The past 18 months have thrown us some curveballs — but, thankfully, the zombie apocalypse has not been one of them.
But if it did happen, ever — and that's a big IF — residents here in Alexandria have a good chance of surviving, according to a new study.
A decade ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released an emergency preparedness guide for the living to surviving a zombie apocalypse — or a hurricane or another emergency. Guidelines included having a supply of food, water, clothes and medicine for humans and pets, plus securing important documents and keeping emergency supplies on hand like flashlights, batteries and communications devices.
"Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast!" the CDC wrote at the time. "Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast."
How Alexandria Ranks in Zombie Preparedness
This week, Lawn Love, inspired by the CDC’s Zombie Preparedness 101 guide and The Walking Dead’s final season starting Aug. 22, "dug the data graveyard to rank 2021’s Best Cities for Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse," the company explained. "We compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities on 23 key indicators of zombie-preparedness — from the share of the population in good physical health to the share of available homes with basements to hunting-gear access."
Alexandria ranked no. 3 in Lawn Love's survivability index, performing particularly well in the following categories:
- Share of Population Who Jogged in Past Year - 2nd
- Number of Military Bases - 7th
- Share of Homes with Complete Plumbing Facilities - 1st
- Pharmacies/Drug Stores per 100,000 Living Residents - 15th
- Outdoor-Gear Stores per 100,000 Living Residents - 13th
- Public Health - 8th
The best place to be in the zombie apocalypse: Huntington Beach, California, followed by Bellevue, Washington. At the bottom of the list: Laredo, Texas.
The complete ranking and analysis can be found at lawnlove.com/blog/best-cities-zombie-preparedness.
