Situation X: Radioactive Fallout Cloud. Population: YOU.

Scenario:

As you are reading this, the TV in the background, or the radio, or your TV-watching family, or your hick neighbor Lawrence alerts you to a TV bulletin. It's on every radio station, on every network:

* Insert whatever city you live in. IF in a rural area, insert the nearest city with a population of 100,000 or more.

"This activation of the Emergency Broadcast Network is to inform the public that moments ago, a nuclear device was detonated near the city center of (insert your town. While the explosive impact was small, the device will have created a large updraft of radioactive dust. THIS CLOUD OF RADIOACTIVE DUST represents an immediate threat to all persons within the path of the cloud. The radioactive dust is spreading (your direction) from the city center at approximately 5 to 10 miles per hour.

DO NOT GO OUTDOORS. STAY OUT OF YOUR VEHICLE. Take shelter immediately. Unless you were within a mile of the blast, you have not received a lethal dose of radiation. The main danger to humans and livestock comes from breathing or drinking radioactive dust particles, or absorbing them through the skin.

Please take the following precautions.

1. Move all people indoors.

2. Shut off all central air-conditioning systems.

3. Turn off stoves, ovens and other appliances.

4. Cover your mouth and nose with a dust mask, or a piece of wet cloth.

5. Move to the center of a building, and try to put as much building material between you and the sky as possible. Move to a fallout shelter, basement, tornado shelter or interior room. If you can, seal off windows, vents and doors with duct tape.

6. Periodically wash your hair skin and clothes, and put on uncontaminated clothes that have not been exposed to dust. If you can, packing clean clothes now in a plastic twist-tie or garbage back will keep them clean.

7. Remember, food in sealed containers will be safe to eat, as long as the radioactive dust is wiped off first. Fruits with tough skins such as oranges or bananas may be eaten. But no soft vegetables or fruits with edible skins should be consumed once they have been exposed to radioactive dust particles. Liquids in bottles and cans will remain safe. Food in refrigerators and freezers may begin to spoil, but will be unaffected by radiation if they are shut off before their fans circulate radioactive particles.

8. Make a fallout shelter for your family in an interior room with no windows or doors to the outside. Seal all entry points and stay there for 72 hours. REMEMBER: walking through radioactive dust contaminates you, so do not leave your shelter for any reason. In just 12 hours, the level of radiation will have dropped to 1/2 the initial dose. In 72 hours, 99 PERCENT OF THE RADIATION WILL HAVE DISSAPATED.

9. Stay tuned to this media outlet for further information.

10. Law enforcement officials have reason to believe that the atomic device detonated in *your city moments ago was an Iodine-based weapon. If you have access to Potassium Iodide or Potassium Iodate tablets, you should take them as per the accompanying instructions.


*message repeats*


What do you do, right now? What steps will you take. I'm not kidding. Time yourself. Then report back to this thread.


Have fun.

I would have to say that if I was smart I would already have a sealed room with all items needed for at least 7 days, and it would be a matter of rounding up the young ones quickly, but efficiently as we would have already done drills on such an emergency scenario.I say 7 days of supplies as a precaution for any emergency, but hopefully I would have at least 30 days worth of supplies for an extreme case.Extremely good post if I may say. Really gets ones mind thinking.

Although I put some errors in my original transmission, it is true that the vast majority of radiation will have dissapated in 3 days. I think a lot of people just sort of give up and emotionally surrender because of the frightening words "radiation" and "cancer."

But the fact is, if you can last 3 days, you and your kids can be healthy for years afterwards.

There really is a drug called Potassium Iodide, and if you take it before your body absorbs to much radioactive iodine, you wont get thyroiditis and a lot of other nasty stuff. A weeks dose for my whole family cost about 10 bucks. And it's a chemical, so it doesn't degrade over time. It's inert. Of course, now that I'm over 40, radioactive iodine is so slow-working that I'll die of other stuff first. But I have antidote for the fam.

A simple nuisance level dust mask, changed every hour or so, can keep you safe from inhaling much fallout. Same with changing your clothes. How much work is it to put some old work-clothes in a trash bag and tie it shut for every member of your home?

