CDC warns of a zombie apocalypse! (No, really!)

http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/18/6668600-how-to-prepare-for-the-zombie-apocalypse-cdc-has-you-covered">How to prepare for the zombie apocalypse? CDC has you covered

It looks like the serious folks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found a whole new way to make disaster preparedness sexy: Cue the zombies.

A Monday post in the CDC’s typically ho-hum Public Health Matters blog blew up this week, making “Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse” a hot topic, at least by government standards.

The quirky post by Dave Daigle, a longtime CDC spokesman, has drawn 23,000 hits since Monday, the highest-ever for a CDC blog, he said. For a while, it even crashed the site. More important, it was tagged as a Top Tweet by the folks at Twitter, an honor that seemed to delight Daigle, a 52-year-old father of four.

“I’ve never been accused of being hip,” said Daigle, the associate director for communications at the Public Health Preparedness and Response Center at CDC.

Daigle, one of several authors for the blog, said he was searching for a way to raise awareness about the need to prepare for the worst, particularly in the wake of recent tornados and on the eve of hurricane season.

The rise of zombies in pop culture has given credence to the idea that a zombie apocalypse could happen. In such a scenario zombies would take over entire countries, roaming city streets eating anything living that got in their way. The proliferation of this idea has led many people to wonder “How do I prepare for a zombie apocalypse?”

Well, we’re here to answer that question for you, and hopefully share a few tips about preparing for real emergencies too!

Better Safe than Sorry

So what do you need to do before zombies…or hurricanes or pandemics for example, actually happen? 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). Below are a few items you should include in your kit, for a full list visit the CDC Emergency page.

• Water (1 gallon per person per day)
  
• Food (stock up on non-perishable items that you eat regularly)
  
• Medications (this includes prescription and non-prescription meds)
  
• Tools and Supplies (utility knife, duct tape, battery powered radio, etc.)
  
• Sanitation and Hygiene (household bleach, soap, towels, etc.)
  
• Clothing and Bedding (a change of clothes for each family member and blankets)
  
• Important documents (copies of your driver’s license, passport, and birth certificate to name a few)
  
• First Aid supplies (although you’re a goner if a zombie bites you, you can use these supplies to treat basic cuts and lacerations that you might get during a tornado or hurricane)