Preparedness officials want Utahns ready for zombie apocalypse


9 photos
Save Story

Show 1 more video

Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — When it comes to preparing for disaster, you have to be ready for just about anything — natural and unnatural. While it may sound a bit strange, local emergency preparedness experts say your preparation should account for a zombie apocalypse.

Officials at the Utah Division of Emergency Management and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are capitalizing on the recent rise in popularity of all things zombie.

"Because zombies are just so popular in culture these days, the CDC thought it was really fitting to build a campaign around everyone's new favorite monster," explained Joe Dougherty, with the Utah Division of Emergency Management.

The CDC [started its zombie campaign]() a couple of years ago, releasing a fictional comic book-style preparedness guide based entirely on the idea.

As funny and weird as it may seem, there actually are some truths to being prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse. For instance, we found two local groups that offer survival training with the zombie theme: ZAPS, short for Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness; and Survival and STG, or Strategic Tactical Group.

"We kind of use the popularity of it to say not only could (zombies) be used as products to get people to come to a course, but now we can have a lot of fun with it," said Sean Stephens, ZAPs.

"We started out offering just a disaster preparedness course, and we didn't get a lot of people wanting to come to it," Chris Willden from the SGT told KSL News. "So, we thought we'll just throw a different spin on it."

Both groups are aware this whole zombie idea may sound crazy to some, but they say if you're prepared for the zombie apocalypse, you're prepared for just about anything.

"Those that are prepared, they're going to sustain themselves and their family and have a better outcome in the end," Wilden said.

The old saying is still true. Better to be safe, than sorry.

Photos

Related links

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Andrew Wittenberg

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast