I went through this when I was a teenager during Reagan's first term, and my parents when through it when they were teens during Kennedy.<p>This article tones it down to a dirty bomb, and the results closely resemble any natural disaster. Based on what I read about the 2020 fires in CA and Ore., I saw that roads were backed up, store shelves were hoarded, and infrastructure failed. And that was without contamination sticking to everything like and STI. Unless you can avoid evacuation and have done a meticulous job preparing -and- have a shelter, I don't think it is realistic to expect to survive a dirty bomb attack. I was truly, existentially scared when my Mayor announced that we should prepare for evacuation during the fires... because our freeways can't even handle rush-hour traffic. What was I supposed to do with two kids and pets and stores that were already picked clean from the pandemic? I've added more water jugs since (and a small trailer) but I have a low-level fear that no preparedness is going to work long term for something like a dirty bomb, that will eventually require relocation.
I don't want to read this.<p>My memory encapsulates this, before I was born:<p>"The most important things in this war are the machines... The United States is a country of machines. Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war."<p><a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/did-us-lend-lease-aid-tip-the-balance-in-soviet-fight-against-nazi-germany/30599486.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.rferl.org/a/did-us-lend-lease-aid-tip-the-balanc...</a><p>My country sustained, and I believe it will sustain again, those who are in need.<p>It is a dream I have.
A lot of this sort of information is surprisingly US centric. For instance, you might find building codes that forbid the sort of "non-exposed" room in residential housing as a health and safety issue due to ventilation or emergency exit or other reasons.<p>My rule of thumb is simple.<p>- Know the nearest target.<p>- Know who might hit it with a nuke.<p>- Check the NukeMap ( <a href="https://nukemap.org/" rel="nofollow">https://nukemap.org/</a> ) based on who might nuke it and what nukes they are known to have... to estimate the if you even need to care about shelter. If you're too close to the nearest target theres not much you could hope to do without shelter. If you're far enough then you wont need to care about the immediate attack either.<p>- Missile warning will likely create havoc with transport as people without plans try to suddenly make them. So consider where you spend most of your time during a normal day, and what transport options you have with you then depending on your personal level of paranoia make a decision about the best shelter options based on two things, travel time and level of protection. You should travel for better shelter, but not risk traveling far given the uncertainty of the situation. Just having a basic background understanding of what the suitable shelter would be in your life and this becomes more like knowing where you could hide from sudden rain without an umbrella on a walk down the street.<p>- Shelter will depend a lot on your local environment, just keep the basic principles of radiation protection in mind. 1st is Distance, 2nd is Mass. If you cant get distance from the radiation source, put mass between you and it. Given that fallout will be dropping from the sky as heavier than air dust, you want to primarily find anything to give you protection against it being blown closer to you horizontally, and maximum distance from whatever roof is over your head. If neither of these are particularly available, prioritise the horizontal wind blown dust, settle for whatever concrete slab building you can find that would afford you some measure of protection from dust blowing in even if the windows and doors were damaged.<p>- Think of it as extreme, unusual, but also unlikely, weather event. You don't want to get "wet" from the dry rain of fallout dust, you also want to be as far away from it as you can, and don't want it getting tracked/blown inside.
I live pretty close to a US Navy base, and its common for me to hear and see formations of military helicopters like Ospreys, sometimes fighter jets, cargo planes, etc.<p>I swear that I hear them more often than I used to say 4 years ago (before COVID). It is kind of scary to think about these kinds of scenarios, like if something bad happens what the hell will I do if I happen to survive?<p>All I have are my parents who live far away, no kids or wife, not a lot of close friends here. I'm also moving pretty soon to near SF, which I hope isn't a target in such a war. I guess it is good that I've been working out. If I survive, I plan on staying alive as long as I can on my own. Damn I don't want to think about this because I don't want to die like that.<p>Maybe all my time sunk into playing solo DayZ back in the day and surviving against Russians, Chinese, and other players who I didn't understand working together will help, heh. FFS.
