Recently I found out that I may have been safer in Michigan. Specifically Lansing. While doing research on Zombies for today’s Getting Graphic.ly, I came across and article talking about Lansing’s plans for Zombies. The article from BlechSpeak, dated back in 2007, states the city is ready for an Undead Invasion and even includes quotes from officials. It’s interesting to hear city officials talk about the fact that they’re ready and have a plan’s to hand out chainsaws to people. I don’t know of any other city that has even joked about having such a plan in place.
After hearing that Lansing is ready to keep people safe from Zombies, I did some further digging. Apparently The University of Florida briefly had a Zombie Plan on their website along with plans for other disasters. Unfortunately it seems that it was a joke and they took it down within a couple days according to an MSNBC article. Maybe I’m the only one that doesn’t take the Zombie Apocalypse scenario lightly?
Thankfully I found what I was looking for: Rate You City’s Survival Chances on Zombieresearch.net along with Rate Your Home’s Survival Chances. They rate a city on three categories:
- Combat Readiness
- Infrastructure
- Civil Response
Since I have yet to rate my new city on anything other than comparison to Troy Mi. I figured why not start with a Survival Rating for Zombies?
Combat Readiness
The article asks what Population Density is and how many people have firearms in their homes. Boulder actually has a higher population density than Denver according to wikipedia and has the highest in the state. Since my time in Boulder I haven’t met too many people I would think carry firearms. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that there not in too many in homes as well. In fact last year CU Boulder did a Humans vs Zombies game, without Nerf Guns, something I find troubling if you’re training for a Zombie invasion. Thankfully I’ve been informed that there are some Military Bases at Denver and Colorado Springs. Hopefully they won’t be dealing with Zombies there and can come save us in Boulder. Sadly Combat Readiness may not be a strong point for my new hometown.
Infrastructure
Thankfully Boulder appears to have many roads going in and out of town. Getting out shouldn’t be too difficult. Also I would think if you could make it into the mountains that would help with survivability. The article stresses fresh water which would seem plentiful with patches of snow and streams coming from the Mountains. Thankfully there are a few reservoirs right outside of Boulder as well. This is the category that Boulder does well in. There are lots of ways to get out of town and fresh water doesn’t seem too difficult to get your hands on.
Civil Response
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be readable information on how responsive the Boulder Police and Fire department are. Since I thankfully have not had to use either I have no personal experience to reference. That of course is not to say that they don’t have a great response time that isn’t recorded. Also there is one major hospital. Sadly as far as Civil Response, Boulder seems to be inconclusive.
Overall Boulder probably gets a B in Zombie Survival. Which isn’t bad considering Troy Mi would rate much lower. Sadly my apartment fails at all three topics for grading for Rating Your Home Defense. If I can survive long enough to get out of the deathtrap that is my apartment, I’ll be doing pretty good.
If you want to know more about zombie movies, comics, survival tactics and more come out to this week’s Getting Graphic.ly! on Zombies with special guest host Kristen Rielly from Geek Girls, later tonight at 6PM PDT / 9PM EDT. Also check out Kristen’s post, This Week in Zombies over on Geek Girls Network.
1 year ago
