In the event of a nuclear war, what would you do?

I have seen tons of weird predictions, som eof them febble and som eof them very well founded and easy to believe in, since we have seen at least a dozen doomsday dates come and go th ereal question is:

Are you prepared for a full scale nuclear war?
Do you have food, water and means to survive at least 2 years for the raduiation to go down?
Who are you considering to save (wife, kids, mother, lover, dog, cat...etc)
Do you have an escape route out of your city?
Do you have a plan with your "team" to gather stuff, get somewhere to leave town?
Do you have hard cash (gold etc)

I wonder because this prediction forum is quite active I guess we all have a contingency plan, dont we?

If a nuclear bomb goes off anywhere in the vicinity you will die.Therefore you do not need to prepare in my opinion.

Originally posted by kix
I have seen tons of weird predictions, som eof them febble and som eof them very well founded and easy to believe in, since we have seen at least a dozen doomsday dates come and go th ereal question is:

Are you prepared for a full scale nuclear war?
Do you have food, water and means to survive at least 2 years for the raduiation to go down?
Who are you considering to save (wife, kids, mother, lover, dog, cat...etc)
Do you have an escape route out of your city?
Do you have a plan with your "team" to gather stuff, get somewhere to leave town?
Do you have hard cash (gold etc)

I wonder because this prediction forum is quite active I guess we all have a contingency plan, dont we?

I got a basement full of food, water, toilet paper, soap, vitamins, chocalate, booze, swords, axes, rifle & bullets, a camper trailer if I gotta get north. Bottles of water, seeds, lots of silver & some gold.
If you survive the blast you gotta stay under ground for only 2 weeks, then you can get out of dodge. I'm going to the Lake of the Woods, got a cabin, lots of wild game & fish & fresh water. Lots of places to hide from the blue helmets.

I got a basement full of food, water, toilet paper, soap, vitamins, chocalate, booze, swords, axes, rifle & bullets, a camper trailer if I gotta get north. Bottles of water, seeds, lots of silver & some gold.

Wait! Was the camper in the basement?

Can I move in witch ya?

nuclear testing has been going on for decades now. no real difference between war and testing, as far as radition goes.dont see alot of people stock piling food and water. but i do see alot of people dieing of cancer.... must be all those smokers out there.

Originally posted by kuhl
If a nuclear bomb goes off anywhere in the vicinity you will die.Therefore you do not need to prepare in my opinion.

not if you hide under your school desk.

supplies?
gees, i can barely pay my rent.
i guess if i survive, i'll be a scrounger. im good at that.
but i'd rather not survive.

If a nuclear war breaks out I'm going to sit and watch the show. I am positioned pretty much as perfect as I can get in the even of such a war.

first of all, if you can see the mushroom cloud, your dead,here in minnesota the earths rotation till the horizon of sight is only about 15 miles, the equator is 22.5 miles. the blast alone, in a 15 mile radius,you will be vaporized. the rush of wind (of the bomb) going out and comming back in, in a 25 mile radius will burn and blow you around like a grain of sand blowing in the dessert, and anything in the 25 mile radius and beyond will get hit with the nuclear dust fallout which is carried on the winds and clouds and rain. so even if you were out of range of the immediate threat of the bomb you would feel the aftermath of the wind carrying the nuclear fallout. so your guess is as good as mine on where to go, because of this wind issue. even canada gets some of our weather. the best way would be to look at where the weather went over a period of a year and guess from there. the best line of defense i would be packing pretty heavy on guns and ammo. the water i would just carry a empty container pitcher with filter. even if you carry clean water the water will only get as contaminated with radiation as much as you would, wherever you go ,and some of the water areas may not get contaminated,while the water you carried around did. i suppose a radiation detector would be nice to measure what is good and what is not, the area around you cause your body can only handle so many rads. it is a very good idea to stay undergound, away from a likely target, a city and stay undergound till the fallout, winds and rain wash away and dissapate the fallout. the radiation will take awhile to go away, so is best to mave to a good location to stay put underground for a couple of years or so. if you get lucky you may not need to stay underground, avoidng the nuclear winds and the cities that got hit. some cars may run, the ones that were far enough away from the emp (electromagnetic pulses) that fry all electrical systems. so i guess it would be a plus to know how to start a car without a key. gas stations would be hazzardous to go to because people will likely try to steel your car. gas would slowly dwindle to none. my list would be a gun, bullets, radiation detector, water container with filters,a bike, a large bikerack, a tent, a compass, a couple of knives,some fishing gear,a flashlight that takes no batteries,you know, camping survival gear. unless you have a cabin up north somewhere secluded away from everything. oh and if you have a cabin, make sure you pick up all kinds of seeds to grow your summer garden for food. and the gun to hunt it. that is if your lucky to have a cabin and the winds are favorable for you. good luck on your venture, the traveling to your cabin up north after bombs are dropped. unless your there when the bombs are dropped. the people around you will want whatever you have. on your venture to your cabin.

