# PSA for NYC residents about what to do in case of a nuclear attack **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 14, 2022, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914 "2022-07-14T02:56:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/21 "2022-07-14T13:46:22Z")
I’m always puzzled by people like the OP who think that atomic bombs are some sort of magic antihalation-for-10s-of-miles-around weapons. They are not. Most people in concrete buildings will survive even an H-bomb. Even in the wood frame houses outside Manhattan, most people will survive the initial blast. The reason the death tolls in Japan were so high is because of the large number of flimsy buildings (and few concrete ones), the fires afterwards, the radioactive rain and just plain not knowing what hit them. A city like NYC with, you know, a preparedness plan is a complete different thing. The trick in surviving a nuke in a modern city comes down to not being directly exposed to the flash and shockwave and then avoiding the post bomb hazards. People ridicule “duck and cover” but it will actually save a lot of lives and greatly reduce the number of seriously injured. I don’t see the point of ridiculing something that is actually helpful and based on … Science. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/22 "2022-07-14T14:37:21Z")
I don’t care what any of you think. The PSA is odd and out of left field. Some of the “duck and cover” movies I saw in the 60’s recommended wiping off can vegetable cans to get the radioactive dust off so we could eat. The PSA about taking a shower right away feels the same. It’s weird. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/23 "2022-07-14T14:42:25Z")
I am not defending this particular PSA. Only the general idea that knowing what to do in the event of a nuclear bomb could be useful. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/24 "2022-07-14T14:47:41Z")
I noticed that it specifically said “So there’s been a nuclear attack,” without specifying _where_ the attack was. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/25 "2022-07-14T16:39:06Z")
The New York City MSA is about 20M people and almost 7000 square miles. If the largest nuke ever built was detonated in or above Times Square, the WTC, Central Park, you name it, 10 minutes later about 85% of that population would still be substantially uninjured. And yes, 1+million would be invisible collections of widely dispersed atoms or would be bloody fried smears under collapsed buildings, while another million would be badly injured by debris, heat, or both. It’s what the 18M folks in decent shape do next that determines how long they stay that way. For the far more plausible case of a much smaller attack, the “survivors” may well be 99% of metro NYC. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/26 "2022-07-14T16:43:21Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think a small bomb on the level of the one used at Hiroshima and built by a terrorist group is more likely than a large one delivered by an ICBM from a foreign country. So yes, the immediate damage would be limited to a few blocks. A terrorist strike is the only scenario where it would be just one bomb in NYC; any foreign power attacking the US with nuclear weapons would launch almost every they had at once and NYC is next biggest civilian target after DC. We’re talking a dozen or more ICBMs, each armed with multiple warheads, each warhead vastly more power than Fat Man or Little Boy. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/27 "2022-07-14T16:44:51Z")
As I said, I think a terrorist bomb is _more likely_ than a massive attack by a foreign power. The latter is basically the End of the World as we know it, as the US would respond in kind. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/28 "2022-07-14T18:43:29Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > A nuke just went off. Take a bath! > Why bother showering when the water was possibly contaminated? Seems unlikely that the fallout would be able to get into the tank of my water heater, so that’s probably safe, at least in the immediate aftermath. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/29 "2022-07-14T18:50:01Z")
Also, the water for NYC is supplied from reservoirs upstate and transported to the city via underground tunnels. I suspect it’s actually unlikely to be contaminated. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/30 "2022-07-14T19:07:34Z")
> [@tofor](#): > > It’s common to ridicule any information about nuclear preparedness, but the idea is not absurd. Those closest to the blast will be instantly vaporized, those sufficiently far away essentially unaffected. But there’s a middle zone where potentially thousands of people would be able to improve their odds by taking the right steps. Correct. Life won’t be so great in the ~3 mile vicinity of ground zero, but if there’s a nuclear attack, most Americans won’t even see or hear it. They’ll only know it happened because their phone starts blaring emergency alerts, then the internet stops working, the air gets hazy with smoke, and retail stores stop getting stocked. It’s very survivable for most people, though they mostly won’t be equipped to survive a world where the grocery stores are all permanently empty and abandoned. