London, Ontario

I sent a letter to the mayor of London. No response yet, I've included a copy of the letter below. So I will continue to make my own research and notes. I have decided to post these notes as I make them and just continue to edit and make changes as my time studying here continues. This will result in fewer new posts but new information being put up more regularly. Be sure to continue to check this post as it will expand almost everyday.

Statistics
Population: 352,395
Size: 162.4 Square miles
Temperature: 21C to 30C (summer), -10C to -2C (winter)
Humidity: 77-94
Pressure: 101+
Climate: Dfb (humid continental climate)
Young children: 5.2%
Elderly: 13.7%
Population Density: 838 people per square kilometer (Ontario average 13 people per square kilometer)
Police: 586
Law Enforcement ratio: 623:1

Climate
The air here is incredibly humid. This is something you may not really think about but will actually make a huge difference. Consider this example, two fit men experimented with physical activities here. Both fighters, but after a very quick fight routine where both breathing heavily. A routine that wouldn't have even made them speed up breathing or break a sweat in Alberta. My own study is as a runner, while in Edmonton I don't begin to get tired until about 30 minutes into my run, here I was struggling to keep going after roughly 15 minutes. Effectively being about as exhausted and dehydrated as I get around the 75 minute mark back home. While I was able to make it through my whole run it was at a much slower pace and much greater difficulty and discomfort. Meaning if you aren't used to a humid climate, running from the undead here is going to be much more difficult then you can imagine. Now this humidity isn't completely due to a slightly higher relative humidity or the minor difference in pressure but also due to the low ceiling. In Alberta the ceiling is almost always unlimited or in the high thousands. Here the ceiling is usually under 2000ft. and quite commonly under 1000ft. This makes the air feel much more dense and heavy, even though the actually humidity is roughly the same. Also the air is just wetter, the wind blowing in from the Great Lakes and the constant fogs make it a lot more work to push air in and out of your lungs. So what does all this actually mean in terms of London as a place to hole up and survive. Well if you are from some where even more humid like Orlando then this would be ideal weather but if you come from some where with much dryer, lighter air, like Alberta, you will find your abilities will not be what they were back West. Won't run as far or as fast, won't be able to carry as much, will need more water and food, all of this at least for the first while until your body gets used to the density.

Location:
The location of London is interesting and well worth noting. London is surrounded by small towns about it's own size. This means there are many communities to explore, loot or escape to should the need arise. It also spreads out the population, meaning it will take longer for the infection to spread.
Also of note is the proximity to the American border: less then a two hour drive. This means come Z-Day you can expect a lot of very scared, very aggressive Americans trying to cross that border to get as far North as possible. My suggestion? Let them. Just get out of the way and protect yourself if any of them are dumb enough to try and take your supplies along the way. The two big threats to be aware of here are spread of the infection, which you can do nothing about so you might as well just let them get as far from you as possible or let the military deal with them. And secondly the earliest form of raiders. Once no longer in their own country many of the new refugees will be looking for help. If things are still in a relatively early and calm state they will find this help and be grateful for it. Once things continue further on though and help becomes harder to find the fleeing people will become desperate and resort to violence. Trying to forcibly take shelter or supplies, demanding assistance. At this point if you are well equipped enough to say no and protect yourself then do so but if not it might be a safer choice to let the person have their way. People won't have the full taste for blood yet and most will genuinely rather take what they need then kill for no reason. Don't let this fool you though, desperate people will do desperate things and there may be one or two stone cold killers in the masses of scared civilians.

Military presence:
While there are no military base or airfields in or directly around London there is a very important thing on the city's side, it's production facilities. General Dynamics Land Systems builds tanks. And more importantly it builds state of the art advanced tanks and weaponry. The kind of stuff the public isn't supposed to know about. For years everyone has known about cruise ships using sonic weapons against pirates. But what few people know about is the real devastation of these weapons. I have an inside source who has pictures of tanks being ripped apart by a single blast from a sonic weapon. The weapons being developed at GDLSIIIs or other APCs and tanks made there would provide you with shelter, transport and weaponry. Three vital resources after the fall.

Local Law Enforcement:
With relatively low homicide and missing persons reported by police compared to crimes of a non-violent nature; combined with what I've seen from locals put into conflicts the ratio of turn around from humans to zeds will be quite high. However the amount of police presence will prove a very valuable asset. It is virtually impossible to go out into London without running across law enforcement of some kind. This will provide a lot of order and support during the first few hours and even days. Obviously with a ratio of over six-hundred to one the police will not be able to end a Class 3 or 4 outbreak but they will provide time to the military (and more importantly, you.) This time will be very valuable, while the police try to keep things under control you can make fortifications or skip town.



