'Zombie' survival kit works for real-life emergencies

It's a reminder we've heard before, but may be ignoring -- we need to be prepared for the next big earthquake. A local family has put together an emergency kit that has the hit show "The Walking Dead" taking notice.

The kit is designed to help you survive any disaster. Purchases also help support developmentally disabled employees who, thanks to a local non-profit and a Bay Area company, have jobs.

Whether you're trying to survive zombies or a major earthquake, you'll want to have an emergency preparedness kit on hand. Because when power is out, transportation is grounded to a halt and food is hard to come by, the disaster kit you buy today may be your best chance for survival.

Andrew Torres launched his company First My Family out of his San Jose garage.

"So when you look at items that you would need in the first 72 hours that you are in an emergency, I think the thing that's most important for us is emergency water and food," Torres said.

The Walking Dead Survival Kit comes with first aid supplies to treat minor injuries, a LED flashlight, work gloves, a glow stick, a poncho, emergency blanket and hand warmer. The food and water is made to stay fresh for five years. Each container of food has enough calories to feed a person for 72 hours.

It's a spin-off of the cable television series.

"We believe in being very prepared for when the zombie apocalypse does come, so to celebrate our return everyone in our studio audience is going home with one of these," Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick said.

The kit is licensed by the program and was recently promoted on The Talking Dead, the talk show that follows episodes of The Walking Dead.

It was just a year ago that Torres heard the folks on The Talking Dead talk about emergency preparedness in the event of the apocalypse. Torres already was running his family's survival company and immediately jumped on line offering to put together a Walking Dead survival kit.

"When you look at the Walking Dead as a show, it's really about a group of characters, a banding group of characters surviving something that's post-apocalyptic, which is just the zombies," he said.

A kit big enough for two sells for $129. A new one person kit goes for $70.

Each kit is assembled by employees of the non-profit Hope Services, a program for the developmentally disabled.

"Our clients experience an 87 percent unemployment rate; the people that we serve with developmental disabilities," Hope Services spokesperson Lori Williamson said.

Juanta Lechuga has been with the program since 1991.

"They're nice," Lechuga said. "They're nice. It's a good job to do. You know. I like it, you know."