Yeah, I got a wicked dust cloud that turns things into zombies, and spreads by touch. Currently the hammerdwarf I embarked with is shambling around out there, along with a dwarven child sitting right outside the only door into my fort, about 10 zombie emu's and a zombie kitten. I can't open the door to let the migrant wave in either cause zombies seem to know when its unlocked, damnit.
How on earth do you defeat these things?
EDIT: I've never encountered any of the special rains. Even though I've embarked in evil areas and seen the clouds many times. How do you get rains?
According to the wiki and some post around the forums, it spreads by touch because there is some sort of dust on the evil cloud that cover the creatures, it turns them into zombies and when they attack others, they simply pass the dust by touch, spreading the disease...
I didn't have the chance to check the zombies inventory to see if they had a dust covering or something, I did check one of the battle reports a zombie bunny kicked my carpenter bruising the skin he slammed against an obstacle and from then on the report mentioned him as zombie carpenter, he didn't die, he just got kicked and bruised and got slammed against something (probably a wall or felt 1 z level down a ramp) and when he slammed he was already a zombie...
I also read something about creatures going back to normal after a while... maybe they hang around, get rained on and the dust washes off and they go back to normal...
The best strategy I can think of, is:
* build up a ceiling and walls around your wagon as soon as you embark,
* you should embark with plenty of stones and logs,
* have everybody as a mason or carpenter to build the enclosure quickly,
* maybe leave space for a door or something so you can still have access outside and chop down trees and grab herbs... if you leave an open wall the cloud can creep in
* when you get the announcement that the cloud is close by to your settlement you should hide in and wait...
* after the cloud dissipates keep expanding the ceiling so you can have a safe outside above ground area for aboveground crops and trees
* add a bathtub to the entrance to wash off any dust and maybe dethralize any affected creature?
In a way the rains are more difficult, since they just start randomly without warning and cover all the evil area at once, and after it stops you still have the hole area contaminated with goo/blood... the clouds show up, dissipate, and the area seem to be clean afterwards, if you build a ceiling and wall it off it should be safe, the cloud also gives you a few warning before it gets close to your settlement...