Russia recently announced that they would be conducting a drill that would put 40 million Russians in underground bunkers. This is a drill to prepare for a nuclear attack. This is clearly a message. Regardless of your political views with the rising tensions between Russia and the United States, the threat is real. Many people believe that should there be a nuclear attack on the United States almost everyone would die and if you did survive you would wish you hadn’t. Is that true, would that be the TEOTWAWKI moment for anyone living in the good old US of A?
August 6th, 1945 at 8:15 am, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the United States Army Air Force. Three days later Nagasaki was bombed. In all at least 105,000 were dead and at least 94,000 were injured. I will not go into all the grizzly details of the carnage and though the destruction was horrific, people did survive. Obviously the farther away from the blast the better off you are. Needless to say, if you can read the writing on the bomb as it falls you have drawn the short straw.
What do you do if you are outside when the bomb drops? The first thing you don’t want to do, is look in the direction of the explosion, the flash of light from it will blind you. Next you will want to drop face down flat on the ground and cover yourself if you can. If there is some sort of protection that you can get to, do it. Once you feel the wave go by find shelter. Move to the deepest part of the building. The more layers you have between you and the radioactive material the better. If you can go under ground that’s even better again go as far below ground as you can. Carefully remove your clothing and put it in a plastic bag and seal it up as best you can. Removing your clothing will remove 90% of the radioactive material. Remove the bag as far away from people and animals as possible. Take a shower with soapy water making sure not to scrub or scratch your skin. Shampoo your hair but do not use any type of conditioner. Conditioners will cause radioactive particles to stick to your hair. Very gently clean your ears with a clean wet cloth, do not insert a cotton swab into your ear as you may push radioactive material into your ear canal. Gently blow your nose. If showering is not an option you can use baby wipes to clean with.
If you are aware that a nuclear blast is coming try to find the safest building you can for protection. Remember the more layers between you and the radioactive material the better. Sturdy concrete and brick buildings are better, being able to go underground is even better. If you are moving to a new location the odds are taking a vehicle is a bad idea. Try to make it to a place you can quickly walk to. Once you are there stay there. Plan on sheltering in place for at least 24 hours.
If you can actually afford to build a blast shelter or fallout shelter it might be an investment to consider. A blast shelter and a fallout shelter are not exactly the same. As the name suggests a blast shelter is designed to protect against the initial blast where as a fallout shelter is designed to protect against the radioactive fallout after the blast. Keep in mind that if you are in the immediate area of the blast, no blast shelter is going to protect you. A fallout shelter doesn’t need to be fancy it can be any space with enough dense material between you and the fallout to protect you.
After the Chernobyl accident potassium iodine tablets were widely used and found to be more effective in children than originally thought. Potassium iodine tablets are designed to help protect the thyroid glands from radioactive iodine by blocking or reducing the chances of it entering the thyroid gland. Though the effects of the radiation on your thyroid gland may take years to manifest, if you have them and officials tell you to take them, take them. If you don’t have any it may be a good idea to get them now because in the event of nuclear fallout they may be hard to find.
Gas masks can protect you from inhaling radioactive particles which is where most of the damaging effects from fallout will come from. If you choose to buy a gas mask learn how to use it before you need it. A true radiation suit can be had for as little as $1,700.00. If you can afford that you are good to go. For the rest of us, just like going into a shelter, the more layers the better. Any protection is better than no protection. If you do have all the fancy gear don’t think that you are immune to the radiation. You still need to limit your exposure.
Remember to make sure to listen to any and all communication devices you have since you don’t know what will actually be functional and as soon as you are able get as far away from the affected area as you can. If you are able to survive the initial blast and take the right actions you can survive.
