I could give a few hints, I guess. When two countries are having an escalating slapfight, and near the beginning the U.S. gets involved supposedly for a short bit (but it escalates like a MFer), then another Major Power starts “Humanitarian Aiding” for the other side, pack the bags and select a minimum of three routes. When the major networks drop the “Man Bites Dog” stories in favor of unasked for “Don’t y’all worry at all, no really!” extensions of the real news, it might be time to go visit the never-spoken-of-before “Close Relatives” with unspecified “emergencies”.
Do you see where I laid out two steps?
In your case, you should go visit those hypothetical relatives when step 1 happens. Remember the three routes.
Well if you really believed that the odds were approaching 50/50 over the next 72 hours, if nothing else you could call in sick to work and then drive anywhere that wasn’t in or directly downwind of a plausible target (metropolitan area, military/government asset) and find a motel in some small town. Maybe on the way put some food and other supplies on your credit card, that if nothing happened you could simply bring home afterward.
I admit that I have the advantage of not living in the densely populated eastern USA (most of the east coast would be a very poor place to be if the balloon went up).
I can easily find 3 routes. But I don’t have those relatives. I mean, I’ve got relatives, but most of them would be less than happy to see me and my wife pull up the day before the nukes start dropping.
Again I ask, where would I (or most everybody) go?
- “Hypothetical”, as in “I may never speak to these bozoes ever again, so this is just my mouth moving as I scoot out the door.”
- Everybody is supposed to go Every Which Way But Loose. I know where I should probably go, but that doesn’t help the rest of you zombies.
- Sorry about that, Chief.
Also, a 2018-2020 Dodge Ram 1500 pick-up with a 32-gallon tank couldn’t hurt.
So, back to the OP, for most of us (like me), and except for the few of us like you, there is no threshold, because we’ve got no place to go.
What are you aiming for, a completely furnished bug-out refuge? Obviously the more thoroughly prepared one could be the better, but anything is better than ground zero.
Before we try to answer further, do you mind terribly answering what to me is a key question I asked upthread. Specifically the scale of what sort of Nuclear War we’re talking about?
Because again, the “give a damn” and the “give the hell up” factor is going to be different between a few nukes launched as a “warning” (presuming no retaliation that leads to full scale war), to a limited exchange of no more than a few dozen low yield, or a full exchange with a less robustly equipped non-peer nation (in terms of arsenal) all the way to everyone launches everything!
And the other 8+ million people living nearby doing the same thing? I’ve been stuck in traffic for over three hours and barely moved a few miles on a normal day. No one around here is getting anywhere.
I doubt anybody but a handful of guys in the Russian military and perhaps some western spy agencies really have any idea where ground zero is. And they ain’t sharing that info with us. Your cabin in the mountains could just as easily be near an undisclosed strategic target as your house in the suburbs.
Another thing: Why would I abandon my home to looters and squatters just to become someone else’s looter and squatter?
Does anyone remember the escape routes that were proposed in the early 1980s? I remember that my part of Des Moines, where I lived at the time, was supposed to evacuate to places like Ottumwa or Creston - although the missile could well be reprogrammed to smaller targets if they thought enough people could escape.
I feel the same way about North Korea’s alleged arsenal.
if I remember correctly what I heard years ago was that the Western intelligence agencies discovered that 90 percent of the USSR’s missiles weren’t aimed at anything important or even populated areas because their target info was decades out of date … is that still the case?
Says you. I have no real desire to play Real Life Fallout or spend my days trying to collect enough nuts and berries to survive while Dallas_Jones yells at me.
I don’t think anyone participating in this thread has any creditable information regarding the detailed nuclear weapon targeting capabilities of Russia or any other nation.
I’m not sure that Austin, Texas is all that likely to be hit by nukes, but who knows.
I most likely would not evacuate unless there were the most explicit of specific threats (i.e., “Austin will be nuked at such-and-such a time”) and the enemy had already in fact nuked another city to demonstrate seriousness.
If NATO were openly at war with Russia, I would get the popcorn ready. Either I get to enjoy Desert Storm 2.0 (one needs the dopamine) or else I’d at least die with popcorn.
Well. That cracked me up.
Clearly we’ve wasted our time here, all these years on the Dope.
And why haven’t we built our own underground, state of the art facility? Fully stocked and ready to power up?
(Some one pick up beer for @Gatopescado).
All in a nice location most can get to, pick others up on the way.
Oh. OH!!!
I see how it is. No one told me about it.
You bunch of jerks!
Are EMPs frying up the electronics no longer a thing in doomsday scenarios? Because I was under the impression that any car younger than 20 years (and your mobile phones including social media and even the Dope!) would not work after a nuclear bomb explodes high up in the sky.
This is why aluminum foil is oh so important in the bug out bag.
(It’s not for just hats, anymore)
BTW…in your bug out shelter you’ll need school desks too.