Fort Myers wakes dead at Zombicon

Forget foreclosures. Fort Myers may have broken another record: The biggest gathering of zombies in one place.

In a post-mortem report, organizers of Zombicon 2011 say the 20,000 zombies who gathered in downtown Fort Myers Oct. 15 shattered the record of the largest gathering of undead when 4,093 zombies assembled on the boardwalk in Asbury Park, N.J., in October 2010.

The Fort Myers organizers of the zombie-themed event are appealing to the Guinness Book of World Records. Using a map and an overlaying grid created by Fort Myers architecture firm Parker, Mudgett, Smith, organizers corralled the zombies into a special zone downtown that allowed them to be counted. Non-infected survivors (those without the zombie makeup or dress) were asked to stand outside the barricades while the counting occurred.

Events like Zombicon have drawn large crowds to downtown Fort Myers since the area was restored a few years ago for the benefit of retailers. It was the single largest event on the streets of Fort Myers last year, organizers say.