Ohio Emergency Responders Stage Mock Zombie Invasion

destinyland writes "An Ohio Emergency Management Agency staged a mock zombie attack using more than 225 volunteers dressed as zombies at an Ohio college. 'Organizers hoped the theme would attract more volunteers than previous simulations of industrial accidents or train crashes,' the AP reports, quoting a spokesman for the agency as saying that 'People got zombie fever here in Delaware.' The exercise included decontamination procedures for hazardous materials, and was inspired by an 'emergency preparedness' post on the CDC web site citing the popular fascination with zombies. Now, 'Dozens of agencies have embraced the idea,' the AP reports, 'spreading the message that if you're prepared for a zombie attack, you're prepared for just about anything.'"

Comments

13.9% increase in zombie titles

[destinyland]

Another interesting random statistic: The number of zombie ebooks in Amazon's Kindle store has increased by 13.9% since September. (Which is now four times as many zombie books as are in the library of Congress.) http://www.beyond-black-friday.com/2011/10/29/how-zombies-conquered-the-kindle/

I'd like to see the CDC freeway sign

[Ukab the Great]

Suggesting that every household have a machete and a shotgun.

Re:I'd like to see the CDC freeway sign

[JustOK]

Never happen. For many families in these tough economic times, it's usually a choice between the two. The CDC knows this.

AP: 'People got zombie fever here in Delaware"

[vaporland]

Damn - we're too late - it's already started.

How far is this zombie fever outbreak from the Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania where George Romero filmed "Dawn Of The Dead"?

If someone has 'zombie fever', go for the double-tap.

For their next performance

[roman_mir]

Here is a list of proposals for their next training exercises (all are scary):

* an alien invasion
* earth core cooling, stopping and disrupting the magnetic field
* a tear in time continuum
* the Sun exploding
* ghosts
* Richard Nixon
* Obama winning the second term
* One of (Bachmann, Perry, Romney, Jizzbucke.... Santorum, Gingrich, Cain) becoming POTUS

Re:For their next performance

[AnonGCB]

Pretty sure he'd just remove the federal level CERS, though as a more low priority objective. And even then, states would do a better job.

Re:For their next performance

[cyber-vandal]

A lot of people will go hungry and will riot. How do you intend to deal with such a situation. If only there was some kind of emergency response team available.

Re:For their next performance

[cyber-vandal]

So you would sack millions of people and then set armed troops on them when they not unreasonably protest about that. That doesn't sound any less fascistic or extreme. You do realise as well that productive people will lose their jobs as the spending power of 30 million people disappears. In 1921 jobs weren't heading to low wage economies like they are now. I'd be interested to know which government employees you consider to be productive. So far we have the National Guard. Who else?

Re:For their next performance

[Artifakt]

Dr. Paul wants to shut down the DOE (as do Bachmann and several other Republican candidates). The DOE does the security for nuclear weapons making and dismantling, and nuclear fuel and waste management.
So, if those are not the federal government's job, do they belong to the individual states? Do 50 US governors each have some control over individual nuclear weapons when they are stateside? Or is it just for the states that have facilities to service these weapons (Hey, Tennessee and New Mexico become nuclear powers, but New York doesn't). Or is it a matter of rights of the individual?
What's the plan here? Sell the nuclear arsenal to the highest private bidder? Stop servicing the bombs and let them decay? Let any private corporation service the nuclear industry, uncertified and uninspected? Have state standards, but let every state write its own laws for inspection and private industry pick the states that allow them the most 'freedom' in disposing of nukewastes? Every state in the union that has a power reactor needs its own Yucca Flats style facility? (Where's Rhode Island going to put its problem materials?). What's the plan?
      And what do all the other claims that the federal government shouldn't be involved in "X" mean, when it's coming in this same context? If the constitution really calls for letting nuclear security on the US arsenal go to lowest private bidders affiliated with 50 different state governments, then we need to stop following the old one and write a new constitution, fast, because the old one really is a suicide pact!.
 

Re:For their next performance

[Vancorps]

Out of curiosity given that the United States can't do anything about International corporations, what special powers do you think local governments have to deal with the same companies more effectively? It is orders of magnitude easier to move HQ to another state than another country, you seem to be advocating the dissolution of the United States. If the Federal government doesn't exist to provide aid in times of need, to regular intra and international commerce, then what are they for?

The assumption is that my liberty ends where your's begins. If you have far more resources than me then you have quite an ability to infringe on my rights. If you control every job in the United States what does that do to my right to the pursuit of happiness? It is the job of Government to control and balance the powers of individuals for the good of all citizens, not just a small majority with all the money.

I'll agree some issues are best handled at the state level, but this idea that states can do everything better than the fed is so beyond ignorant I don't even know where it started. You ever think about why the federal government took over certain responsibilities? How local governments in New Orleans during Katrina failed so miserably to help their own people? Regulation isn't a bad thing as long as it is good regulation. The argument shouldn't be about regulations or not, it should be about which regulations make sense and help even the playing field, and which regulations only cause harm. In my experience most regulations err on the side of caution however so the only harm is to corporate profits which caused a great many house fires before building codes rendered any new structure safe even though the cost of construction is higher.

History is an important teacher, please don't lose sight of how things became the way they are.

