Florida Residents Warned of 'Extreme Zombie Activity'
May 22, 2018 18:21:11 GMT -5
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Post by Graveyardbride on May 22, 2018 18:21:11 GMT -5
Florida Residents Warned of ‘Extreme Zombie Activity’ After Power Outage
Residents of one Lake Worth, Florida, had quite the rude awakening during the wee hours of the morning Sunday, May 20. Around 1:45, the Palm Beach County sent out an emergency warning concerning a power outage – and zombies. According to the Palm Beach Post, the message was unintentional and city officials have since apologized for the confusion; as far as anyone currently knows, the dead have not actually begun to rise and/or take over the world. Phew!
Here’s what happened: According to screenshots of the message obtained by a number of news outlets, the warning went out at 1:41 a.m., with a projected repair time of 4:41 a.m. – meaning the estimated amount of time it would take to restore power would be approximately three hours. But the loss of power wasn’t the only thing reported; customers were also cautioned about “extreme zombie activity.” Specifically the message read: “Power outage and zombie alert for residents of Lake Worth and Terminus. There are now far less than seven thousand three hundred and eighty customers involved due to extreme zombie activity. Restoration time uncertain.” So much for a three-hour projected repair time.
The emergency message came from the city and Lake Worth officials have confirmed this. Whenever there’s a power outage, the city’s systems automatically launch a message to the ether letting residents know what’s going on – but this one particular message was apparently altered. Officials told WPBF News they don’t think an employee, either past or present, is responsible. Instead they believe the message was the work of a hacker. Either way, the officials also said they don’t think the individual who planted the message gained access to the utility itself.
Residents of Lake Worth took to a public Facebook group for the city, Lake Worth Local, to share screenshots and laugh at the alert a few hours after it ended. Ben Kerr, Public Information Officer for the city of Lake Worth, also put in an appearance in the Facebook thread to clarify some details concerning the incident, insisting zombies were not, in fact, on the loose. According to Kerr, around 7,880 residents were affected by the outage (which explains the sentence indicating “less than seven thousand three hundred and eighty customers” were involved “due to extreme zombie activity.” Kerr also wrote: “I want to reiterate that Lake Worth does not have any zombie activity currently and apologize for the system message,” adding that officials were looking into the matter.
Sources: Lucia Peters, Bustle, May 22, 2018, and WAWS News.