual disaster. Just getting the clicks on the website by making news outlets take notice is step one, but then comes the task of getting visitors to do more than just glance at it. To that end, the Emergency Info BC website is infused with humor (For example, “Day Two: What’s For Dinner? Hopefully Not My Brain”) and scattered with zombie references, a calculated risk but one that’s likely worth it if it keeps the material light enough for people to actually read through in detail. In the US, The Centers for Disease Control tried a similar tactic last year with a zombie pandemic survival graphic novella (you can download it here).

If you follow the guide and prepare yourself and your family to survive a zombie apocalypse, then by default you’re set for virtually anything. Although, I’ve been scanning the site for a while now and I haven’t found anything specifically on fighting zombies. For that, you’ll need to turn to public sources like our friend Roger Ma, the zombie combat specialist. Or, as Jonathan pointed out when writing about the CDC novella, make sure you add a shotgun to your list.