I would stock up on gold.

Personally,i think goin out in the first blasts would be better than enduring whatever hell remains afterwards.Radiation poisoning is a terrible way to die. When i was in jr. high school i remember reading a book where a nuclear war broke out,and australia was the only place left without radioactive fallout. It showed various ppl's reactions and decisions knowing the deadly cloud is making its way toward them. Ultimately they all die of radiation poisoning. Wish i could remember the title of the book though..

Originally posted by AnAbsoluteCreation

I got a basement full of food, water, toilet paper, soap, vitamins, chocalate, booze, swords, axes, rifle & bullets, a camper trailer if I gotta get north. Bottles of water, seeds, lots of silver & some gold.

Wait! Was the camper in the basement?

Can I move in witch ya?

That 29ft camper probably cost more than your house! You just made it on to my short list!
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Mod Edit - removed hacking inquiry

[edit on 14-9-2006 by masqua]

Didn't you all see the film? Duck and cover, remember? Wrap yourself in tinfoil to prevent radiation. Seriously though, there's not much you can do. The best you can hope for is that it hits nearby and while your asleep. Those who survive the impact will be the ones suffering and dying a slow and painfull death.

More people will survive a nuclear bomb than you think. I just read an article on Slate that is pretty informative, and over the last few months I've done some research so I could be prepared. My basement is also full of supplies and we have a plan to go to another location when we are able. It's hard to think about preparing for a "worse case" scenario but I have, and I am pretty certain that my family will have what they need.

It doesn't cost much to prepare, you can fill empty soda bottles with water and set aside a small amount of money each week to buy a few extras, I watch the sales closely. We have 4 kids and not a lot of money but over the last few months we managed to store quite a bit. The hardest part is wrapping your mind around doing it.

The gov't has already told us that we will be on our own in during a major event, that is all the convincing I needed.

Well. We've been taught in the Army that if there's a nuclear explosion and you're at Ground Zero, then the following action will be taken as per directive No 4377/22/nuc:

1. Bend
2. Put your head between your knees.
3. Kiss your ass goodbye!

well, the most interesting aspect of this thread is what would you store in case of Nuclear war..

Alcohol is a good bet. You can trade alcohol for many other things if you need. Antibiotics and medical supplies. A good hunting rifle and bullets, Knives....lots of knives. Then food and water, iodine pills for water purification, lots of toilet paper, clothes...then you need a Mate...several really to repopulate your neck of the woods...so vitamins would be next on the list......

Stan has extrememly valid points. Most people are under the misconception that any nuclear attack would mean curtains for us all. Far from it. I'm a 'child of the cold war'. In grade school we really had 'duck 'n cover' training and regular air raid drills. The scenario back then was driven by MAD. Any nuclear attack would be met with mutual exchanges of hundreds of megaton nukes utterly wiping out huge swaths of populated areas.

Nowadays that scenario is extremely unlikely. The scenario du jour is more likely to be a small number of isolated, kiloton range devices. The majority of people will survive this. But only if people know what to do and have the basic necessities to survive. As has been pointed out earlier, it will only be necessary to shelter in-place for several days before radiation levels decay to a point where going outside is possible. But if you ARE going to survive you need to have some preparations in-place ahead of time.

Keep in mind, bugging-out (evacuation) for the vast majority of people in the affected areas is NOT going to be possible. Remember Katrina. It will be worse. The government will be unable to help you or provide virtually any services. You will be on your own.

Here is one of many sites that can help guide you through the preparation process. There are many others on the web but start someowhere:

Disaster Prep

Forget your Mad Max fantasies. The roving, looting hordes won't fair quite as well as their Katrina ilk after a nuclear incident.

Originally posted by spanishcaravan
broke out,and australia was the only place left without radioactive fallout. It showed various ppl's reactions and decisions knowing the deadly cloud is making its way toward them. Ultimately they all die of radiation poisoning. Wish i could remember the title of the book though..

Try On the Beach. Maybe? It's also a very good movie. Made in 1959 and you can probably find it for rent at a good video store.

The Movie

Try for a quick shag, failing that a bar of chocolate, then go out to meet the blast.


I don't think I'd want to survive.

Originally posted by ubermunche
Try for a quick shag, failing that a bar of chocolate, then go out to meet the blast.


I don't think I'd want to survive.

Very cute you've taken care of the first ten minutes-and only if it's a big chocolate bar. But seriously put yourself in that scenario. Could you feed and protect your family? Not everyone will be incinerated, most will survive the initial attack, how will you survive after? I can assure you that the people who are well prepared are not going to be handing out freebies.