Analysis: Projected U.S. Deaths by Living Dead

A report was recently released by a U.S. research group analyzing the percentage of deaths throughout regions of the United States by various natural hazards, including lightning, heat, flood and earthquake.  While quite comprehensive and insightful, the report fails to include one particular hazard: death by the living dead.  This lack of inclusion is logical, as the group’s analysis is limited to that of “natural” hazards, and the contagion that causes the dead to rise and devour the living has yet to be determined to be natural, manufactured, or intergalactic in nature.

Researchers at IUCS have looked to fill this gap, cross referencing the information in the report with quantitative data collected by the undead bio-research policy institute to forecast the probability U.S. regions would fare in an outbreak of the walking dead.  The following is their projection map:

While the full report accompanying this analysis was limited to internal distribution and not publicly released, the following data points were provided to the ZCC:

1) Since the variables of a zombie outbreak are too numerous to accurately project widespread infection, a significant portion of this report is speculative.  The analysis is based on an equal distribution of simultaneous undead outbreaks across the continental U.S., rather than a small-scale epidemic, or “slow burn,” affecting a particular area and spreading throughout bordering regions.

2) Due to their population density and presence as international travel hubs, both East and West coasts would be severely impacted, regardless of the outbreak type.  Major metropolitan cities within these coasts would fare the worst.

3) States which share natural resources such as the Rocky Mountain ridge lines and the Grand Canyon would fare more favorably, both due to obstructive nature of these elements and the lower population density present within these regions.

4) There would most likely be no comprehensive “safe zones” that transcend whole regions of the U.S. Rather, there would be areas of each state that would function as a security-cleared safety nexus.  The size and scope of these nexuses would depend of the speed of mobilization by local government, as well as the proximity of undead outbreak.  Long-term sustainability of each nexus would depend upon the size and severity of the outbreak, as well as the quality of the security forces manning the zone.

5) Northern regions would have the benefit of winter weather limiting the scope of a potential outbreak, depending on the season, but inclement winter weather would cause as many, if not more fatalities as the living dead.

6) With less means of evacuation, limited access to defensive training, and lack of disposable income to secure adequate weapons, poorer regions of the country would suffer greatly during an undead outbreak, as would regions with the oldest per capita populations.

Additional information will be distributed by the ZCC as it is released.

HQ