OFF BEAT: Homeland Security helps prepare for zombie apocalypse

In what is either a clever marketing ploy or a sign of desperation, the Homeland Security Department is urging citizens to prepare for a “zombie apocalypse” to encourage them to be ready for a disaster.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency last week hosted an online seminar for its Citizen Corps organization to help emergency planners better prepare their communities for disaster and encouraged planners to use the threat of zombies as an incentive, according to news reports.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year also had a zombie apocalypse social media campaign to prepare citizens for a disaster.

The idea behind it is that whether you are preparing for a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake, terrorist attack or zombies on the loose, preparations are the same — have on hand fresh water, extra medications, emergency flashlights and a change of clothes.

Given that now even the federal government has joined in the media’s obsession with zombies, one can only look back with nostalgia to the days when all we had to worry about was an invasion from Russia or, at worst, aliens from outer space.