Geography/Layout:
Here’s a thing about old cities, before the grid system. And this may put to rest some of the arguments between which is better, names or numbers for streets. Old cities were built with twists and turns and no seeming pattern, with all named streets (also with no real pattern) for the sole purpose of confusing an invading army. It is supposed to be hard for people who are not from there to get around in the city. This will do two things: work against you if you don’t know the city, and work for you if you do know the city. If you don’t know the city, good luck trying to find anything without a map, good directions or a guide. Also when people start panicking (which theoretically 99% of people will do) they will very quickly become lost and confused without regimented training –which, never kid yourself, even the understanding of a grid system is training.- However the flip side to all of this is once things calm down and you’ve learned the city and established a safe house. You can use this advantage for its original purpose against outside raiders or overly aggressive military. Using the maze and confusing nature of the city itself to help you while knowing it will cause them grief. It’s also of some note to understanding the layout of the city quicker, it was built on two grids. Each of the great lakes has been put on a grid by surveyors, London is built on a place where two of the grids from the lakes collide and so part of the city is built on one grid and part is built on the other.
The houses in London are also very small. Fine for a couple of people but for a decent sized group to survive for an extended period you will want more space. Both for the personal sanity of the members of the group and for storage of supplies. Smaller buildings do mean less to barricade and protect though. A large portion of the houses are in fact only one story as well. This can prove very problematic. The biggest problem is one most people will not think of and that makes it the biggest problem. If there is a breach in the barricades people will run to another floor, in this case, the basement. Never get trapped in a basement. No matter how well fortified you need to have an escape route or you will eventually be overrun or simply holed in and starved out. This second option not the intention of the undead of course but if you do have a well prepared basement then you can very easily create a chokepoint through which no zombie will ever step foot even if all the armies of middle-earth were zombified and assaulting you. However once you’ve killed the first few dozen the path will be blocked. After you kill a few more that manage to make tiny openings the passage will be sealed by a wall of zombie flesh, behind which the undead horde awaits your exit. Suddenly you are trapped with only what food, water and company you have with you. Now the only option of escape is those tiny windows most basements have and between the noise of breaking/removing that window and then the time crawling through it, that little window is almost as deadly a bear trap there ever was. This of course is a completely different situation if your basement has A) a patio or ground floor exit, common if your house is built in hilly terrain. B) a cellar door. Or C) multiple ways to other floors. Ideally you want to have a building at least two stories tall with other buildings of relative height near by so you can continue to climb and seal off the floors below you, always having the windows to exit through and even after the third floor (the point at which jumping is no longer a save option) you can have premade planks or ladders to move to another building.
Apparently there are a number of firearms stores in London, but I was unable to find any of them in my time there. Now that being said I didn’t look overly hard but I was  looking and what I did see where lots of Airsoft or Youth Firearms stores. Now Airsoft and Youth Firearms are great, for practicing military tactics and playing games with your friends. They will not kill zombies. For fighting humans the real stuff (not the cheap San Fransisco ones) can actually do a fair bit of damage but they aren’t capable of piercing the skull unless you are a crack shot who will be hitting the zombies in the eyes with every BB.



Population:
Finally as mentioned before about drunk people. It is possible to mistake a drunkard or one of the many socially challenged people in the high traffic areas of London, for a zombie. With all these undesirable people around it may hard to spot an undead at first. Anything resembling a zombie should be reported to police, not of course as a zombie, but as an aggressive, violent person. Include and gory details, such as blood or damage to the body. Then find a safe spot to watch from. If the police arrive and it infects them, you know it is a zombie. If they kill it, great. If it kills them start putting your plans into effect and barricading you safe house. If it only infects one but is put down this is an even more dangerous situation. Do you leave and barricade your safe house knowing that cop will turn at the most unexpected moment and spread the infection, or do you take your chances killing the cop and then hope you can get a light sentence by pleading insanity and telling them about the infection. I suggest option one, what’s the point in saving the world if you will have to live the rest of it behind bars. Now if the person wasn’t a zombie, well you probably did a civic duty by getting them off the streets for a night or two anyway, especially if the suspicious person was on Dundas and Richmond.


Letter to the Mayor:
Honorable Mr. Fontana:

I'm a writer from Edmonton, Alberta and I'm contacting a few cities across Canada asking a couple questions about the preparedness of the cities in the event of a zombie outbreak. I would be very grateful if you or someone in your office would be so kind as to answer any of my questions to the level you are comfortable with.

Is London prepared for a zombie outbreak? How so?

How would London respond to each level of outbreak? Each level is mostly categorized by the amount of infected involved.
Level 1 - 1-20 zombies
Level 2 - 20-100 zombies
Level 3 - 100-100,000 zombies
Level 4 - World wide apocalypse

Do you have any special teams or procedures ready to be put in place in the case of zombies?

Is there any training or information in place, such as provided by the Agoge Dojo in Denver or the Centre for Disease Control?

Do you have any zombie specialists in your city to help with preparation or look for warning signs?

Thank you for taking the time to read my e-mail.

While London's leadership has not yet responded or taken the threat seriously, apparently St. John's has though.


In summary:
I do not wish to give any city or region a ranking or anything like that but merely provide concerns and opportunities for those potential survivors living in the city or considering moving there. London (like much of Southern Ontario) has a heavy wetness to the air which will take some adjusting to. The high percentage of police will mean a slower decent into chaos once the outbreak gets to Class 3 or 4. And the neighboring towns provide quick exits. The military importance of the city can also not be underestimated for both gathering resources and considering military response. Consider all of these and the cities close proximity to the border when preparing to spend any length of time in London. And as always-

Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you; and if it does may those close to you have the resolve to do what is necessary. Mike D.