People think I'm nuts for worrying about nuclear war

[BehindBlueI's]

To all the people who say its futile to prepare for this, what the hell are you doing on a disaster preparedness board anyway?

Preparing for reasonable scenarios with winnable outcomes.

Without going political, nobody is nuking the US. If you want to prep for a limited nuclear exchange, plan for the detonations to be in Europe or Israel and what that will do to global economies and supply lines as panic kicks in. If you're planning for full nuclear exchange, die with grace and go to your God. There are fates worse than death, IMO.

 

[Lpherr]

To all the people who say its futile to prepare for this, what the hell are you doing on a disaster preparedness board anyway?

Voicing realistic opinions.

You asked the question, and there are two sides to the coin.
Running is not feasible. That's going to be the first response of the population.
A simple evacuation for a hurricane, is a fiasco.

 

[snorko]

I just finished reading the new Ken Follett novel. it does a good job of fictionally drawing out how a limited/not so limited exchange develops between the U.S. and China.

Amazon product ASIN 0593300017

 

[AndreusMaximus]

Since none of this has ever been tested in reality, and no one knows to what extreme it will continue, there really isn't any preparation
that can be relied upon. The reality is likely going to be substantially different than expected, and if things are only as bad as expected, it's still not going to be an easy life to survive.
Watching apocalyptical movies as any basis, who would really want a life like that?

Well, some people would still want to live, even like that. Forget apocalyptic movies, think about real situations that are even more terrifying that people have endured and clung to their will to live, like concentration camps, gulags, being lost in the wilderness, marooned.

Sure, we can never have anything (short, maybe, of living in an airtight, self-replenishing, 100% concealed bunker) that would guarantee, or even give high odds of, survival, but there are certain things we can look at and say that if the nuclear war is somehow limited, and I don't get utterly annihilated without a chance to do anything, there are X, Y, and Z things that might help out with certain problems that I will most likely encounter.

 

[AndreusMaximus]

If you've looked at the 500 nuke map, we're screwed here. Prevailing winds will bring the rads from all the western strikes for weeks to come. There's enough strikes in this area to make the blast radius pretty severe. There will be no power for decades. I hope you can survive and all that but I'm not putting money on it. If I was in Eastern Oregon maybe I might have a different outlook but meh. We'll do our normal preps and see what happens.

There will be no wildlife not irradiated to hunt. Water sources will be severely polluted. Even if you do have enough water and food to last he month it takes for the initial rad clouds to pass, you'll need to have enough food and water and transportation to get you to "the congo". That's going to be even more problematic.

Still, it takes time for the winds to carry the fallout here. Nobody knows what the wind patterns will be at a specific time, and there could well be pockets you can find with radiation low enough to survive at least a few days.

I'm perfectly happy to roll the dice and hope that I get the lucky 0.0001% chance of living long enough to escape to a place that wasn't hit as destructively. And maybe the odds won't actually be that bad. Maybe the predictions are wrong, and radiation levels fall off a lot faster than they thought. Who knows? All I knows is that a few simple things prepared for this specific scenario could drastically increase your odds. For instance, the guy who just automatically assumes that radiation is going to be deadly everywhere, so no point in thinking about it, is going to be a lot worse off that the guy who lucked out and found that one weird valley where a freak chance in wind patterns prevented a significant amount of fallout from landing there, and because he planned ahead he had a Geiger counter so he knew to stick around that particular valley.

 

[AndreusMaximus]

Get out of dodge has actually has been my Plan A for a long time now. I live on the very south edge of Indianapolis so getting distance from the city within 15 minutes is a feasible. However, I've done some additional research to reevaluate this plan. When the nuke initially goes off, there will be an intense flash of light that can blind your eyes for about 1 minute and may cause retinal damage. That might cause you to crash while driving. Next, the shockwave extends far beyond the thermal damage zone and is powerful enough to blow out windows from miles away. It if it doesn't blow your vehicle off the road, it might shatter your rear window. Other people might also have the same plan and will be driving around like idiots crashing into you.

I don't know whether I can come up with a sheltering plan that's good enough, but I want to think about options that would improve the odds of survival. If I end up in an unfamiliar area, just knowing what materials to look for like concrete, dirt, bottles of water can probably guide you where to get some shielding from fallout if all else fails.

To all the people who say its futile to prepare for this, what the hell are you doing on a disaster preparedness board anyway?

Ah, I understand a bit better now. I thought you were more so thinking that you could find a specific place to designate ahead of time as the place where you would go in a nuclear war, but I think I understand better now.

I guess I don't have a whole lot of good advice to give, then. My gut tells me it's gonna be a really hard question to answer; the more anything looks like a good shelter, the more likely there is to already be an occupant, and they are most likely not going to take kindly to a stranger seeking entry, especially since every time the door opens means more potential radioactive material making it inside.

