Fateful day

Myth number 01:

Almost everyone will be instantly killed by a nuclear attack.

You may have thought - what if the bomb falls directly on you? Most likely no. Something like the following will happen.

Once in the computers of Russia there will be a failure and they will behave as if the United States had already struck a lead in advance. The US warning system already made such mistakes and we were separated by minutes from striking a retaliation before the error was clarified. Who said that Russians will always be just as prudent?
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Forty minutes separate the launch of a rocket from Russia from its defeat of a target in North America. Before that, the United States has a few minutes to respond. It happens that the presidential connection with Russia does not work (and so it happened more than once). This, by the way, may influence the decision of suspicious Russians to strike.

So this one, like in the White House, reaches out to the suitcase and presses the button. Of course, the air defense missiles are trying to stop the attack of the Russian missiles before they hit their primary targets - the headquarters of NORAD, NORthern Air Defense in North Bay, Ontario, Colorado Springs, Colorado and its backup "double" .

There are well-protected computer and communication networks, which are a very attractive target. Given that some of the missiles will be shot down, the Russians are not stingy.

The best way to break all the communications of North America is only to undermine the four thermonuclear charges at high altitude over the continent. They will generate EMP (Electromagnetic Impulse), which is likely to hit all the included electrical and electronic devices. It will also disable all devices containing integrated circuits and having an antenna more than thirty inches long (about 77 cm - approx. Transl.). This means that your radio and TV are hopelessly damaged and useless, even if the power supply is still supplied to them.

All over the continent electricity was cut out. If you could happen, you listened to an old tube radio (did you ever see one like that?), At best transmitting a message about an emergency, you found out that the worst happened.

Otherwise, you stand among the remaining survivors and hear, “Well, it's a day, eh? It's strange that something happened on such a nice day. ” Silence. The sun is shining and the birds are singing, the breeze sweeps over you and you still do not know anything about the minor troubles on North Bay. There is nothing there now. Silence.

Rumors have spread. You are trying to reach spouses, friends, relatives. No fuss. Silence. The phone also does not work.

You survived. The fateful day has come, and you are still alive. While you are waiting for your halves and your children to return home, you have time to do something practical and very practical. For example, visit the store and stock up on something.

It is easy to see that the small shop on the corner is closed. The owner believed the rumors and decided to save the goods. And besides, you can't buy anything for your money today. You believed before that inflation was rapid, but now you have a much more vivid example.

In the supermarket, if you have time, you will find a doomsday. If you don't make it, _new_. Maybe a big bag with dog food (take, do not hesitate!) Or a few cans with mastic for the floor (forget about them). The rest is already dragged away.

All cashiers and managers disappeared somewhere (they made purchases and left, of course). Yes, they would not work - without electricity, then. You will see the cops - they themselves are looting.

If on the way back you notice something filled with a basket from the supermarket - think twice before taking possession of it. If the fight ends with wounds, the doctors in the empty hospital will not sew them up. Everyone is too busy to call an Ambulance, and even if there is a lander, the car will not arrive.

Of course, a visit to the supermarket may not have anything to do with the above. It may just be more stressful than usual, because everyone wants to buy. And you mutter: "People are kind, everything is good, everything is good, calm down." So you are behaving, trying to do your work as quickly as possible and not to raise a wave of panic. "Yes. I understand that the ticket office does not work. But take the money. No, thank you, keep your change. ”

And, of course, if everything is still around, you can take a good old plastic credit card and buy plenty of equipment for tourism and survival. Do not worry about payment, the bill will not come. There may be a problem with the delivery of equipment, if the machine is not on the move (EMR has disabled the electronic ignition system). "No, everything is okay. Do not worry. I just add it all to my old red pick-up. ”But surely you are not happy with the thought of dragging it all onto your thirty-second floor, where would it be to hide it all. “Imagine, people are still not worried about anything. It seems that we were smarter than the rest, eh? "

However, it is likely that you return home with a fifty-pound (22.7 kg - approx. Lane) packaging of dog food. How, strong enough to drag on the thirty-second floor? Of course, you know that the elevators have risen. You can hide in the trunk of your car in the garage - if only no one noticed.

