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Escaping zombies can help prepare people to deal with natural disasters

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Escaping zombies can help prepare people to deal with natural disasters

Over the weekend, Tasmania declared its first ever total fire ban in September.

The decision was prompted by hot, dry and windy conditions that saw the state battling five bushfires.

Around the country, the Bureau of Meteorology is predicting drier than normal weather until the end of the year making 2014 one of the ten hottest years on record.

With much of the country entering bushfire season, it raises the question how people and communities can prepare for disasters fires, floods and cyclones. The answer could lie with zombies.

Jenny Gottstein is a game developer with The Go Game in San Francisco and she's developed a disaster preparedness game based on a zombie attack.

The game was first developed three years ago and encouraged the people of San Francisco to turn up to a location. Through their phones they received instructions about their mission.

Initially, it was just meant to be for family and friends but word of the zombie attack spread and huge numbers of people participated.

Along the way, they learned survival skills including CPR, how to contact emergency services, what to carry with them to ensure survival, including a torch and canned food.

'It's easy to panic in a disaster but through the game you learn about the importance of being kind to each other and working as a community to survive,' Ms Gottstein said.

The game relied on information emergency services providers give to the public about what to do in the event of a disaster.

It proved so popular that the city's council approached Jenny for help.

'The City had been trying hard to get people interested in earthquake disaster preparedness without much success and told us we had tapped into something that people really responded to,' Ms Gottstein said.

She says when you involve fun in learning, people respond better.

The games Ms Gottstein has developed replicate bushfire and earthquake disasters. In the next few years, she'll be working on flood and cyclone disaster games after requests from mayors and emergency services providers in other parts of the USA.

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United States, Disasters, Accidents and Emergency Incidents, Rural