Cool Thing of the Week: Zombie Squad and Disaster Preparedness

Awhile ago, some bright folks who were interested in disaster readiness decided to start a website about preparation. Looking for a theme, they asked the question - "What is the worst case disaster scenario?" The answer, of course, is a zombie apocalypse. Thus began Zombie Squad, a tongue-in-cheek website dedicated to promoting preparedness and self-sufficiency. A good portion of the population seems to have this fantasy of post-apocalyptic living in a small farm way out in the mountains, but that's really unlikely (any catastrophic event that causes society to collapse will most likely kill you outright, and if it doesn't, it will probably destroy all your carefully laid preperations anyway.) There are your required discussions on "which caliber is best for the PAW (post apocalyptic world)?" as if anyone knows what that's actually going to be like. Finally, you get a few people who don't realize that the zombies are a metaphor, and try to start topics like "what weapon is best for killing zombies - shovel or katana?" If you take the time to look around, you'll discover a ton of information on nearly everything disaster related. Some of the most fascinating threads are in the "Personal Experiences" section, including some from survivors of Katrina. There's sections devoted to topics as widespread as firearms to personal gardening. A quick aside on preparedness in general before I continue: Talking about disaster preparedness makes most people think of bearded men in surplus camoflage eating canned beans in an underground concrete bunker. That's not being prepared, that's being paranoid. What's the point of focusing so much on saving your life that you forget to live it? Also, being prepared isn't just for when the bombs fall - it's for all sorts of unexciting (yet far more likely) scenarios. Off the top of your head - if your power went off tonight, would you be able to create light? Heat? Food? What if it stayed off for a week? I live in Washington, D.C., which has had in the past year several subway malfunctions and a deadly crash - on a train which I would have been on if I hadn't decided to bike to school that day. It made me think - if I had been on that train, and not disabled in the initial crash, would I have been able to help anyone? I'm an EMT, and while I could have done some basic triage and airway management and probably have improvised some splints or bandages thanks to my Wilderness First Responder training, I would have been alot more effective with some Kerlix rolls and a SAM splint. What if it had happened underground? I didn't carry any kind of light. Now, I keep a some basic first aid supplies, enough to stop major bleeding, wrap a sprained ankle, and splint a broken bone, as well as a flashlight, some Cliff bars, a swiss army knife, and two liters of water. It all fits in the back pocket of the backpack that has all my Arabic stuff in it, and doesn't weigh much at all. I'm going to be adding a bicycle patch kit and tools soon. Some people think it's funny that I carry all that around but to be honest, I don't really notice it anymore, and having first-hand experience treating people who thought "it would never happen to them," I'd rather err on the side of caution. I mean, I'd rather be trying to stop a bleeding gash on my leg with a proper sterile dressing and bandage, as opposed to a torn up shirt. Anyway, ZS is not only a great resource for prepping, but it's a fascinating example of internet community. The site's members range from veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan to liberal arts majors from England, and they all get along because of two rules - No Politics, no Religion. There is no opportunity on the site to discuss either of those two topics, and it's quite impressive how much people from different backgrounds get along when you simply ignore those issues. It's an online community that approaches a serious topic with humor and intelligence. It promotes volunteer work and raises money for charities. It's about zombies. So check it out.

So, The Beach and Stuff Like That

Actually, no stuff like that. So I was at the beach the other day, as you do. It was McCorrie point. Its a little dinky beach. Your typical Portsmouth beach full of shells and rocks and seaweed and weeds and shit. It's shit for swimming but it's great for finding stuff or just hangin' out thinking. So I was thinking while picking up various pretty rocks for my grandmother searching for an epiphany of some kind when the question hit me: Why the fuck are there so many bricks on the beach? Seriously, I finds them all the time on the beaches I go to and they're nice, all smoothed out by the ocean and shit. But why are there so many of them? One or two every once in a while I can understand, like seaglass, but there's way more of them all over the place if you look. so where did they come from? Is there a natural explanation? Are they just red rocks that look like bricks? Cuz I took Earth Science freshman year of high school and the only thing I learned (from crazy talks-to-walls-no-really-he-does Mr. Rutkewitz) was how to tell brick or cement from a real rock. Was there some giant Titanic-sized tanker full of bricks that sank a hundred tears ago? and the bricks were just washed ashore now because they were all defective and floated a bit or something? I did some reasearch and it turnes out that already happened in the little island of St Maarten. but that looks very different from our beaches. I mean, what the fuck! Where did all these fucking bricks come from! Did there used to be some epic fort or something by the New England beaches but some secret government-covered-up-war happened and it got owned? So as soon as I got back, I asked, and... not even Google knew why. NOT EVEN FUCKING GOOGLE KNEW!!! That's when I realized I had uncovered a true mystery of the universe. I'm trying to make peace with the fact that I may never know why the bricks are there, but it's something I'll wonder about for the rest of my life. I have a feeling it's going to come back to haunt me one day. Like I'll be kidnaped or tortured and all they'll want to know is why, and I won't know, and I'll die strapped to a chair in a basement somewhere all because I didn't know where the bricks came from. Or some government agency will come to me and tell me there's a nuke in Amherst and the only way to stop it is to tell them where the bricks came from, and I won't know and thousands of people will die, because I lacked the curiosity to find out why. But what If I dedicate my life to finding out why? And it turns out to be some part of a secret experiment that went horribly wrong and I'm killed for knowing to much? Or what if it's some mundane answer and I realize I've wasted my life for nothing? Those goddamned bricks. Another one of the universe's unsolvable mysteries.

And now for something completely different...

There is a growing fear in today's society. The thoughts from the darkest corners of our collective psyche's, staining ignorant bliss with shadows of oblivion. We all know what it is, but so few of us will accept the reality of the situation.

Zombies.

That's right ladies and gentlemen, Zombies. Our undead friends from the realms of crappy 70's and 80's horror movies, and the hordes of nasties from the more recent 28 Days Later and Resident Evil. Now the possibility of something like a massive outbreak of some strange disease, or a government experiment, or something of that sort may seem ridiculous to many people. So it may be ridiculous, but wasn't the thought of the Titanic sinking thought of the same way? Given that anything is possible, Zombies are a threat that should be addressed, even just at a personal level, so that when "Z-Day" comes, you can stay calm, stay collected, and most importantly, stay alive.

Now one of the first things to take into consideration is where you may be when Zombies strike. Make a map in your head of all of the places you frequent often. Your house, a friends house, work, the local supermarkets and any store like Home Depot, Menards, Wal-Mart etc. Having at least some idea of the lay out of these places will give you the upper hand when you have a horde of zombies around, or following you. Next it is best to make lists of supplies.

What does one need in their fight to stay alive in the Zombie ridden future? The basics are simple. You'll need food, and water, friends, and weapons. Now choose your friends carefully, you don't want someone becoming a weak link in the group, this sounds harsh, but your lives are literally going to be in each others hands. As for weapons, look around the house. Anything you have that is blunt and heavy would probably be best, at least for the moment. If you have a gun or rifle, that's great, but this isn't like the video games where you pick up ammo everywhere. You're going to want to find anything that could easily bash in a head or cause some sort of blunt force trauma.

Think on this, and ask yourself, are you ready?