All the stuff in your pantry is safe, as long as its sealed.

****


The part I didn't post was where the city shuts off your water until the fallout has abated. That way, they can flush the sewers all at once afterward, and cleanse the whole system. But they will shut your water off, to keep you from drinking open water supplies, which will have been absorbing dust. So when you see the above announcement, you want to fill all the containers in your home with water, knowing the authorities will cut it soon.

Same with your electricity. No power = no fans, blowing radioactive dust through hallways and into bank vaults and schools and homes.

I also didn't mention that some have speculated that you could apply betadine to your forearms and belly to absorb the iodine in it, and thus avoid radioactive iodoisotopes---but I figure the authorities won't even mention that--they won't want to create a run on pharmacies and groceries; besides, it might not work.

But if you had even a basic fallout shelter, some duct tape and heavy plastic sheeting, you'd probably live to your full life-expectancy, and so would your kids. But everyone laughed at Fema for saying so.

Sometimes I think there's a plot to keep anyone from listening to FEMA, so that casualities will be even higher than necessary.

I remember the plastic and duct tape remark and how everyone scoffed at it. Very good advice Dr. Thank you.

Ok, this is one thread to make us think.

Well, i'd call my whole family provided i could, lock up doors, windows, and barricade myself in my house and pray.

What else can you do? Except wait for death.

How sad.

Originally posted by dr_strangecraft
There really is a drug called Potassium Iodide, and if you take it before your body absorbs to much radioactive iodine, you wont get thyroiditis..

All Potassium Iodide will do is slow down the onset of symptoms if you ingest even small amounts of radioactive Iodine compounds through contaminated water/food sources

As someone who already has a very similar condition, I can tell you right now that it is some thing that I would not wish on anyone.

The symptoms of a thyroid shutdown wont make themselves noticed for a week or so. You'll not notice at first, but your companions will; irratible and irrational mood swings and short temper accompanied with hot and cold flushes and night-sweats that can leave you feeling very dehydrated on waking. As your body shuts down production of Thyroid lymphocytes from the radio-iodine it loses the ability to regulate body metabolism, thermostatic, circulatory and other vital functions.

The main danger to any long-term survival strategy is that as your body slows down, your critical thinking and judgement become so impared that you become depressed and introspective to a level as to no longer care about yourself or others. This is the real danger zone...if you dont recieve thyroxine-replacement treatment, your immune system begins to significantly weaken and leave you vulnerable to any contagions such as flu or septacaemia from cut-wounds etc. (which in any mass evac situation and trauma camps, make disease and illness avoidance all the more problematic)

If, in this hypothetic scenario, you are able to find medical supplies from a dispensary/chemist, you should look/ask for Sodium Thyroxine (aka Levothyroxine as the most popular generic name) The amounts the body requires daily is minute..on the microgram scale...and dependant on body mass and other factors, should fall somewhere between 75-150mcg for the average person.

Originally posted by dgtempe


What else can you do? Except wait for death.

How sad.

My whole point, DG, is the exact opposite. There's a LOT you can do. You don't need to get wiped out or anything. And surviving radioactive fallout is a lot less labor-intensive than say building an ark or something.

If you can just "shut dust out of your life" for 72 hours, you can live to be 100, and so can the rest of your family. The trick is, you'd need to have some things:

-"nuisance level" dust/pollens masks. The kind that lawn guys wear. You need about one change every 3 hours.

-clean clothes tied off in some trashbags. You could do this now and forget them for 5 years or more.

-food in sealed containers. Candy bars, boxes of cereal, even a bag of bread you've already opened--as long as it was tied shut before dust fell.

-duct tape and mylar, for sealing up vents and any doors and windows, since they will inevitably leak radioactive particles into your place.

-a "hidey-hole." Under a work bench in the basement, or a storage closet in a hallway, that you can tape shut. Even a Table on a linoleum floor, with bags of potting soil on top of it (to absorb radiation beaming down from the sky) and with the mylar taped down around the edges. Haybales can be used, but they are flammeable. The trick is anyplace where you wouldn't show up well on an X-ray image. Plus where air can't get to you.

