Back in June, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that, in spite of the rash of cannibalistic attacks, there was no zombie apocalypse on the way. This was a slight change-up from their periodic “zombie warnings”, which were really just a bunch of disaster preparedness stunts. But given the recent upsurge in biting and flesh eating, it seems that some people are beginning to treat this as a serious problem.
One such organization is the HALO corp, a security firm which is based in San Diego, California. The first round of training will involve a disaster-crisis scenario at the company’s annual Counter-Terrorism Summit in San Diego. The five-day event will provide hands-on training, demonstrations, lectures and classes geared to more than 1,000 military personnel, law enforcement officials, medical experts, and state and federal government workers.
Granted, the entire scenario is cheesy as hell, but it’s actually considered a pretty good basis for conducting worldwide pandemic scenarios. That’s always been the CDC’s excuse, and even Homeland Security announced earlier this month “The zombies are coming!” Here too, the announcement was part of a public health campaign to encourage better preparation for genuine disasters and emergencies. As the theory goes, if you’re prepared for a zombie attack, the same preparations will help during a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake or terrorist attack.
So… what is to be made of all this? Is this a clever way to teach citizens and government personnel how to be prepared? Or it is a sign that a far greater apocalypse is upon us, one where people take fictional apocalypses more seriously than actual disasters? Hard to say, but if its possible to actually channel weird hype and paranoia into something productive, what the hell, right? And honestly, sounds like it could be fun!
External Links: Military Times, Huffington Post
Stories by Williams 
There’s an urban gaming club at my school where they do scenarios involving zombies vs. humans. i wonder if these groups doing their own zombie survival training are studying clubs like the one at my school for data or ideas or something.
I think your last sentence says it all. They realized that by cashing in on the Zombie craze, they can turn emergency preparedness into something fun rather that a tedious program. While Zombies are just as fantastical as Vampires or Werewolves, despite the recent outbreak of peole trying to eat other people, in terms of preparing for major disasters or major emergency events, the later two really don’t make for a realistic training program whereas Zombies are totally doable.
It’s a great idea really. School teachers use these types of tools to create interest for their students so it makes sense to do something like this in an effort to promote preparedness in a fun way.