Ok, say there is a nuclear holocaust, what would the survivors do? how would they survive in a poisoned environment full of mutants and people burned and horribly scarred from radiation and burning.
How would people survive in the major cities, what sort of people would take control?
Here’s an interesting article I stumbled across about surviving the initial bit. After that, you only need to worry about the mutants. And food. And, well, all kinds of other things I suppose.
I think the consensus is, that if there were an old-school type full nuclear exchange with warhead counts and yields similar to that currently deployed by the United States and Russia, or even worse, similar to that deployed at the height of the Cold War, a “nuclear winter” effect would occur, disrupting the growing of food crops and grazing lands, causing widespread famine across the entire earth, possibly leading to the extinction of the human race.
In anything short of a full exchange involving large numbers of major metropolitan areas, the likelyhood of this happening is greatly diminished, and the effects would generally be localized to the blast and direct fallout affected areas. Still a major catastophe, but the basic infrastructure of the society attacked would remain intact, and rescue and recovery efforts would likely be attempted from outside the affected areas.
In spirit.
I live close enough to NYC and Philadelphia where I would hopefully die and not suffer through the nuclear winter or fallout.
I would move to somewhere that won’t get nuked, and gets a minimum of fallout- maybe the Southern Hemisphere?
I liked Homer’s bomb shelter in one episode of the Simpsons–an upside-down cardboard box with a beach umbrella on top and “USA #1” painted on the side.
Me? The only way possible: by swearing fealty to our new 8 foot tall cockroach overlords.
I would put on my old high school hockey shoulder pads, steal a sports car and go rampaging across the wasteland.
Covered earth trench with a supply of water, some iodine, an earth filter, and some MREs.
Nuclear winter has received serious scientific criticism, and many believe that the particles would bond to moisture and wash out as rain. Radioactive effects drop very very significantly in the first 2 weeks. After that, finding clean food and water is the biggest concern.
Ok, how would YOU survive a nuclear war?
Duck & cover?
Why yes, actually.
No no no! I will join a high-tech military group dedicated to preserving technology and the American way by shooting alll the bastard mutants with my high technology, protected by the safety of the underground vault.
Well, first I’d hear the sirens. I’d open all the windows in my house a quarter-inch, and I’d sit in a room with low potential of flying glass. I’d turn the radio on to the emergency broadcast, and then I’d sit down, put my head between my legs, and kiss my ass goodbye.
If I lived, I’d probably become an itinerant street preacher, proclaiming that the nuclear destruction of our cities was the wrath of God, and gradually form a cadre of like-minded believers whom I would use as my personal bodyguard as I gradually extended my control over the ruined landscape.
Eventually, though, the power I wielded would corrupt me, and I would ignore the pleas of the innocent as my gangs of thugs would rampage and plunder for fresh water, food, and medication to treat my ever-worsening radiation poisoning.
And someone else who decided to become a hero for the oppressed would probably kill me. Hopefully I’d have some snappy lines in our final combat.
Shades of On the Beach?
So when would you attempt to leave? Seems to me attempting to leave just before the fact or after would be a bit late, don’tcha think?
Bandit - Excellent Game. I’ve played both Fallout 1 and 2 and have yet to find and RPG to match it.
Ino - are you referring to a movie?
In response to the OP, I think a shelter with a decent supply of food and water would do the trick for at least a few months. After that, I’d cautiously poke my head above ground, armed to the teeth, and gather the survivors in my area and start re-building the town, while keeping one eye out for roving bands of looters and bandits. Sorta Like “The Postman” only better…
I’ll survive any attack because I live out of range of any possible targets, and am upwind of any strikes. Of course, immediately afterward my neighbors will come and kill me for my meat, but…
I’d go find a canyon with a river, make big feathered headdresses, and talk about the “poccy-clipse”.
Tripler
“Waaaallllker. . . Waaaaaalllker. . .”
“Air Defense operations in North America and overseas have destroyed a substantial portion of the attacking aircraft, but half of those destroyed had reached the bomb release lines and had released their weapons… Severe fire storms have occurred in heavily built-up cities and many rural fires were started involving growing crops and forests… The general level of casualties throughout the United States is extremely serious… The attack has caused an almost complete paralysis in the functioning of the economic system in all of its aspects… Governmental control is seriously jeopardized and central federal direction is virtually non-existent… Health resources, including physicians, nurses, and other manpower, hospitals and other medical care facilities, and health suppliues and equipment, are in a critical state… There are some reports of outbreaks of yellow fever and other tropical diseases in the South and of plague, cholera, and typhus in coastal cities… Bartering, unorganized confiscation, and looting are in evidence and threaten further the restoration of any orderly degree of economic activity… Severe disruption of transportion service exists in all attacked and contaminated areas.”
BUT, the surviving population “can be adequately motivated,” and all the above becomes but an ‘unfortunate nusiance’:
“In spite of the magnitude of the catastrophe that has struck the nation and the possibility of additional, but lighter attacks, more than 100 million people and tremendous material resources remain… Salvable food stocks in the contaminated areas will particularly meet immediate needs since requirements have been reduced by heavy loss of life… The non-military requirements for fuel in the post-attack period will be much smaller than pre-attack requirements, since millions of fuel-consuming units – particularly residences, commercial buildings, electric power and generating plants, and factories – have disappeared in the bombing… The utilized labor force is engaged in large numbers in disposing the dead, taking care of surviving injured, decontaminating and cleaning up bombed areas, returning public works and utilities to operation, and other activities related to the direct and immediate effects of the attacks… After the more pressing of the survivial needs of the damaged economy have been met, the reconstruction period will start… The gradual return of workers to their places of employment sets in motion a slow recovery cycle, manifesting itself first in scattered, undamaged, nonfallout areas… It will take months to determine the bottlenecks and dislocations, and many more months to overcome shortages and imbalances.”
“The Emergency Plans Book”
I think Captain Rocko ‘won’.