-If you HAVE to leave your shelter for something, you take a garden hose and hook it to the drain on your water heater. open the hot faucet in the shower, then open the drain on the water heater, and you can wash yourself off (just unplug the heater so it won't overheat when the power comes back on.)

-You can order potassium Iodide over the internet, or buy it in any healthstore, as long as you do it before the crowds begin to mob the stores.

-A short wave, battery powered radio in your shelter, so you can find out what's happening. Mine cost $30 from Radio shack.

-A stack of Sudoku puzzles and a flashlight.

IF you spent a hundred bucks now, and got some 1/4" sheet steel in a garage or storage closet.

If you do that stuff, you can rest easy and forget about it, until it's time. Or else you can just roll over, and slowly die of cancer. For me, it's a simple choice.

.

Originally posted by citizen smith


All Potassium Iodide will do is slow down the onset of symptoms if you ingest even small amounts of radioactive Iodine compounds through contaminated water/food sources

The idea is to take a small "overdose" of iodine before you are exposed to any radioactive isotope. Then, your body won't take up the radioactive iodine when it is presented to your thyroid. You run the risk of developing thyroiditis, and being "hooked" on thyroxin for the rest of your life. The good news is, synthetic thyoxin is readily availalbe and extremely cheap. My aunt got thyroiditis from Radiation therapy in battling cancer, and had to take thyroxin for the rest of her life---a small price for adding a decade to ler lifespan.

Honestly, I doubt that a terrorist "dirty nuke" would be iodine based, anyway. My understanding is that the IAEA has accounted for all the soviet-era iodide bombs out there.

Point is, if you stay out of the dust and 'bombshine,' it won't matter anyway, because you won't be exposed.

.

Dr., you're right and thanks for all the tips and suggestions- I never read survival threads but this is well worth keeping in mind. In fact, i'm going to heed your advise and take all the steps you listed (except for some games :lol

I wasnt looking at having a chance to survive- but you gave me hope...to carry on...you light up my life... Just kidding.

Thank you- you're awesome. And i will go over all this with my entire family (some of which of course will think i really went off the edge now) but if it means saving my grandchildren, let them laugh- as long as they do it.

DG, I encourage you to get some books on the subject. Never trust any one source, even me.

I have an excellent book by an MD about "surviving manmade disasters." He has a whole slew of topics about surviving bombs and germ warfare.

I'll be lifting more "situations x" from his book, for more fodder for this board.

.

Wicked post, I'll try to answer this as you suggested in a "what do i do RIGHT NOW" type thing. Remember I'm only 20 so don't expect perfection here.

Well I live in a suburb thats so remote, people around my age (25 and below) living 15 minutes drive away from it have NEVER heard of it, hahaha its stupid but true, so I have a fair bit of land.

I have a 60 litre plastic drum of water next to me in my room, the rooms the best insulated in the house and has only one window, so I'd choose this as the place to hide for the 3 days you suggested. I have no basement and it's a flat roof house with no basement, so theres no great alternative. I'd run out and grab the ferrets and the chickens but leave the cows as I think they'd die anyway afterwards (eating grass covered in fallout)

Theres a fridge outside my room which I could quickly drag in here, then I'd grab suitable food from the kitchen, dump it all inside my room.

Cover the windows in blankets and tarpulins from the tents that are stored on a shelf in my room, grab the small generator outside my room (my rooms attached the garage) and the jerry can filled with petrol for the lawn mower which is next to the generator.

I'd only have that one 60 litre container for water, I'd cover the one window, seperate the chickens from the ferrets *obviously*, cover up with clothes, but I don't have any masks for my face so I'd have to use some sort of a damp cloth and change that constantly as well as my clothes.
Would powering up the generator in my room be a bad idea? I mean its petrol powered, it would most likely be giving off fumes a lot, I was thinking I could hook it up to my electronic gear to entertain myself for 3 days, but surely the fumes would be too much to handle in a bedroom sized room right?

