What Should You Do If A Bomb Exploded Near By

Look at the headline and tell me if there is something in the question above that stands out to you? Yes there is. President Obama worries more about the threat of a nuclear device exploding in a major American city than foreign threats like Russia and North Korea.  Seem odd to you?  Well, it should.  I wonder if the ‘’government’’ has any intentions of sharing with it’s citizens any tips on surviving something their own intelligence points to as being the likeliest catastrophic event to occur right here on American soil.  The answer isn’t a simple, “no” or “yes”.  The government’s true objective is to maintain control and civil order. This means that if there were a catastrophic event coming and the public knowledge of this event would result in the collapse of civil obedience or public order; then the government isn’t likely to give you much fore warning.   However if you are informed and watch the behavior of the government;   it will tell you a lot about what they know.   The scary fact is that they are already predicting such an event to occur.

Very few people in Washington D.C. who work for the government have the slightest clue on what they would or should do if a 10-kiloton nuclear device exploded in the heart of the city.  Many people tend to reflect back on movies in which this sort of event has occurred to dictate their own response to an event, right?  In movies, since radiation is BAD, the thing to do is to get away from it as quickly as possible.  These kind of movies depict things such as electronics being completely fried, which makes the response of the people chaotic, and hundred of thousands people die.

Interestingly enough, the government has actually done a substantial amount of work to figure out what exactly would happen if a suitcase nuke (which doesn’t really exist… but for the sake of this example say it actually did) exploded in a crowded urban area.  As it turns out there are quite a lot of things that we can do to increase your chances of surviving  an event like this.  Choices we make could very well make the difference between an imminent death, or a relatively happy and healthy life.  That’s assuming the bomb is a “one-off”.

In 2011, the Lawrence National Laboratory released a report  called “‘’National Capitol Region Key Response Planning Factors for the Aftermath of Nuclear Terrorism” that spells all this out for you and I. Unfortunately, it hasn’t received the attention it deserves.    It makes for a worth while and knowledgeable reading experience, so we would advise you to check it out.  A little knowledge may make the difference between being a statistic or a survivor.

Did you know? :

1. The absolute WORST thing for someone to do in the aftermath is to get in their car and drive away.  Roads and exits routes will likely be useless once everyone  decides to leave at once.
2. Unless you’re within about a half a mile radius of ground zero and the shelter options or scarce, the BEST thing for someone to do is to find a stable location inside a sturdy structure. The majority of which will remain standing on the outside of that half a mile radius and stay there for 24 hrs.

In the case that you do survive and are close to ground zero, and a lot of people will survive such a horrific event, the best thing for you to do is:

A. Take immediate shelter, fallout will be falling like rain.
B. Wait an hour or until the fallout is minimal before moving locations,
C. Then you will need to walk about a half-dozen blocks laterally until you find large building to seek sustainable shelter.

3. The Electromagnetic pulse from a ground burst will NOT in fact knock out ALL types of communication.  EMP’s occur when the bomb is detonated in the atmosphere.  For events that occur at ground level; the majority of the damage is a result of the initial force of the explosion and the fallout to come after.

4. If you live in a single family home with thin walls – STAY THERE! Your chances of survival in the immediate aftermath of a blast and not getting cancer are much higher than if you seek shelter from large buildings and structures. Even if a large building is in close proximity to your home and you can make it there safely;  statistically your chances remain much higher for surviving the fallout in a small home than in large buildings.

5. Rescuers and first-response personnel should NOT put on radiation suits if there is no fallout falling from the sky.  Believe it or not –  it slows them down from doing their jobs quickly and more efficiently.  As long as the fallout has stopped falling, they’re best advised to return to their normal attire.

6. Although thousands of people will die from the blast alone, about 96% of the other potential casualties can be avoided if people understand the basics of what to do in the event that they are exposed to mass radiation.  In the event of a radiation emergency, the first thing to figure out is if you are contaminated. If you have radioactive materials on or inside your body, you’re contaminated. Contamination can quickly spread — you’ll shed external contaminants as you move about and release bodily fluids. The CDC recommends the following steps to limit contamination:

A. Get out of the immediate area quickly. (make smart decisions as discussed in STEP 1)
B. Remove your outer layer of clothing.
C. Place clothing in a plastic bag or away from others.
D. Wash all exposed parts of your body.
E. Internal contamination may call for medical attention.

7. Once again, I cannot express to you enough the WORST place to be in the immediate aftermath of a nuclear blast is in a car trying to escape the madness going on around you. It will only make your situation worse and put you in more imminent danger. The so called DFZ (Dangerous Fallout Zone) will extend out as much as 20 miles, but it’s likely to be extremely narrow. If not, that means the concentration of radioactive particles will be lower. The wind will be the key factor in the vector and location of the DFZ, and its size will shrink with every hour that passes.

8. Penetrating trauma’s from broken glass distributed from the explosion is likely to be the largest treatable type injuries caused from the blast.

Regretfully we are unaware of a forum by which the nations leaders or government officials could use to better educate people in major cities about nuclear explosions and topics of this nature with out alarming the general public.   Governments don’t want to alarm the public so don’t fool yourself into thinking there will be some sort of advanced warning (assuming the government had such advanced knowledge) when this sort of event takes place. There are many ways we could increase our chances of survival in such a terroristic scenario but it is our own personal responsibility to educate ourselves about the steps to take.  The threats are a reality and  So be prepared!