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What do to if I survive a nuclear blast in my city?

I recently saw a comment chain about nuclear bombs, and that led me to thinking about this. Say there is a nuclear explosion in the downtown of my US city. I survive relatively fine, but obviously the main part of the city has been destroyed, while major zones extending from the center were also badly damaged. What would be a good response to (a) survive and (b) help out the recovery effort?

StaySquared ,

Nuclear? In your city? You’re dead in a matter of days… maybe months at best.

YaksDC ,
@YaksDC@lemm.ee avatar

I live in Pentagon City VA, I’m not surviving shit. ☺

memfree ,
@memfree@lemmy.ml avatar

I’ll bet you an upvote that there’s several bunkers damn close to you. All you need to do is figure out who’ll let you use one.

Riven ,
@Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I can guarantee that’s one of the cities in the US that has anti nuke defenses. The US has a tone of those. I haven’t checked but I also bet nobody is allowed to just randomly fly over the city or else they get shot down, and anybody who hijacks a passanger plane that does have clearance to fly over wouldn’t be able to smuggle a nuke onto it anyways.

LouNeko , (edited )

Everybody is acting like its the apocalypse, just put on one off those N95 masks we all have from covid, get in your car and fuck off. Or walk, you can easily cover 30 km in a few hours to the next not destroyed city.

Edit: I meant kilometers.

Lost_My_Mind ,

you can easily cover 30 miles in a few hours to the next not destroyed city.

Dude…how fast do you walk???

LouNeko ,

Sorry I meant kilometer, its like 19 miles. Which is doable in 6 - 8 hours.

Lost_My_Mind ,

Oh…yeah, I guess thats true. I was thinking you meant like 30 miles in 2-3 hours, which I won’t say is as fast as the flash…but maybe the flash’s infant baby?

Although, with me personally, I’d be like “uuuuggghhhhhh how long is this walking going to beeeee???”

And someone would say “we’ve been walking 45 minutes…so, maybe another 5 hours?”

“Ya know what? You guys go ahead without me. I’m just going to lay in the road and wait for the next bomb”

Pssshhhh!!! Walking…

Illuminostro ,

In an irradiated wasteland.

Beacon ,

A very fit athletic person who has done endurance training can do 30 miles in a day, but that's not typical. Most people could do around 10+ if their life literally depended on it like in the aftermath of a nuke

Source: a brief web search

LouNeko ,

Yeah I meant kilometers.

Caligvla ,
@Caligvla@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

People in this thread are playing way too much Fallout lol.

fine_sandy_bottom ,

If cities are being nuked it probably is the apocalypse.

memfree ,
@memfree@lemmy.ml avatar

My understanding is the thing you most need is community. No one is likely to make it on their own, but if you can band together, your chances increase.

otherbarry ,

Say there is a nuclear explosion in the downtown of my US city.

If it’s that close you then essentially you’ll need to decide whether to die quick or slow :/

If you’re actually planning on surviving you’d need to stay in an underground bunker or something similar for at least 3-5 weeks to be safe enough to travel outside (and we’re assuming you have clean sources of food/water, bathroom, etc, during that time). If you make it that far then afterwards you’d likely want to go outside & get as far away from the radiation zone as possible.

Coincidentally the basement of my work building actually has a fallout shelter sign from back in the day so the basement might survive a blast but I don’t see how I’d make it 3-5 weeks without being extra prepared for that beforehand.

BearOfaTime , (edited )

It really depends.

Scale of bomb

Design of bomb.

Distance from epicenter

Ground explosion or atmospheric

Prevailing winds

City construction

Etc, etc.

It’s nowhere near as simple as we’ve been taught.

I’ve looked at the bomb simulator linked above, and for me and my city, and where I live, prevailing winds, etc, only the two largest warheads would have direct effect on me, and fallout isn’t a concern for the rest (distance and prevailing winds).

Now after that, it would surely be a complete shit show. I’d likely have no water (or maybe I would, this suburb isnt tied to the city). Power would certainly be an issue, as would telephone/cell, radio would be problematic for a short while. Food would be a problem, of course.

otherbarry ,

Yes of course, I meant as a general idea of what you’d aim to do lacking any other information beyond the fact that the bomb itself fell in the local downtown area (going by the post itself).

Thing is if a bomb dropped that close most people will not know what the scale of the bomb was, what the design was, how far exactly they were from the blast radius, whether it’s ground / atmospheric, wind direction, all that stuff. In that short amount of time you’d just need to run into the nearest still-standing shelter & figure things out from there.

Hopefully with some extreme luck the bomb would fall just as you were walking/driving past your nearest fallout shelter and can easily get in. Or you’re a prepper and aren’t far from your homemade bunker with supplies, radio, and whatnot.

EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted ,
@EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I’ve looked at the bomb simulator linked above

I’m not seeing a link. Did it get deleted?

BearOfaTime ,

nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted ,
@EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Thanks. :)

Beacon ,

I'm far from an expert on this, but I would guess the safety of being outdoors heavily depends on additional factors, like for example wind direction and speed.

foggy ,

Man I’ll probably die but I’m just gonna walk north. Idk. good as any other direction.

wreckedcarzz ,
@wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world avatar

shockwave happens

Right-o.

Zorsith ,
@Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Don’t use certain cleaning products when bathing; I forget if it’s shampoo or conditioner, but one will bind radiation to you hair and scalp.

Illuminostro , (edited )

That won’t be a problem. If you’re that close, you’ll be dead within a week from the massive dose you already took.

Edit: Aww, look. Somebody thinks Fallout was based on real science and facts. Don’t worry, buddy, you’ll be a ghoul and live forever.

Contravariant ,

It’ll be a rather unpleasant death I might add. Plan accordingly.

Illuminostro ,

Exactly.

zarathustra0 ,

Shampoo cleans, conditioner binds moisture in. Cleaning is good, binding radioactive goop in is bad. Don’t condition.

tobogganablaze ,

Thanks for the reminder, I have too look up where my designated bunker is.

wabafee ,
@wabafee@lemmy.world avatar

Probably just get away from the city or away from the radiation, forget about helping recovery effort as initial response. That can happen once your safe.

Don_Dickle ,

Not to be a clit but it kind of depends where your city is.

pelletbucket ,

I live on the coast so I’m stealing a fucking boat. I’ll check the pharmacies first, but that’s the most likely place that people are going to be killing each other over stuff.

fine_sandy_bottom ,

Everyone is talking about radiation but IMO having food and water is more important.

In a large city, things would turn to shit within hours. There would be violence.

Honestly, if you don’t have a relative on a farm within a days walk, then your best bet is a refugee camp.

piyuv ,

If you survive (big if) find Steve Huffman, he thinks he’ll be a good leader in a post apocalyptic earth

intensely_human ,

Move away from the mushroom cloud. It. Pay attention to the direction of the wind and try to see if the mushroom cloud itself is moving in order to tell what the wind is doing higher up.

You want to avoid being underneath it. That means primarily just moving away from it, adding more distance. But also, keeping in mind the top of that mushroom cloud is itself moving across the sky (being pushed by wind), so if it’s going the same direction as you, switch directions to get out from under it.

The mushroom cloud is full of radioactive material which will come settling out. If the initial blast didn’t kill you, this radiation is the next biggest danger. Just keep moving away, away, away.

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