Dreaming up survival plans for the zombie apocalypse has basically become a national pastime. Everyone likes to think of themselves as the next Daryl Dixon. But the residents of Lake Worth, Florida probably weren't too excited to hear zombies were the cause of a recent power outage.

Emergency alerts are meant to warn residents of imminent danger. And, yet, it seems this technology is growing increasingly sketchy and difficult to trust. A mistaken alert informed residents of Hawaii that a ballistic-missile was headed for the islands earlier this year, inciting unnecessary panic. While that event was no doubt terrifying for those who had to endure it, the alert sent to residents of Lake Worth, Florida must have been every bit as scary, and more than a little confusing too.

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Lake Worth, Florida suffered a power outage Sunday that reportedly affected over 7,000 people. Following the outage, an emergency alert was sent to residents of the city, warning them of increased zombie activity due to the outage, Palm Beach Post reports. The alert claimed zombie activity had affected service to customers. The message also warned of increased zombie activity in the town of Terminus, which was likely a reference to the cannibal storyline in AMC's The Walking Dead. To make matters worse, the alert went out at 1:45 AM, likely rousing many receivers from a dead sleep. Check out the full alert in the tweet below.

The city's Public Information Officer, Ben Kerr, attempted to downplay the alerts. Kerr stated that there was not any zombie activity in Lake Worthm along with apologizing for the message ever having been sent out. He promised that there was an investigation looking into the circumstances behind the alert and its reference to zombie activity. Kerr confirmed that 7,880 customers had been affected by the power outage. Service was restored in under half an hour.

Officials offered an update today, saying that their alert system may have been hacked. However, this is not the first time residents of Lake Worth, Florida have supposedly had a zombie outbreak to contend with. According to the Sun Sentinel, attempts were made to push out zombie alerts on several occasions following Hurricane Irma. Up to this point, city officials had actually managed to halt the alerts before residents received them. Officials also believe that they have now removed these messages completely from their system. City Manager Michael Bornstein jokingly promised that the zombies living in Lake Worth are friendly and welcomed with open arms by the city's officials.

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Sources: Palm Beach Post/Sun Sentinel