Home Sweet Home. The kids are back from school. Do you have enough courage after the scene in the supermarket to send them to get something else? It does not seem that there, outside, went carnival. Have you ever seen Watts, Detroit, Washington DC, or Baltimore after similar “carnivals” (I have no idea what he is talking about). I have seen. I think you will leave the children at home. It remains to wait for your soul mate in marriage - it can take a few hours.

And here is a half of the house. "What does it mean?! All that you managed to get - fifty pounds of dog gnats? We don’t have dogs, didn’t such a thought have occurred? ”Still there is no electricity - nothing can be cooked. It is better to devour everything from the refrigerator before it defrosts and gives the food to rot. There is no water, and the rain canopies are empty. Getting cold. It seems that the best is to go to bed. Otherwise it is dark and nothing is visible. On the dark streets below some noise. Maybe in the morning everything will be brighter and more positive?

Second day

Early morning begins with noise: it looks like pots and pans are flying down from the balconies, as well as blankets, pillows, and so on. Obviously, some guests move out. Maybe you have to go?

Everything looks better in the light, right? The TV does not turn on, the phone does not work either. And the toilet, you know, is not washed off. And you will not cook anything. Well, well, not so bad. Imagine you are at a picnic. Eat straight from the cans, and moreover there is no water to wash the dishes.

You see, you survived the fateful day, and you didn’t even hear the explosions, you didn’t see the nuclear “fungi” from the explosions, nothing at all. It probably makes sense to sit down and think about what to do now. Perhaps there will be more bombing, this can be expected.

If the plans of the enemy were realized, then the main objectives are over. Whether three Titan Wings were destroyed in the states of Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas (three wings of eighteen missiles each), or hit their Russian targets - there’s nothing to worry about. Decontaminated base interceptors in Montana and Dakota. These places are no more. [Author's note: Something has changed here. Titan Wings were “demobilized”, and the main attack mission, both in the USA and in Russia, was assumed by nuclear submarines carrying onboard dividing warheads WHERE MORE destructive forces. Submarine bases have now become paramount targets, from which "resting" submarines can enter the sea.]

Then the events around the secondary objectives began to turn. Around military bases in the United States and around the world. Oh, the military have something to occupy themselves for a while, for some time they pass over their fuss. But the cities are at the very end of the list, although each airport with a runway of ten thousand feet (about three kilometers - approx. Lane) is a very attractive target, because strategic bombers can take off from it after refueling. In a day or two, the case may reach them.

There are two strategies of warfare, one aimed at the destruction of armies, the other - values ​​(counterforce and countervalue strategies).

One involves neutralizing the enemy troops so that they cannot resist. There is a place for military codes of honor, like knightly. No harm to women and children.

The second one dictates to destroy everything dear to the enemy in order to demoralize him. The method of the Mongol hordes. “Take no prisoners”, “a good Indian is a dead Indian”, “beat the Jews”, “spare no one”.

There is a problem with the second strategy, which consists in the behavior of people who understand that they have to defeat or die - they can become very dangerous adversaries. Probably the best way out is to drain other people's troops and leave peaceful cities hostage. "Now give up, or your cities will lie in ruins." In any case, cities are not the main target of a rocket attack.

And here we are sitting. Unscathed, live the first day after the end of the world. But on the horizon something very bleak. Perhaps the bombs will fall on the city the next day. And if not, what to stay here? No electricity, heat, water. And it does not seem like the situation will improve soon. Lifts do not work. For older people, this means "if we descend (if they can even descend at all!), Then we will not be able to climb."

The stores ran out of groceries. And do not appear. (Although, maybe, you believe the government, which promises to start delivery in about two weeks - maybe we will beat the mortgage?) And even terrible rubbish - nuclear fallout (fallout, kids! - approx. Lane) - will start to pour with indifferent Heaven after twenty-four to forty-eight hours after the strike ... or earlier.

There is (everyone probably saw the film “On the Shore”) a solution - a bag full of pills with cyanide. Enough for everyone. "Open wide ..."

