Noooo.
Like many others I want to be eaten first. As they say, the survivors will envy the dead. Especially me - I’m in my 50’s and kinda out of shape these days. No use prolonging the inevitable and dying slowly by inches.
Just finished reading “Nuclear War: a scenario”. It was quite educational. Lots and lots of facts, and some speculation. Limited nuclear war is extremely unlikely- it would escalate quickly.
You would not want to survive. You would not survive for long, no matter how prepared you are, unless you live in the vicinity of Australia and New Zealand. Radiation poisoning is perhaps the very worst way to die.
Living near the epicentre of the capital of a fairly small island, I don’t think I can express my view any better than Tom Lehrer:
While modern electronics are more sensitive to overvoltages, an EMP has a greater effect on physically large electrical systems. So your computer, which is plugged into an electrical grid that spans hundreds of miles, will probably be wrecked. OTOH, although your car may have a mile of wire in it, it’s all in short segments; the longest piece connected to any component is probably no more than ten feet. In addition, the most sensitive components include shielding to help protect them from interference, and that may offer some EMP protection as well.
The scene in “The Day After” in which all the cars on the highway suddenly die because of an EMP was really unlikely: it was broadcast in 1983, and virtually all of the cars at the time would have used carburetors for fueling and mechanical distributors for ignition, so they would have been pretty much immune to nuclear EMP effects.
In response to the OP, well, I can’t imagine where I’d go, especially knowing that a nuclear exchange would probably adhere to the MAD doctrine, so I’d probably just stay put, hope for the best, and expect the worst.
As BBB points out, nuclear war would be a very difficult thing to hide from. Even if you have a cabin in the woods. you might want to check out what’s in your area. I used to camp in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula a lot, and thought the U.P. woods would be a great place to go if it looked like a nuclear war might be inevitable-- very remote and sparsely populated.
But guess what else you often find in otherwise remote, sparsely populated areas? Military bases. I eventually came across a website showing Soviet-era maps of potential nuclear missile targets, and pretty much the entire U.P. and much of the upper L.P. would have been literally carpet-bombed in overlapping patterns, because of all the military bases that are up there (or were, several have since closed). The U.P. would have ended up as one big chunk of glass.
I live upwind of the nearest likely target, and there’s a hill between here and there, blocking line-of-sight radiation. And i have no place to go. And like others, i don’t expect to survive the aftermath of anything but the smallest of nuclear exchanges (and that wouldn’t hit my nearby target, anyway.) So i don’t go anywhere. I mean, maybe i go downtown, to die faster. But i doubt the radiation burns and crushing damage is a good way to go. So probably i just dither at home. And die in some other unpleasant way in the aftermath.
I am the same way. I live & work in a ‘ground-zero’ town, so it’d be quick for me.
My biggest fear is that I’ll be on travel out-of-town when the bombs fall, leaving me & the wife and pets separated.
Tripler
A nuclear winter would suck w/out a significant other and a lap cat.
If you don’t get away before the bombs hit EMPs are going to be the least of your problems.
I don’t think NATO troops fighting Russians is at all likely to end in nuclear war. Russians directly fought the US in Korea and Vietnam and nothing of the like happened. Their bar is much much higher, and the real red line, when it comes to launching, is probably stronger than the official one anyway.
Lets assume that NATO gets directly involved in Ukraine. Using a non-strategic nuclear weapon in Ukraine is extremely unlikely, but 10,000x more likely than attacking the US directly.
Like most of the people in this thread, I’d rather die than live through a full nuclear war, but if you rephrase from “when would you get out of town” to “when do you think it’s likely to happen” it would be NSNW use in theater.
Here are a few maps that helped me decide which way to possibly run:
Areas in US Most Likely to Be Struck in a Nuclear Attack by Russia - Business Insider
Map of US claims to show areas most at risk of being targeted in nuclear war | The Independent
Here are the areas in the US most likely to be struck in a nuclear attack by Russia (yahoo.com)
Who Would Take the Brunt of an Attack on U.S. Nuclear Missile Silos? | Scientific American
On one hand you may not be as doomed as you think, but on the other hand…
So based on that, i probably survive the initial attack. (The worst case scenario in the sci-am link shows my location as 50% mortality for high-risk people, and most of the scenarios show either a little radiation sickness or nothing.) But I’m not likely to survive the riots, lack of food, etc. and running isn’t going to increase my odds.
Maybe i try to find deadly meds i can take? I doubt my vet would share. 
Yep, I’m toast.
Tripler
I’ll stock up on some jam.
The other issue, is even if you’re NOT in a “primary target area” there’s lots of enlightened speculation and some evidence of the quality (negative to be clear) of the upkeep on (presuming) Russia’s arsenal. So, if it launches, and if it enters US airspace, there’s the question of will it hit the actual target? Horseshoes and hand-grenade territory are not really applicable given the distances and speeds required for an ICBM.
So you could be going for the safest place on earth, but a buggy inertial guidance set up by a vodka obsessed drunk 20+ years ago and left to nearly rot for nearly as long could still land on top of your head.
ASAP, if you survive the attack, can you get to a place that gives you a better chance at surviving, and so on and so on? “Finding a home” is old school-“Nomad” is new school.
There will be too many people hunting and foraging in the crowded North East for that to be viable, i think. And the breadbasket of the US will be deadly. Where am i going to go?
If you can’t get out, you can’t get out, sorry. Hunker down, keep your group small…and if you happen to be in a Costco when the shit hits the fan, stay the fuck there. If your relatives really love you, they will appreciate that you found shelter much more than they will appreciate that you died alone and horribly trying to find them.
One thing I forgot to mention earlier:
Ground-level nuclear detonations don’t cause much of an EMP. To make a truly damaging EMP happen, the nuke is detonated at a few hundred km above ground. At that altitude, they’re well out of the atmosphere and will not create a damaging blast wave on the ground.
All of this means that any deliberately destructive EMP event can (and probably will) happen somewhat in advance of the ground-level bombs that flatten and burn your locale.
There would be about 20 nuclear winters and nonSummers. Anything north of Kansas wouldn’t get above freezing for 14 years.
So…Minot, North Dakota won’t change much at all?
I imagine that the terrain will be rearranged somewhat. Otherwise no