Nuclear War Survival — How To Survive a Nuclear War

[swxx]

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Interesting:

Nuclear war is much more survivable than you probably realise.
Nuclear war is much more likely than you probably realise.
Nuclear war can escalate much faster than you probably realise.

https://www.survival.org.au/nuclear-war-survival.php

[gil]

#1 doesn't make me feel any better...

Gil.

[swxx]

A thought: for some of us will TEOTWAWKI really be so bad as we all think? Have we much further to fall? On the other hand, if we DO still have communications and information from a few thousand km in all directions, and able to keep up those links on an ongoing basis, we'd be a lot better off than most and have something worth a huge amount of VALUE since thankfully money will all be gone and worthless, INFORMATION will be power.

[gil]

A thought: for some of us will TEOTWAWKI really be so bad as we all think?

Much worse than we think IMHO. There are a LOT of things that we would miss that do not come to mind. The violence between survivors would probably be pretty bad as well. The simple lack of modern medicine would cost a lot of lives. Sure, information would help and might make all the difference, but communications would not be our primary or even secondary concern...

Gil.

[KK0G]

A thought: for some of us will TEOTWAWKI really be so bad as we all think?

Much worse than we think IMHO. There are a LOT of things that we would miss that do not come to mind. The violence between survivors would probably be pretty bad as well. The simple lack of modern medicine would cost a lot of lives. Sure, information would help and might make all the difference, but communications would not be our primary or even secondary concern...

Gil.

It may be sacrilege to say it here on a forum dedicated to the subject, but in a true end of the world as we know it, completely lawless, total loss of civilization, communications will likely be extremely far down the list of priorities after water, food, shelter, and security.

[swxx]

I guess you're right. It will still depend on what part of the world you are in. There are places that are tight nit and remote, places where communities are strong. Then there are places at the opposite extreme where when SHTF most will die and a few will survive and they likely won't be the nice ones. Even disasters like Katrina, we saw what looked like elephants but on closer inspection were people, dangling from helicopters, too big to get inside. Dying within hours due to sugar withdrawal no coca cola and no hamburgers.

If the half lives of radiation which are much quicker than nuclear power station disasters are survived and not all the nukes go off then there will be areas where people will presumably survive. Maybe in some of those areas the people who were at the bottom of the heap will no longer be at the bottom, others high up will fall much lower.

For me, if I am in an area of survival, communications will be important as I'd like to know how the rest of the world is faring and my distant friends and loved ones, since they are scattered around the world. Part of staying alive and having something to live for will be that knowledge, so I think it would rank fairly high after air, water and food, it probably comes next.

In summary, I used to think this is not survivable. But now I'm thinking it is. And if it is, I'd like to be a little prepared, which I'm certainly not as yet!

[RadioRay]

The problems to me:

1.  Immediate shelter, water, kitchen.
2.  Rioting from the same miscreants who burn down sections of town when their football team WINS.   
3. U.S. government overreaction to people defending, feeding and generally taking care of themselves and their homes from the usual suspects in large numbers.
4. Long term shelter, water, kitchen.


The is an old saying that society is only three meals from pandemonium. Here in the US, many parts of the country have large portions of the population who, for generations, have received their needs and wants by having it extorted from those of us who work, through political taxes.  This basic income is often supplimented by crimes such as robbery, theft &etc., which also serves as entertainment for many. If the 'entitlements' are interrupted or stop, expect criminal tantrums of epic proportions in every major city and even smaller ones.  After these places are burned-out, expect an exodus into the more rural areas - often seen as easy prey. The natural response, when local law enforcement is unable to cope and Federal assets are taking care of politicians and their concubines, is for citizens to form self defense groups and armed perimeters on their neighborhoods.  Politicians don't like common people protecting themselves.  Only politicians are allowed to live in gated and guarded communities.

It's not the attack I would be as concerned about as the aftermath, both governmental and social.

[gil]

Good points. I think radio would be most important after chaos subsides, or sooner in already organized groups, simply using handhelds. The worse the crisis, the later radio networks would bloom, and only for those who planned for it and can generate power. For more regional emergencies it might be different.