Not? Then you have to survive. After you hoped that the bomb would fall right on you, and after you abandoned the easy way out, an easy death. Oh, not so scary - a world without electricity, cars, radio, televisions, telephones and supermarkets. And with a population of North America of only twenty million people. (Not all of them will be Canadians).

This is the world as it was in the nineteenth century. There were no cars, supermarkets, cinema, television, radio, telephones, modern (us) medicine, airplanes, rockets and computers - and people lived and enjoyed life more than ours.

Yes, people tend to survive. Leave the man on the ice in the heart of the Arctic without anything at all - and he will last until he is accidentally rescued.

You now survive. You survived the nuclear sunset of the world. In the end, you still die - it is the law of being. The question is not in the fact of death, but in the length and quality of life.

So, you still survived. And if you want to continue in the same spirit, it is better to take the legs out of the city. Not only because of the bombs, but also because of the dubious happiness of anarchy.

Moreover, among the more inoperative toilets and dead bodies remaining on the streets, some kind of infection will very soon start. So where to go, how?

Before leaving the wilderness, consider an alternative stay in the city. Perhaps you are convinced that the Russians will never bring a nuclear fist over your city. Or, if you still bring, you consider your underground shelter reliable enough to protect you and your family. Of course, it will not save you from a direct hit, but a good air-raid shelter will provide you with sufficient protection even within five miles of the epicenter of the explosion.

But the fact is that the metro and underground garages are not adapted to serve as bomb shelters. They have no blast doors and ventilation. Everyone in such a place at the time of the explosion is subject to a phenomenon called popcorn, or toasting. Particles of sand moving at tremendous speed cause blisters on all exposed parts of the human body. This, together with some other pathological processes, leads to painful death within a few days.

Although the protection provided by an air-raid shelter is much better than staying in an open area, there are reasons to stay in a dwelling house, rather than striving for a large public shelter if the danger of an explosion is small or not at all.

In public shelters there are no stocks and no equipment. The average shelter is designed for three thousand people. Can you imagine what kind of anarchy there is, what are the conditions there? In the absence of food, children who are not supplied with subcutaneous fat will die first. They are followed by chronic patients (especially elderly), who need special medicine, and the wounded.

Not only mortality has a negative psychological effect on the rescued. Major health problems will create a broken water supply and sanitation. Most of the now established shelters do not have sanitary facilities for three thousand people.

One of the greatest dangers in a bomb shelter is carbon dioxide poisoning. Public shelters, with rare exceptions, are not equipped with ventilation that corresponds to the number of people and the considerable duration of their stay inside. And existing ventilation systems are dependent on the availability of power.

In addition, public shelters are not so light, there is a serious danger of anarchy, there is almost certainly no food, and perhaps water (which is more important), and now it’s understandable why a prepared and armed person doesn’t want to be caught in death in such a place .

Returning to staying in an apartment in a high-rise building - if there is no danger of an explosion, this is a preferable option for long-term survival than staying in a public shelter. Already the tenth-fifteenth floor - protection from the effects of nuclear precipitation, fell on the surface of the earth. And ten or more floors above your head will be saved from those settled on the roof.

For greater safety, the occupant of the apartment can equip the inner room without windows. An explosion that occurred fifteen or more miles away (about 28 km - approx. Lane) will knock out the windows in the windows and cut them into pieces with their fragments. Lower the curtains and blinds will be superfluous. The blast wave is preceded by a bright flash. There are from a few seconds to three or four minutes to sit down at the sofa or find another shelter.

Without delay, a protective action also means protecting yourself from the effects of intense thermal radiation that accompanies a nuclear explosion and which causes fires in an area of ​​fifteen to twenty miles from the epicenter of the explosion. Fire is a problem in itself, and if you are on the leeward side of a big fire or a “fire storm” (A complex phenomenon that occurs when many fires are poured into one. It spreads quickly and is difficult to extinguish. Those who fall into the area are choking rather than burning. Dresden, Hiroshima. - approx. Lane.), There is a danger of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Fire protection techniques are widely known, so they will not be mentioned here. It should be noted that it does not make sense to call the fire service - with non-functional central water supply there is little sense from them. It is possible and necessary to seal the apartment above yours and right below yours in improvised ways so that the nuclear sediments contained in them do not settle dangerously close.