Funny article. Writing in the urgent present tense probably helps with virality, but I'm not sure how many people would actually 1) Print this article off without reading it and 2) In the event of a nuclear emergency remember that they had a printed copy, then sit down to read it for the first time.<p>It mentions Geiger counters. Note that single-tube models can max out and saturate at radiation levels far below that which cause acute radiation sickness. (This was a fun contributing factor in the Chernobyl accident, "3.6 Roentgen per hour, not great, not terrible" was from reading sensitive dosimeters that were reading off-scale high, but the top of the scale was only labeled 0.001 R/s!) Dual tube models like the GQ GMC-500Plus cost much more but are more useful in the nuclear war scenario.<p>One thing not often mentioned about nuclear war is that we might have advance warning for the first round of bombs, but we probably won't for later rounds, if SBIR satellites are targeted or if civilian communication networks are disrupted. Ballistic missile submarines have a tradeoff between stealth and communications-- a Typhoon class at minimum speed, max depth and with its trailing wire antenna retracted is hard to detect but impossible to communicate with. If it surfaces a week later then we could get another nuclear exchange out of the blue.<p>The golden standard in long term storage food is, of course, the Mormon church. (Mormons are supposed to keep a three month supply of food.) Staple grains in big 5.5 pound cans have a claimed shelf life of 30 years. The prices are higher than they were pre-COVID, of course: <a href="https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/food-storage/home-storage-center-locations-map?lang=eng" rel="nofollow">https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/food-storage...</a> Their online store has a login wall, but there's many brick and mortar locations: <a href="https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/self-reliance/food-storage/home-storage-center-locations?lang=eng" rel="nofollow">https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/self-relianc...</a>
1. Grab bottle of preferred liquor or wine.
2. Walk towards the bright glowing light.<p>You (probably) don't want to live in a post-nuclear world.
"Because danger is imminent, here's a 10,000 word essay to read"<p>Also, maybe just "pour a massive fucking drink" should be the first headline.
The site is pretty silly, in case of a dirty bomb there is probably no way to have advance warning and your best bet is to sit tight and wait.<p>In case of a single or limited nuclear strike if you live near a target you won't have time to do anything, you will get a 5-10 minute warning all you can do is shelter and hope all the warheads are successfully intercepted. In case you live further away from a target there is no chance you can get everything you will need in the hours before the fallout reaches you while everyone else is trying to do the same, sidebar splitting up as the site suggests is terrible advice.<p>In case of a full nuclear exchange the same applies you just can't have hope that the interceptors will work.<p>If you really worry about a nuclear attack you have to prepare before hand, have a shelter set up and have it stocked with food and water for about 3 months, from what i have read the hard stuff breaks down in a few week and in 3 months or so you will be pretty safe to come out.
Is there any information out there, how the use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia against Ukraine would change the war?<p>Every news station is talking about this possibility now. But I cannot find a single analysis of how likely it is.<p>And how likely it is seems to depend on the effect these weapons would have on the situation on the battlefield.<p>But I cannot find any info on this.
Nuclear warheads are incendiary weapons. The biggest danger comes from ground burst weapons (the so-called "bunker busters") due to their spreading irradiated dust everywhere. The aerial burst bombs produce a lot of heat and wind but it's short-lived. If you survive the initial blast then you'll be fine for the near term. The long-term effects will be you have an increased risk of cancer. Simply put, nuclear weapons aren't the bogeyman policymakers have made them out to be.
Page cannot open anymore.<p>What to do in case of nuclear disaster? What type of nuclear disaster?
In case of full scale nuclear war?
Nothing we will just die, if you do not have long term survival bunker that is it. The End.<p>In all calculations of global clash everyone forget one thing, it is not nuclear weapons but that there is 450 nuclear reactors with thousands kilograms of nuclear rods far more worse than nuclear weapons combined, so just imagine 450 untended Chernobyl at the same time.
Years ago, I got randomly mailed a box of potassium iodide tablets because there was nuclear plant in the region. But in case of nuclear war, I want a suicide pill. I want several to give to others. I remember jokingly promising to be euthanasia provider for my friends who didn't want any part of the apocalypse. But if that day ever comes, I wouldn't even know how. There should be a guide out there for how to mercy off yourself and others most efficiently/painlessly/rapidly in case the world ends, but reading it will probably get one on three letter agency lists.
There's not going to be a nuclear war. I'm not scared in the slightest. The media seize on Putin's 'threats' as "OMG NUCLEAR WAR IMMINENT!!!!1!" but in reality a nuclear threat is a routine thing done by a nuclear armed country facing off against a more powerful nuclear armed country. It will never actually come to blows. In fact, it was the west that was making the nuclear threats towards the USSR, starting after WW2 when western forces were outnumbered 3:1 in Europe, and at least through the 70s with Nixon's madman theory.<p>So to all those who are actually worried about a nuclear war due to the Ukraine war, I say - sleep tight. It's just the media trying to scare you to get clicks.
This is timely.<p>Putin cannot afford to lose a war or to lose Russian territory. Putin is only president for life. No Russian leader has personally survived such an event, all the way back to the tsars. Faced with that history, he is more likely to use a tactical nuclear weapon than give up power.
The right way to win a nuclear exchange is to use your nukes on your own population while EMP + dirty bombing your opponent.<p>You spare your citizens the horror of what a nuclear winter + global fallout catastrophe will look like, while ensuring your enemy suffers through it.