Gil

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

[NCGunDude]

A couple of recent articles on SurvivalBlog,

https://survivalblog.com/radiation-issues-nuclear-blasts-part-1-dr-bones-doomandbloom-net/
https://survivalblog.com/radiation-issues-nuclear-blasts-part-2-dr-bones-doomandbloom-net/

I haven't prepped for NBC, or EMP, for that matter. Anyone else have surplus equipment stored in faraday cages?

[cockpitbob]

A little off topic, but I have to show off.

My Dad worked for IBM his whole career, and in the early 1960s he had an office in the Pentagon.  His work was secret enough that I still don't know much about what he did.  This is a little trinket he picked up (or used?) while he was there.  Give it a close look.  It's scary to think there was a time when they made these things by the thousands and Generals, military planners, physicists had them on their desks and used them daily. 

Of course now there are web sites like http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ that do a better job of calculating it.  But I suppose if the grid is down and I need to nuke some place I have a low-tech method of predicting the damage

[RadioRay]

Example from the UN-reported news in the controllededia :

https://www.rt.com/usa/401652-houston-swat-deputy-stops-looters/

A fire team operating with LPOPs tactical /voice comms &etc. would be a force multiplier.

https://www.rt.com/usa/401652-houston-swat-deputy-stops-looters/

[cockpitbob]

I'm not worried about looters at my home.  I've already got Roof Koreans under contract .
They've branched out from Ferguson and have local barracks near me

[cockpitbob]

GEIGER COUNTERS:

So, who's given thought to buying one?  If NKorea lobs a nuke at me, or sells one to ISIS and it goes off anywhere near me, I'm sure all .gov communications will be down from the EMP, and if not, I doubt I'll get a lot of honest, useful info from the .gov. about wind direction and how much fall-out I have around me.  It would be nice to have some idea of the increase in ambient radiation.

I've got a lot to learn about this topic, but the basics seem pretty simple.  If the detector says the background radiation went up a lot, I'm f*#ked and need to take action (and iodine).  Even if that action is to tarp off a couple rooms in the house and hunker down for a few weeks until the rain gets things settled and out of the air.

In a quick look, there's a lot of low end ones for under $100. 

$100 kit with no box or display:  expensive but site has great info:
http://mightyohm.com/blog/products/geiger-counter/

$100 complete unit with display through Wal-Mart:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Radex-RD1503-RADEX-RD1503-Radiation-Detector/33280726?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=5280&adid=22222222227021916210&wl0=&wl1=s&wl2=c&wl3=52624575071&wl4=pla-84499658951&wl5=1018436&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=113728255&wl11=online&wl12=33280726&wl13=&veh=sem

$44 kit without box or display from banggood.com
https://www.banggood.com/Assembled-DIY-Geiger-Counter-Kit-Module-Miller-Tube-GM-Tube-Nuclear-Radiation-Detector-p-1136883.html?rmmds=search

$70 complete unit with box, display and internal USB rechargeable battery from banggood.com
https://www.banggood.com/GMV2-Portable-Handle-Geiger-Counter-Assembled-Nuclear-Radiation-Detector-X-Ray-p-1090980.html?rmmds=search


Also, I've got a ton of reactor cores within 1,000 miles of me.  I'm in MA, just north of Boston.  The winds around here always come from the N, W or S, so I'm likely screwed if a core melts down. 

And, it just occurred to me that the bad guys don't need to detonate a nuke.  All they have to do is cause a power plant core to melt down.  I'm betting (worried) it could even be done remotely with hacking.  I would be very surprised if NKorea's expert hackers along with Putin's haven't already looked into this.  I believe ISIS also has world-class hackers.

Reactor Cores Near Me:



Fine!!!    Now I've got myself all worried 

[gil]

[cockpitbob]

Nice video.  Have you "tested" it?

http://mightyohm.com/blog/2012/02/feed-your-geiger-readily-available-radioactive-test-sources/This site shows some mildly radioactive items we all have access to, like granite counter tops and old radium dial watches.  From your description I'm guessing it might not be sensitive enough to pick up what comes off granite.

If I'm still this twitchy about this topic by this weekend I think I'm going to get one of those little Geiger counters.


Uh oh, I just looked at the reactors in France.
Dude, you're as screwed as me .   Probably worse because it seems the ISIS guys are much more active within 500 miles of you.




 And the map above doesn't show the 42 other reactors in the countries that border France.  At least the prevailing winds for you seem to come from the west and you're pretty close to the coast, but there's 3 in France you are directly down wind of