Combined with the Emergency Broadcast System test

[PolygamousRanchKid]

This could have been a hoot and a half, if people actually believed that it was happening, like with Orson Welles' "The War of the Worlds"- Folks driving around in pickups, blasting away at anything that moves with shotguns.

It would certainly get the voters' minds off economic problems.

Oh Bother!

[Mikkeles]

And people think Trekkers need to get alife!

Mock Zombie Invasion

[tomhudson]

A "mock" zombie invasion?

That's what they want you to think ...

Re:Zombies in Ohio...

[RoFLKOPTr]

They do that as a safety precaution. If an actual zombie uprising happens to occur during the exercise, they need to be able to discern real zombies from fake ones, so they make the fake ones orange. It's standard emergency preparedness exercise protocol.

Re:Zombies in Ohio...

[damn_registrars]

They do that as a safety precaution. If an actual zombie uprising happens to occur during the exercise, they need to be able to discern real zombies from fake ones, so they make the fake ones orange. It's standard emergency preparedness exercise protocol.

Can we still decapitate the orange ones, as an additional safety precaution? After all we could have a real zombie masquerading as a fake one...

The life cycle of a trend

[sco08y]

In case you're wondering when the zombie thing is going to end, here's the lifecycle of stupid trends.

Black people start doing it.
Black people stop doing it because it's not cool any more.
White kids start doing it.
It becomes an Internet meme.
White kids stop doing it.
The media picks it up and doesn't get it.
White kids' parents start doing it.
People write books about it.
Parents stop doing it after their kids tell them how embarrassing it is.
The government and corporate PR start doing it... <=== we are here
And then stop when someone sues them.
It's filed away in a historical record of memes.
People who don't realize they're 20 years late to the party are still trying to do it.

Re:The life cycle of a trend

[game kid]

Bling bliiing!

Re:The life cycle of a trend

[bluemonq]

Caribbean voodoo, actually.

Prepared for just about anything

[RNLockwood]

"'spreading the message that if you're prepared for a zombie attack, you're prepared for just about anything.'"

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

Graham Chapman
Monty Python's Flying Circus

/. = right wing? Since When?

[witherstaff]

I wouldn't say /. is right wing at all (As currently defined). Libertarian on the philosophy charts is dead center which is where most /. stories show. In general /.ers dislike being tracked by corporations and feds, don't care for government mandated monopolies, actually like science (and understand it), have critical thinking skills (Which politicians of all callings dislike), and want an equal playing field for everyone. They're against corporatism, That means /. does correspond to the personal freedoms of the right wing, maybe the classical libertarian sense. But the being able to think for ourselves, are for more science across all things, believe in peer reviewed things like global warming, openly mock creationism, embrace open source free as in beer, would shred patent laws to something more logical, and has probably shared at least one title on a P2P network in their lifetime is definitely not right wing.

Oh and federal level responders aren't all they're cracked up to be. Forget the utter failure in New Orleans, even the recent wildfires in Texas had FEMA turning away help from the local firefighters. Since 71% of all firefighters in this country are volunteers it shows people are willing to put their lives on the line to help their fellow person without the gov't stepping in.

Zombies will "survive" the freezing cold of winter

[perpenso]

What's the difference between a zombie attack and Occupy Wall Street?

Zombies will "survive" the freezing cold of winter.

Re:Zombies in Ohio...

[DarwinSurvivor]

Or fake zombies BECOMING real ones!

Re:What's the difference ....

[zippthorne]

Zombies have a goal....

Semi-auto carbine, not shotgun

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, that should be a machete and a semi-automatic carbine (or rifle), not a shotgun. According to Max Brook's Zombie Survival Guide the semi-automatic carbine is far preferable to a shotgun. Taking down a zombie requires destroying the brain, which means a carefully aimed shot to the upper head. While a shotgun might do the job, especially at point blank range, a semi-auto carbine (or rifle, if you can handle the additional weight and bulk) is the better choice. The semi-auto carbine allows more ammo to be carried for the same weight, higher rate of fire, larger magazine capacity, greater effective range for a head shot, and better chance of penetrating the skull case.

I see a glaring flaw in your logic....

[rts008]

I seriously doubt that more than a REALLY SMALL segment of the population are in good enough physical condition to wield a single machete effectively for more than a couple of minutes, nevermind dual machetes.

Try it yourself with some safe machete substitutes (bokken, perhaps) against a suitable practice dummy. (no, leave your little brother alone;-)

I used to study Kenjutsu, and then Kendo and competed in tournies when I was younger.
If your not in good shape, you don't last very long!

I would personally recommend a truck-load of hand grenades and Claymore mines....they are both easily 'field improvised'.

Re:Zombies in Ohio...

[modestgeek]

That's a pretty good protocol given the recent development and marketing of products to help protect you from zombies. Zombie Max is ammunition by Hornady.

Disclaimer: Hornady® Zombie Max ammunition is NOT a toy (IT IS LIVE AMMUNITION), but is intended only to be used onZOMBIES, also known as the living dead, undead, etc. No human being, plant, animal, vegetable or mineral should ever be shot with Hornady® Zombie Max ammunition. Again, we repeat, Hornady® Zombie Max ammunition is for use on ZOMBIES ONLY, and that's not a nickname, phrase or cute way of referring to anybody, place or thing. When we say Zombies, we meanZOMBIES!

http://www.hornady.com/ammunition/zombiemax