 

[bobzilla]

To all the people who say its futile to prepare for this, what the hell are you doing on a disaster preparedness board anyway?

First off it's a local gun board with a disaster preparedness sub-forum. Secondly most of us already prepare for actual realistic disasters. Tornados, winter storms, power supply issues, supply chain problems etc. We have those plans and preps in place. Prepping for a complete unknown when the likelihood of it happening are minimal and the fact that no one can truly prepare for that unknown is not denying it.

It's a hard thing coming to terms with your limits and the inevitability of your demise. Once you understand there is no escaping it, it's a little easier to say "meh, I've done what I can and its out of my hands now." Tilting at windmills isn't going to help anyone.

 

[cosermann]

May be helpful . . .

Free online book - Nuclear War Survival Skills

Free online book Nuclear War Survival Skills Updated and Expanded 1987 Edition &, Hebrew KF Nuclear War Survival Skills Updated and Expanded 1987 Edition Cresson H. Kearny With Foreword by Dr. Edward Teller

www.oism.org

http://oism.org/nwss/nwss.pdf

 

[Leadeye]

Evaluate info from the two largest land contamination issues, Mayak and Chernobyl, it's the closest hard data available.

 

[Onebad06vtx]

China and Russia has alot of war ships off of Alaska right now.
They know the big guy in charge is retarded!
We are sitting ducks.
Im worried also.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Watching apocalyptical movies as any basis, who would really want a life like that?

C'mon... Who doesn't want a flamethrower guitar??

 

[Vanderbilt]

Having spent a substantial tour of duty with the Air Force, as a Nuclear Weapons Specialist
...... "the living will envy the dead" is a true axiom.

Even if you survive for a while, the world you knew will be gone. It won't be a world that you wish to live within.

I realize that the OP isn't satisfied with this answer, but I stand on its truth.

....as an old veteran that spent a good bit of my time in the Army in Europe 40 years ago. I have to second this notion. We trained and gamed out various scenarios. There are no good outcomes from an all out exchange. Even a limited exchange will be a disaster of a magnitude that most of us can't imagine.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

....as an old veteran that spent a good bit of my time in the Army in Europe 40 years ago. I have to second this notion. We trained and gamed out various scenarios. There are no good outcomes from an all out exchange. Even a limited exchange will be a disaster of a magnitude that most of us can't imagine.

 

[SnoopLoggyDog]

May be helpful . . .

Free online book - Nuclear War Survival Skills

Free online book Nuclear War Survival Skills Updated and Expanded 1987 Edition &, Hebrew KF Nuclear War Survival Skills Updated and Expanded 1987 Edition Cresson H. Kearny With Foreword by Dr. Edward Teller

www.oism.org

http://oism.org/nwss/nwss.pdf

This is an excellent resource to understand the basic concepts for nuclear survival.

The three rules on surviving a nuke blast/fallout is time, distance and shielding.

The farther you are from ground zero (distance), the less the effects of blast, light, heat and prompt radiation (Gamma, X-ray). An 800k air burst will have blast/heat effects that will extend out roughly ten miles. Effects of flash blindness could extend out beyond fifty miles.

What would happen if an 800-kiloton nuclear warhead detonated above midtown Manhattan?

At least 90 square miles of firestorm would extinguish all life and destroy most everything else

thebulletin.org

Russia's war in Ukraine raises a harrowing question: How widespread would fallout from a nuclear bomb be?

A modern-day nuclear bomb could wipe out an entire city and cause third-degree burns in nearby areas, nuclear experts said.

www.businessinsider.com

The thicker the shielding of your shelter, the more protection from radioactive fallout emissions (Alpha, Beta, Gama). That includes "shinedown" from fallout on the roof of a shelter/building.

Time in a shelter is key to avoiding or limiting exposure to radioactivity. There is a strong possibility that if the ICBM fields are hit with sub-surface bursts in a counterforce strike, it would result in heavy fallout downwind for many hundreds of miles. Toss in a dozen counter-value cities and the fallout could be heavy in the eastern half of the country.

The good news is the decrease in radioactive intensity, is exponetial in it's decay as time goes on. A way to track radioactivity levels outside your shelter is key to deciding when to venture out and for how long.

One idea for a good place for immediate shelter is a school or university with underground infastructure, an indoor pool and large onsite food stock. Just beware that the administration may not allow guns. Christian schools may be more open to this idea than public universities.

 

[NoSaintJoe]

I live 5 miles from a primary target, I’m not worried.
If it happens I won’t know it

 

[Mij]

When I watch the news events in Ukraine - Putin's threats and Biden's incompetence - I have concern that the United States could have a nuclear weapons exchange with Russia. It probably won't escalate to a full scale war at first. Likely, the first of such weapons used would be low yield tactical nukes on the Ukranian battlefield. But I worry that the warmongering people running this country will make the wrong strategic moves which could result in nuclear attacks on American soil very soon after.

