Back in 2013, with the height of the romanticized and highly popular topic of zombies and the fateful demise of the world and humanity, emergency organizations have utilized the zombie craze opportunity to get out their message of Emergency preparedness. The British Columbia government’s “PreparedBC” emergency preparedness program, for example, features a webpage devoted to surviving a zombie attack.

“zombies? In B.C.?” it reads. “Are you serious? Well, sorta. While the chance of the undead knockin’ on your door is slim, we do believe if you’re ready for zombies, you’re ready for a disaster. PreparedBC has an arsenal of zombie preparedness tips to help you survive any emergency.”

It’s a great marketing idea to reach the new generations perhaps unaware that once government services no longer work and technology is no longer available – what you should do and how you should be prepared. So how does that look for Yukoners?

Day One: Outbreak

What would you take in a panic? Are you ready to potentially spend weeks or months and fend for yourself?

Yukoners are certainly fortunate in our location, population size and wilderness survival skills. We are quite isolated from major metropolises, which hopefully means more time to prepare before the zombies reach us. Our population is small, so on ratio, you wouldn’t be dealing with many zombies once they start changing.

Outbreak occurs! Gather your hunting or outdoor gear, with as much food, water, gas, weapons as possible and head out of Whitehorse and bunker down.

What is the key strategy to survive in the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse? Take care of yourself first. Hopefully your fight or flight instinct will kick in, but ask yourself “What am I capable of? How far am I willing to sacrifice my fellow humanity to protect myself?”

Day Two: Survival of the Fittest

If a zombie apocalypse was to happen during winter, expectantly, we would assume -40ºC would prevent zombies from actually being able to move (they may be the undead, but they are still made up of flesh and bone which would freeze – right?). So the fortune of living North of 60 is six months of a vast frozen wilderness, which means time to bunker down and prepare for those summer months of potential zombie uprisings.

But what would it take to survive in the Yukon? The first waves of people who would be killed first would be those unable to fend for themselves, those who keep their Canadian niceness with trying to help others, those unable to deal without technology, those unable to hunt or have connections to those who can give sustenance, and those who cannot survive a Yukon winter without government services such as electricity. Are you one of these people?

Yes? You can still gain the skills, knowledge and training to prepare for any emergency. The best place to start would be reading information on the various websites from Yukon Government Emergency Services, get the equipment, get some training such as a Wilderness First Aid course and go practice new survival skills without the stress of zombies biting at your heels.

What’s the top thing you need to survive a zombie apocalypse? Weapons, lots and lots of weapons. Short range like an axe or sword and long range such as rifle.

Day Three: Still hope?

After the initial waves of people who can’t survive in the wilderness die, the population will be dwindled down Darwinian-style like natural selection and eventually we are back to the earlier times and starting with little modern advantages.

The hope would be that some of your friends and family survived, but quite likely there may not be many left.

What would be the next stages to survive? What resources are still available or possible? As fuel and food become scarce, how much can we survive on hunting animals only? The Yukon doesn’t afford much farming of crops and in winter water can be hard to come by without the right tools or lacking access to fire.

What would a sustainable future look like up here? Would there be any? Could you work as a community after the initial ruthless days?

One of the main issues that can come about during an emergency is not having a plan in place. What happens if the zombies started munching down on people while you’re at work? How would you get in contact with your family and friends? What do you have with you, in your vehicle, in your home or when you venture to the backcountry?

Having a short and long term plan in place can be vital to an emergency situation.

Whether it’s a legitimate zombie attack – because, you never know – or some other major emergency issue, such as an earthquake, wildfire, flood or war, make sure you’re prepared.

Thanks to those who contributed to making this article possible:
Christopher Vainio and Titan Gaming & Collectibles for hosting our zombie forum, Morgan Ramsay, David Taylor and Matthew Archambault (who we all unanimously decided would be killed first, not by zombies, but us).


Emergency preparedness information resources online:

PreparedYukon.ca

RedCross.org

Do a Google search to check out the B.C. Government’s PreparedBC webpage, which is a resource for emergency preparedness.

Are you prepared to survive Yukon’s wilderness?

 

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