Maine town prepares for zombie response
About 100 emergency responders from 8 counties participated in daylong preparedness exercise 'Zombie Apocalypse'
By Dawn Gagnon
The Bangor Daily News
BANGOR, Maine — What if a pandemic hit Maine? Who would respond? What would they do? Where would they get vital resources that likely would be in short supply? What if there wasn't enough antidote to go around?
These are just some of the questions that about 100 emergency responders from eight Maine counties grappled with Thursday during "Zombie Apocalypse," a daylong preparedness exercise conducted by the Northeastern Maine Regional Resource Center at Spectacular Event Center.
During the exercise, representatives from several hospitals and nursing homes, public safety and emergency management agencies, the Maine National Guard, amateur radio operators and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention gathered to think about how they would respond to a worldwide outbreak of an infectious disease — in this case a "zombie" pandemic that originated in Jamaica and spread throughout the globe by bites from zombies.
"This gives us the opportunity to do something a little bit different, but it still has the same principles that would apply in a real situation," said Kathy Knight, director of the Northeastern Maine Regional Resource Center.
Participants who were "bit" by zombies had stickers affixed to their name tags.
"If they don't receive the anti-zombie drug, they progress to stage two and then on to the 'undead' stage," Knight said.
To give the exercise a realistic feel, Knight brought in Don Wade, a well-known moulage expert from Orrington, who applied makeup, wax and fake blood to create zombies of varying degrees of illness.
Wade said he has volunteered his service for a variety of mass casualty planning exercises over the years. He also has made up actors who appeared in public service videos about drunken driving and other dangers.
"Usually, it's cuts, burns, amputation and heart attacks and that kind of thing. I have all the props for that. Today was the first time I ever had to do zombies. [Knight] asked me and I couldn't refuse," Wade said with a chuckle.
Another realistic touch was "press conference" footage from the cult classic zombie movie "Dawn of the Dead," which exercise organizers downloaded from YouTube and projected on a large screen.
During the exercise, people responsible for the well-being of others in their communities also were thrown the occasional curveball, including stolen antidote, vigilantes and zombie infections among their own.
Knight said the idea was to get responders to "think outside the box. They need to figure out what they need, how they're going to respond and how they are going to share their resources to respond to the disaster. They need to know who to go to outside their community to find the resources they don't have, so it's a different twist."
"This exercise, yes it's very entertaining, but it's using the same tools and preparing for any kind of widespread illness," added Allison Geaghan, an administrative assistant with the regional center.
The Zombie Apocalypse scenario was the idea of Jordan Buck of Brewer, a nurse who graduated from the University of Maine in May and now is employed at Eastern Maine Medical Center. Buck also is a science fiction buff.
"I did my community rotation with Kathy Knight and she asked me what I wanted to work on and I told her I like the whole zombie thing and then she decided to use it for this," Jordan said.
In the exercise, Jordan portrays the first person in the region to be bit by a zombie.
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Ian Douglas Mays Friday, June 22, 2012 6:14:09 PM Indeed it was. Only way to prepare is with.45 pistol and a AR-15. Ammo, and food/water. 
Brandon Parker McGuire Friday, June 22, 2012 6:43:49 PM People are taking this too seriously. Doesn't matter what it is, this has helped them be more aware of deficiencies in their response system. Isn't that the point of all training? 
Bambi Morgan Friday, June 22, 2012 8:38:38 PM Silly ness aside, I think this would make for a more fun and entertaining excersize than the normal smallpox/anthrax/whatever epidemic. The excersizes have to be performed. Why not make them fun??
Steve Self Friday, June 22, 2012 10:06:06 PM It sounds like a lot of fun to me. I wish east TN would implement this type of exercise.
In case you forgot, or don't know, being an EMT means we get to expose ourselves to rare, exotic and exciting new diseases! Why not prep for this one too? 
Sarah Ellis Stewart Friday, June 22, 2012 10:48:07 PM Three best part of this article was my hubs reading it with everyone having a hillbilly accent 
Bethany Bogart Fox Saturday, June 23, 2012 7:13:57 AM Yet they won't fix the huge pot holes in our roads up here in Maine. Ruining our vehicles, making it hard to pass inspection. It's ridiculous. Keep wasting those tax dollars and lining those pockets...P.S. Sarah Ellis Stewart, I am a transplant to Maine from Connecticut but, my hubby is a local and he doesn't have an accent at all. Many don't. 
Eli Silverman Saturday, June 23, 2012 8:23:52 AM Anything to do with Zombies is awesome. Love the way they think outside th box to do training. Keeps it interesting. 
Samantha Clark Monday, June 25, 2012 6:59:25 AM ill take the wear and tear on my car any day as long as my EMS providers are educated enough and practiced enough to handle large scale disasters. Whether a Zombie break out, or SARS, or H1N1 the skills gained from Mock drills are inherent to active providers. I'm a paramedic in both Maine and New Hampshire, though I didn't participate in this drill I have done MCI drills before, learned alot and when I was deployed during a hurricane with FEMA it equipped me to handle the sick and injured on a massive scale with out being over whelmed. 
Ray Purcell Monday, June 25, 2012 7:22:42 AM The whole idea is to make different agencies work together on a problem instead of jealously guarding their "turf". Using a zombie outbreak just makes it more interesting than using the standard diseases. Lighten up folks...... 
Stephanie Marie Edwards Tuesday, June 26, 2012 7:08:10 AM I think this needs to be done . What with 3 people goin crazy on baths saltseatin peoples faces. And lord knows there's a lot more stupid people out there. 