It is possible to join forces with other survivors to become residents of the cliff, as in the old days. A bucket on a rope to deliver water produced in the near stream or pond, and so on.

Having shown some ingenuity, it is not difficult to provide heat and light, but if: you have enough food to hold out until a new crop grows and is harvested (most experts recommend a stock of at least two years); and you are seriously ready for sanitary problems arising from ill health; and you and your colleagues are well-organized and not afraid of anarchy, and new explosions do not thunder next to it - then you confidently walk the path of long-term survival. Anything is better than sitting in a public shelter.

There may be many reasons why you decide to stay in the city. Either the conflict happened in winter and you do not have a planned route, suitable clothing and supplies for the journey, or you are physically unable to set off, or you do not know the right place to take shelter, or ...

Those who have prepared and planned everything well can only hope that events will not unfold in the winter. In a storm, in cold weather, most deaths will be from hypothermia than from other causes. It is more than likely that roads and highways will be broken. If there were explosions nearby, it means that the transitions and infrastructure lines (power lines, for example - approx. Lane) are overturned on the roadway, which made it NOT passable.

And, of course, traffic jams, as without them. Roads tightly blocked by abandoned cars. I think it is better to forget about using the car, unless you put your plan into action at lightning speed, before the onset of panic and confusion on the roads.

A motorcycle, a motor scooter, and finally, a bicycle in this situation provide significant advantages compared to a car. For with respect to the “cargo transported - its own weight” they gain significantly.

The most reliable way to the outcome remains on foot. If one person passed the intended path, and his companions have at least some acceptable physical form, a two-three-day transition is quite realizable. And again, competent training changes a lot. Appropriate equipment, proper clothing, a planned outcome, a thoughtful choice of cargo carried, and proper load distribution.

And, as before, there are winning options. Pre-planned places of halts and meetings with comrades in survival, also moving to the shelter, or, perhaps, in the alarming pre-crisis situation you prefer to disperse. It is most likely that the one who has made a plan of survival and reacts immediately, will have time to avoid the thrill.

With the change of location, or moving to the other side of the mountain, the probability of survival increases dramatically. The danger of a shock wave and thermal radiation becomes much less relevant. But the explosions will not kill so many people - oh yes, of course, millions will die from them, but in relation to those who lived before the fateful day, this will amount to 10-15 percent. And a significant number of victims will be at some distance from the explosion, and will die from wounds inflicted by shards of glass.

As stated earlier, depending on the season and weather, many may die from the cold. There is a more savage killer. This, of course, is nuclear fallout from explosions that can travel hundreds of miles. They may take from a few hours to a day or two to this far transition. If the weather permits, and the fleeing know what to do, there is enough time to build an appropriate shelter.

Protection against nuclear fallout has been developed and tested by every state that possesses nuclear weapons. Although information about these methods is readily available, most people did not bother to familiarize themselves with it.

At a minimum, two simple methods are available. The first one is to leave the infected area. But the infected area may be too large to leave it in a short time, and it will hardly be possible to get accurate information on the direction of the spread of nuclear sediments.

The second way is to build an improvised shelter. The conditions of weather, relief, time will dictate whether it will be possible to dig a trench and close it with turf, reinforced with poles, wooden doors, or a vehicle. Properly constructed, such a shelter will reduce to a minimum or completely neutralize the effects of nuclear fallout.

The details of the building of the shelter are in the books below in the Bibliography (Soviet textbooks will work as well - lane comment). One of the most important and not always considered factors is to ensure a reliable supply of air to prevent carbon dioxide poisoning. This question, with reference to a force majeure situation, is also considered in the cited books.

The effect of nuclear fallout is not always death, although it is often so. Even if death is not instantaneous. Severe exposure causes a painful and seemingly disgusting death in a few days. It is more possible that the effects on the exposed will manifest themselves in a few weeks, months or even years. As the title of this article reads, all these people will survive the fateful day. This is not a key question of survival, but a condition of continued existence, which must be worried. Ultimately, death awaits everyone, but the quality of life in this gap is a very important detail.