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/31 "2022-07-14T19:19:41Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Duck down, put your head between your knees, and kiss your ass goodbye! Ha, that’s what I said- my wife told me about this nutballs PSA and started playing it on her phone to show me. The woman said “Step 1- get indoors” and I said “Step 2- put your head between your knees; step 3- kiss your ass goodbye!” I like how the woman in the PSA finishes by encouragingly saying “you _ **got** _ this!” ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/32 "2022-07-14T19:25:05Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > They’ll only know it happened because their phone starts blaring emergency alerts, then the internet stops working, the air gets hazy with smoke, and retail stores stop getting stocked. > > It’s very survivable for most people, though they mostly won’t be equipped to survive a world where the grocery stores are all permanently empty and abandoned. Once again, it depends on whether this is a terrorist attack or a full scale nuclear exchange. Full scale, survival is going to be tricky. A single bomb in a terrorist attack is survivable, and taking certain measures could increase your chances of survival. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/33 "2022-07-14T20:22:08Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Once again, it depends on whether this is a terrorist attack or a full scale nuclear exchange. > > Full scale, survival is going to be tricky. A single bomb in a terrorist attack is survivable, and taking certain measures could increase your chances of survival. Not sure why the pedantry is really needed here, since that’s essentially what I said. Outside the immediate 3-5 mile radius, the odds of short-term survival are vastly improved, though if it was a widespread attack, it’s just postponing the inevitable. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/34 "2022-07-14T20:29:51Z")
These instructions seem to be based on the idea that your phones, televisions, and so on would work after an EMP pulse. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/35 "2022-07-14T20:44:44Z")
More accurately, they assume the attack doesn’t involve an EMP attack. Not all nuclear explosions produce EMP. One set off at ground level will not. IOW, the classic terrorist bomb in a Ryder van or in a shipboard 40-foot shipping container. I’ll make an analogy: before every airline flight they talk about evacuation, flotation, and oxygen masks. In some accidents none of those things will help even a smidgen; 100% aboard are insta-burger. But there is a population of accidents where those things are useful knowledge to have, and a “I know what to do and how to do it” mindset will be contributory towards survival. We’re all better off with some of that, rather than concluding that “It won’t help in the worst case, so there’s no point.” I’d argue there’s lots of point. Whether this particular oddly-timed PSA is any good at its job is a separate question. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/36 "2022-07-14T21:02:34Z")
“I thought,” he said, “that if the world was going to end we were meant to lie down or put a paper bag over our head or something.” “If you like, yes,” said Ford. “That’s what they told us in the army,” said the man, and his eyes began the long trek back down to his whisky. “Will that help?” asked the barman. “No,” said Ford and gave him a friendly smile.” ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/37 "2022-07-14T21:11:20Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > “That’s what they told us in the army,” said the man, and his eyes began the long trek back down to his whisky. I’m getting these hilarious flashbacks to Army training where the instruction was to fall prone on the ground, helmet pointed in the direction of the flash, and put your fingers in your ears. I get the theory, and it’s not as stupid as it sounds, but it felt kind of stupid anyway. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/38 "2022-07-14T21:27:05Z")
No, but I can’t imagine suggesting several million people take showers at about the same time (as soon as possible after getting inside) would do wonders for the water pressure, especially as firefighters would be fighting the biggest set of fires in New York history. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/39 "2022-07-14T21:59:46Z")
At least they get spared the poetry. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914/40 "2022-07-14T22:43:44Z")
I was involved in the nuclear freeze movement of the early and mid 1980s. I’ve always been more worried about terrorists being able to do this than I am with nations. I never saw the TV movie “Special Bulletin”, which is about terrorists holding Charleston, SC hostage with a nuke, until a few years ago. It’s available in its entirety on You Tube. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/cDZQsVNZ3SE/hqdefault.jpg "Special Bulletin (1983)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDZQsVNZ3SE) It obviously couldn’t have been real, because it wasn’t in real time (FWIW, the 1938 broadcast of “The War Of The Worlds” wasn’t either) and like the Hawaiian alert several years ago, it was only on that channel. The real thing would have been everywhere, to put it lightly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-for-nyc-residents-about-what-to-do-in-case-of-a-nuclear-attack/967914.md?page=3)