safest place to be if nuked

I don�t know if there are any, but I think the safest place in the US would be an island some distance from the West Coast, because the winds in the North hemisphere blow mainly from West to East.

It seems to me that widescale nuclear attack is not the likely scenario currently. Targeted cities yes, a real threat right now.

So my question is, if a major city is hit, how far away from ground zero is enough, assuming the wind is not directly blowing the fallout towards you? Although, I guess the size of the bomb has to be a consideration.

One more thing, how long is the fallout strong enough to be of imminent concern?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Originally posted by Kaiser617
I was just wondering would we really actually have time to escape to some other country if there is a nuke dropped?

It depends on who is doing the nuking and where you live. If North Korea are the ones lobbing missiles then you might have about a half an hour or so and i believe you might only have to worry if you live on the west coast,I'm not even sure they have missiles than can reach the U.S., you would only have to worry about a few missiles at that.

If China is the attacker same time frame applies. The damage, for the most part would probably be worst on the west coast with only a few dozon or so missliles being capable of going beyond that to the east coast.

If the Russians were attacking then if you live on the coast then you might have about 5 minutes warning due to the missiles launched from submarines with the ICBMs landing about 30 minutes later. In this case the Russians have enough weapons that there really isn't anywhere safe to go.

Originally posted by Relentless


One more thing, how long is the fallout strong enough to be of imminent concern?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I'm not 100 percent sure but from what I understand the fallout from modern weapons isn't as bad as it would seem. I believe most of the radioactive material is consumed during the explosion with most harmful fallout limited to a radius of about 50 to 75 miles.

realisticly you wont have time to go anywhere safe. Chances are if you tried going somewhere you would die stuck in a traffic jam of people.

Originally posted by clearmind
sorta interesting www.oism.org... [url=http://www.ki4u.com/nuclearsurvival/list.htm]this has pics for each state

Good info. Thanks.

Many survivalists in the USA live in the four corners region.

Just FYI

[edit on 8/7/2004 by FlyersFan]

probally somewhere in middle america seeing how there aint many important targets out there (cept for norad but thats hidden away in the mountains and is safe from a nuclear strike). unfortunately though i live on the east coast which is the first place they'd nuke. hopefully if we do get nuked i'd be at ground zero and would face an instant and painless death.

Well let's see,

Mexico or So. America is out of the question, they'll kill every gringo down there cause they won't have jobs up here anymore. I think I'll stay right where I am now. Lots of fresh water, salt water, fish, game, wood,and space. A moderate climate here in Nikishka, Alaska. Safest and best place I can think of.

Tut

Originally posted by mutehalo
probally somewhere in middle america seeing how there aint many important targets out there (cept for norad but thats hidden away in the mountains and is safe from a nuclear strike). unfortunately though i live on the east coast which is the first place they'd nuke. hopefully if we do get nuked i'd be at ground zero and would face an instant and painless death.

The fallout from all those silos in the Dakotas could make things nice and cozy..... Even if the fallout patterns are small, if it is an all out exchange, almost every major population center would be hit.

I'd go to the Oregon Coast. Wind is always coming in fresh from the ocean.

Originally posted by TACHYON
Actually a missle silo would be the least safe, because it will be targeted.

The link provided wrt missle silos was for underground bomb shelters. They wouldnt' be targeted.

if everyone is talking about a full blown thermonuclear war between say the US and the former soviets, then things would be super crappy no matter where you went, however, nuclear bombs aren't unlimited destruction machines. People in the -suburbs- of major cities will be relatively safe.

A long while ago there was an article about this in one of our newspapers. It looked at what would happen if a nuke hit NYC, off the ground, more or less in the center of manhattan. All of manhattan was not destroyed. The fall out was huge, but concentrated in a particular direction because of prevailing winds. You don't need to leave the country to survive that sort of nuclear attack, which, realisitically, is the only likely nuclear attack in the short term future.

[edited to add:]
I noticed some people talking about winds on the continental scale. I think that the prevailing winds will be significant on the metropolitan scale (maybe even statewide, obviously depending on the state tho). However, on the large scale (ie go to the west coast, or go to oregon and such) the prevailing winds aren't as relevant. When chernobyl exploded (and, just to remind everyone, that wasn't a nuclear explosion, that was a regular explosion (steam i think) had as part of its debris radioactive waste), scientists were able to track the cycling/passing of radioisotopes passing in the atmosphere over the US several times. IOW, the radioactive material circled the earth several times. It was brought out of the atmosphere thru -rain-. It washed into the water table and was absorbed by crops, hence the importance of iodine pills. These pills load your body with an isotope of iodine, making it less likely that yourbody, if it picks up a radio-isotope of iodine, will store it (in the thyroid) and give you cancer. However, its important to keep in mind that iodine is only one of several radionuclides that would be involved in the fall out. Anyway I just wanted to add that.

[edit on 11-8-2004 by Nygdan]

the safest place to be is get the bloody hell out of nyc. could it be the fulfilment of biblical prophecy?

Does anyone think being in a Valley, like Phoenix is safer than higher ground? Let me guess: NO, right?

The International Space Station! watching the fireworks with a whole lota popcorn..then suddenly realizeing..Dammnit no more resupply missions.. good thing they developed that machine that turns poo to food!

Ok seriously i never believed all the Jon Titor stuff but its kind of interesting, he mentioned that when the nukes went off before WWIII, many many people stayed in the cities much to his surprise.. I guess you are all of those ppl Safest place to be in case of nuclear winter is NOWHERE. No matter WHERE you are, if the blast, heat, or fallout doesnt get you, radiation will be in the atmosphere and it will effect the entire world right?. It wouldnt matter where you were cause after that the whole wolrd would go to hell in a rocketship.

This might sound like a crazy idea, but it might just work.
Take shelter in a Nuclear Power Plant. All the hazmat suits you can use...
there will be some food around (lounge fridge, numerous snack machines, pop machines). I am also sure there would also be some weapons and ammo in the guard's locker room. In addition to some rock-solid communications capabilities. Whether or not it's abandoned (and why? ) would be the milllion dollar question.

To answer a question from someone a few posts back about the rate of Isotopic decay. That cannot be given an exact figure, as there will be about 30 different radioactive isotopes (charged, non-bonded atoms) that will decay into many more kinds, though less radioactive, etc.. The approximation or simulation I do believe is:

radiation% = Time(hours)^-1.2

This relationship would mean that as the radioactive fallout 'cools off' for lack of a better term, the longer the wait will be before it 'cools off' by the same amount.

about 90% at 7 hours, another 90% at 7*7 hours, yet another 90% at 7*7*7 hours, etc...

It would still depend on how intense the first series of decay would be before anyone would be able to know when it would be safe to come out. That is also assuming that a geiger counter rigged outside was able to get the initial RAD count of the fallout.

I could be wrong, so please correct me if I am wrong about the above math model.

Isn't the safest place to be if nuked under your desk or table? I mean, that's what those old videos say, duck and cover. Three inches of wood will protect you from a nuclear blast a few miles away won't it?

How about the San Louis Valley in Colarado? Very mysterious and strange place actually. My wife was born there and I have been there several times.