Best Locations To Survive Nuclear War In The U.S.
Just something delightful to ponder as we head into the holiday season amidst the very real possibility of nuclear armageddon. Via Newsweek:
In the wake of President Biden’s mention of nuclear “armageddon”, and Elon Musk tweeting that “nuclear war probability is rising rapidly,” it is natural that people have pondered online what they would do, and where they would shelter, in the event of a nuclear war.
Some estimates name Maine, Oregon, Northern California, and Western Texas as some of the safest locales in the case of nuclear war, due to their lack of large urban centers and nuclear power plants.
[…]
At the epicenter of the bomb, the shockwave of searing hot air would flatten most structures in its path, burning anything flammable.
“I am of the view that a rural area which is not downwind of a obvious target is the best place if you want to avoid fallout and other effects of the bomb. A good place would be a valley where the hills would give you some protection from heat and blast from bombs which go off [miles] from where you are,” Dr Mark R. StJ Foreman, an associate professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden, told Newsweek.
“A railway tunnel would be a good place to hide if you know for sure that the trains will not be moving around. Another option would be to park a car above a motor mechanics inspection trench. Pack the inside of the car with sacks of soil. Then go under the car. The soil in the car and the fact you are underground would then shield you from gamma rays.”
Right, because I’m sure the average person has the wherewithal and the time during a nuclear war—of which I’m sure we’d be given plenty of advance notice!—to find an abandoned Jiffy Lube station in the middle of nowhere, drive there and park in an inspection trench, fill their car with “sacks of soil,” and then live(?) underneath it for a few months.
More:
Even if you were outside of the area close to the detonation, radioactive fallout from the bomb may reach you via wind and rain. Radioactive dust can be blown many hundreds of miles and be inhaled, and also caught in rain clouds, falling to Earth in the water system.
Radiation sickness caused by the fallout can kill, depending on the intensity of exposure. Radiation can affect the gastrointestinal system, the bone marrow and the circulatory system, which can result in rapid death, or at lower doses, may cause cancers of the thyroid and other organs.
[Newsweek]
So, if you survive the initial blast, you could easily be killed by cancer shortly thereafter. I think I’ll just stay here in southern California and hope that the nuke dropped on L.A. wipes us all out quickly.
If you’re curious, this “nuke map” simulator shows you how far away you’d need to be from a nuclear detonation (you can choose the city and type of nuke used) in order to survive. If Russia were to drop its largest nuke on downtown Los Angeles, over 3.6 million would be killed throughout L.A., Riverside, Ventura, San Bernardino, and Orange counties.
