Posted on 07/19/2017 8:11:33 AM PDT by NRx
A very interesting and sober discussion of a subject too often given short shrift by extreme preppers, i.e. those planning on taking up long term residence in a bunker to ride out a civilization ending SHTF/mass casualty scenario, such as large scale nuclear war.
Serious poured in place concrete? And how damp is it, given the water table situation there?
Vault Tec Calling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ9iH3iy4NU
GREAT BOOK.
A.B. - you are being paged...
Yeah, the well-named Porky Logan is found dead in a jewelry store, half buried in diamonds which he intended to loot but perished within seconds of exposure to the hot `ice’.
Although the novel ends with victory for the U.S., people’s lives are disrupted for years to come.
My favorite line was the protaganist’s girlfriend disgusted by his cannibal sandwiches, a food fad in the late 1950’s.
But the nuclear war starts over U.S./Soviet rivalry in strife-torn Syria. Maybe not so dated....?
As a practitioner of nuclear warfare, I am confident there will not be an exchange in our lifetime.
I am, however, confident that there will be a civil clash, possibly by race and most likely by political affiliation, in our lifetime.
I prepare for the civil clash and not the long term nuclear warfare.
Did you have any idea how long a hand full of car batteries will run some LED lights? A long freaking time.
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I don’t know about you, but, I want a lot more than a couple LED lights to keep me going.
If you really want to prepare then live the way you want to live when the SHTF now. Get some solar electric, get a deep well and store lots of food, ammo and booze. You don’t necessarily ever have to fire a shot if it looks like you can and ammo makes great money, same for booze. Money unless it is precious metal may be worthless.
If you don’t have a house with a good basement, that is a poured concrete foundation with the windows so deep that they have to have window wells to have light, then move.
If you live close to a major city it is time to move. Living close to a city has advantages but they are far out weighted by the disadvantages. You don’t want to be close to a lot of other people, it gets hard to protect against thousands of people who want what you have. With a few guns you might dissuade a couple hundred but thousands, you won’t make it.
Food and water are must have, electricity is a nice thing to have. Fuel, forget it. Yes you can store a little fuel but using it is problematic. Once anyone knows you have fuel you will have a hard time keeping it or anything else you have.
The danger from a nuclear blast it two fold, first the initial explosion causes great damage and radiation exposure for up to a few miles away. The bigger problem is long term exposure to nuclear fallout. A brick house offers much better protection than a wooden structure but the the asphalt roof is not wonderful for either one. If you have the ability to wash off your house on a clear day, (reason for well and electricity) then you have a good chance of survival. After a couple weeks you aren’t likely to be re-exposed to new fallout but what is on the ground may not go anywhere for a long time, pray for rain. The rain is great for water but only if you have a deep well.
There is so much to know, perhaps it is just easier to hope the government will come save you, but it won’t.
You don’t get much fallout from an air burst, like you’d use on a city. You get lots of fallout when you use ground-level bombs against say a missile silo or command bunker, because the weapons neutrons first make the soil (and bunkers, concrete, and people) radioactive, then the thermal vaporizes it all and sends it up the convection column.
Trinity had far more fallout than Nagasaki or Hiroshima, and the Pacific tests where we vaporized entire islands generated lots more.
So it depends on where you are, and what the bomb target is.
I’m guessing that when the next war starts, the nukes will be used at sea, against say a carrier group, first. My second guess would be against a city using a smuggled-in device.
I recommend Dean Ing’s Pulling Through. The older versions have instructions in the back on how to make a radiation meter from an orange juice can, HEPA filter from toilet paper rolls, that sort of thing, plus a good survival story.
As much as I LOVE my Life, and am well prepped for a number of scenarios as we already have tornadoes, flooding, blizzards and wildlife (rabid critters, coyote, etc.) to contend with where I live, I’m leaning towards hoping I’m at Ground Zero, too.
Just get it over with quickly, GAME OVER, then move on to the next level. :)
Primary targets will be:
Minuteman missile silos in the plain states
WSAs at the two Trident bases
WSA at Albuquerque
NNSA facilities at LLNL, Oakridge, TN, Sandina Labs, Los Alamos Labs, KCMO nuke facility at former Richards Gebauer AFB
All active B1/B2/B52 bases (Whiteman, Barkdsale, Dyess, etc)
All former B1/B2/B52 bases (Grand Forks, Ellsworth, McConnel, etc)....
Military airfields with 7000 ft runways
Tinker AFB and associated refueling air bases (Most covered under the 7000 ft rule above)
National Command and Control Facilities: White House, Capitol, Pentagon, Site R, Raven Rock Mtn, Peterson AFB, Cheyenne Mtn complex, Mt Weather, etc)
After that, if the war escalates, they would hit major rail junctions, POL facilities (13 refineries), the 25 super heavy bridges rail/road across the Mississippi, ports, military stores such as Hawthorne Ammo depot and Davis Monathan air restoration facilities, Strategic POL reserves, Financial capital, AT&T building in Dallas and Denver (major commo hubs), etc.
They won't get down to nuking "your city" unless you live in one of the above type targets.
When you see the silos either emptied or hit + the 2 SSBN bases + the WSA area....then you know its ON.
...bomber bases would be hit next and quick.......and then a stall before someone's next move.
FWIW....I'm not to scared and I live next to a 3rd tier target, LRAFB, which is a C-130 base, but has a 7000 ft runway.
Next to be targeted here in Central AR are the Union Pacific rail depot in North Little Rock.....but lots of other nukes will have gone off and give me a heads up to bug out.
Actually, I'm a helluva lot more worried about our soaring crime rate, violence against republicans/Christians/whites, and the next Ice Storm or tornado than I am of a limited or general nuclear war.
That’s a well done, insightful video.
As long as I have my Yorkie with me my life will be complete :-)
Of course, it is vital to store dog food then.
Hey, I have one of those come to think! The only issue would be getting water...
“Like the 1958 classic “Alas Babylon”. I reread it recently and it is still not dated.”
I haven’t read that since high school. Maybe I should find a copy somewhere.
What?! You are a practioner of nuclear warfare?
Don't you perhaps mean "proponent of nuclear deterrence," or "advocate of strong nuclear defence?"
Regards,
“And PS: I really do have a 1960s-era fallout shelter under my back yard. It came with the house. This, inside the loop in Houston.”
That is too cool! And I was happy I got a Smokehouse and a Hog Pen with our house :-)
IF it’s some rouge nation nuking us with 15 bombs - just hop in your car after a week of hiding from the radiation and drive to a neighboring city - or walk there.... Most residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had no idea how to ‘hide’ from radiation - yet many of those people are still alive today...
It’s not the end of the world unless there’s an exchange of thousands of nukes OR if North Korea or Iran does an EMP attack.
Either way, people will survive and start over... If you’re in that spot - you’ll wish you had chosen to be one of the people who had mildly prepared... Same with hurricanes - buy the damn water and matches and charcoal, canned goods and a swing type can opener... and a car charger for your cell phone. Use your own stuff - then you won’t be burden on those around you.
I remember in the 1970s when some parts of Utah had unusually high cancer rates, blamed on residual effects of the radiation 20 years before. Which is the most likely real threat to most people from radiation. 20 years is a long time in an apocalypse.
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