ANYONE I express this concern to suggesting that we make a plan to find shelter tells me one of two things:
1. I'm getting too worked up over the mainstream news, it ain't gonna happen
2. If it does happen, I wouldn't want to be alive anyway because there would be so much devastation that life would be too hard

I don't know how to deal with this kind of response. I think it is entirely likely that it won't be all-out armageddon, but something could happen where it will be necessary to temporarily seek shelter from radioactive fallout. A nuclear exchange in my view is more likely to be limited and survivable. Unfortunately, I do not have an underground shelter that's accessible to me right now and I don't know where I can go.

Does anyone here have similar experiences dealing with people about this? What can I do to secure a shelter despite everyone around me not caring and not helping?

Your point of securing a shelter. Not for long term but to ride out the initial blast/exchange I’d go to the purpose built fallout shelter in the bottom of the monument in the middle of the circle. There are others in almost all municipal and gov. buildings all over your county. All purpose built for a nuclear exchange with the commies. They may not be marked anymore or stocked, but they are there. Now you have to do the research to find where they are. Good luck.

 

[Vanderbilt]

I live 5 miles from a primary target, I’m not worried.
If it happens I won’t know it

....what I told the wife, best to just pour a stiff drink, light up a cigar and watch the fireworks. At my age, not sure I want be around after it's done, lol....

 

[Elcardo]

Can't help on the shelter issue but if we were to have some sort of situation where radiation was an issue and you survived the initial blast or whatever an affordable prep would be potassium iodide pills (sorry if this was already mentioned , skimmed through responses)

 

[wakproductions]

China and Russia has alot of war ships off of Alaska right now.
They know the big guy in charge is retarded!
We are sitting ducks.
Im worried also.

Yeah, and do you know what's in Alaska? The US GMD (Ground-Based Midcourse Defense), the US interception system for ICBMs. Coincidence?

 

[wakproductions]

This is an excellent resource to understand the basic concepts for nuclear survival.

The three rules on surviving a nuke blast/fallout is time, distance and shielding.

The farther you are from ground zero (distance), the less the effects of blast, light, heat and prompt radiation (Gamma, X-ray). An 800k air burst will have blast/heat effects that will extend out roughly ten miles. Effects of flash blindness could extend out beyond fifty miles.

What would happen if an 800-kiloton nuclear warhead detonated above midtown Manhattan?

At least 90 square miles of firestorm would extinguish all life and destroy most everything else

thebulletin.org

Russia's war in Ukraine raises a harrowing question: How widespread would fallout from a nuclear bomb be?

A modern-day nuclear bomb could wipe out an entire city and cause third-degree burns in nearby areas, nuclear experts said.

www.businessinsider.com

The thicker the shielding of your shelter, the more protection from radioactive fallout emissions (Alpha, Beta, Gama). That includes "shinedown" from fallout on the roof of a shelter/building.

Time in a shelter is key to avoiding or limiting exposure to radioactivity. There is a strong possibility that if the ICBM fields are hit with sub-surface bursts in a counterforce strike, it would result in heavy fallout downwind for many hundreds of miles. Toss in a dozen counter-value cities and the fallout could be heavy in the eastern half of the country.

The good news is the decrease in radioactive intensity, is exponetial in it's decay as time goes on. A way to track radioactivity levels outside your shelter is key to deciding when to venture out and for how long.

One idea for a good place for immediate shelter is a school or university with underground infastructure, an indoor pool and large onsite food stock. Just beware that the administration may not allow guns. Christian schools may be more open to this idea than public universities.

Thank you. Those are excellent resources. I did find the Nuclear War Survival Skills book independently and it has some very good information. The science I learned from those resources prompted me to think differently about what to do if that were to occur.

People think I'm silly for worrying about this because they think the whole world would explode if a nuclear attack were to happen. I don't think it will happen that way. If Putin uses a nuclear bomb, he'd push boundaries using it in just small enough of attack that the US military will be confounded on how to respond proportionally because they won't want to trigger a MAD situation. It would be a terrorism-like scenario with a lot of destruction, but not world ending and hopefully will deescalate from that point.

I also think there's a good chance that if Russia launched a wide scale attack, it will be poorly executed and could fail, but still cause a lot of radiation to be sent into the atmosphere. My goal in thinking about this is to escape the immediate effects of fallout. The worst of the radiation is within the first 24 hours of a detonation and conditions return to much safer levels after 3 weeks.

I live on a slab foundation without a basement, so I just want to plan where I would go for distance and shelter for an impending nuclear attack. The room I in my house I would go to for waiting out a tornado would not protect from fallout radiation.