But no radio, damn.

My grandpa's got a coolshed up the road, with more warning I'd be able to hide up there, its a conrete shed with a conrete floor and walls, insulated roof, might be alright for a few days, but I'd have to move up all my supplies which would take too long. damn.

Question, wouldn't the fallout cloud still be all over the ground after the 3-7 days anyway? I mean which ground is safest to walk on? I've heard fallout can soak into grass and soil better than gravel and tarred roads, or is this a myth?

Anyway theres my two cents. Great post.

I mean its petrol powered, it would most likely be giving off fumes a lot, I was thinking I could hook it up to my electronic gear to entertain myself for 3 days, but surely the fumes would be too much to handle in a bedroom sized room right?

Probably not a good idea for a couple of reasons, the first of which being that you might just die from the fumes. The other is, that petrol you have may be all you get, so (i would) save it for other things.

Question, wouldn't the fallout cloud still be all over the ground after the 3-7 days anyway? I mean which ground is safest to walk on? I've heard fallout can soak into grass and soil better than gravel and tarred roads, or is this a myth?

The dust would be all over EVERYTHING, but now it is MUCH less radioactive which is why you were holed up inside your shelter for the last week.

wow that realy helped, to be honest i aint heard any thing like that. I live in the UK and every so oftain we hear about DIRTY BOMBS but no one ever tells us what to do like you did, i think that post will be very helpful if any thing happened, well worth reading.

Originally posted by Crowbarr

Question, wouldn't the fallout cloud still be all over the ground after the 3-7 days anyway? I mean which ground is safest to walk on? I've heard fallout can soak into grass and soil better than gravel and tarred roads, or is this a myth?

It's only true during the FIRST 3 DAYS. Which is why you stay in your shelter during the barbeque. You should minimize exposure for about two weeks after that---take off your shoes when you come in, sleep in your shelter at night (when you breathe deeper), etc. But you can take your mask off on the 4th day.

Everything I read, from multiple sources, says that the radiation given off by dust has a half-life. It never goes totally to zero. But below 5 microcuries per day and it's no worse than afternoon sunlight. It will be below that on the third day.

Basically, the only way it harms you is contact with your skin, during the first 3 days; that's including the linings of your lungs.

IF you eat food or drink water with radioactive particles in it, it'll touch the "insides skin" of your stomach and colon. You don't want that, at least until it's gone back to being fairly ordinary dust.

Here's my point, one more time.

Radioactive fallout is survivalbe, if you take basic steps before and during the emergency.

About 6 hours of prep means you could survive acceptably. I think 12 hours of effort and you could survive an event years from now, and emerge unscathed.

The weeping tragedy of it all is that people have been contitioned by Hollywood to assume that you have to "live in a hole in the ground for 50 years," or else "pray that you are incinerated instantly."

Honestly, it's analogous to trying to tell people how to put out a kitchen fire, by having some baking soday handy: most of them are trained to pray they just die quickly if they spill any grease . . .

Don’t follow my example, but in the case of a bomb in Vegas where I work I am bugging out immediately. I have a spare battery, distributor, coil and alternator in the trunk of my 74 Duster. In the case of EMP killing my car (not likely) I can be driving in 20 minutes max.

I live 60 miles west of Vegas and drive in every day. My office is also on the far west side of town. The prevailing winds here are strong and to the east. If I leave within the first hour but after the first 5 minutes I should be OK.

I also have 10 gallons of gas standing by incase I was too lazy to fill up the night before.

My family knows exactly what to do. I have a set of vice grips locked onto the main water shut off that my 12 year old will shut off after she plugs the bath and begins filling it.

My 7 and 8 year old daughters will round up the cats and ferrets, put them in carriers with a bed of food under them and take them to the bath room. They will then put the dogs in an interior closet, dump out their food bag, and fill a two gallon bucket of water for them.

My 6 year old autistic son will stand there saying he is hungry. Because I cant rely on him to anything constructive, my wife will put him in the bathroom we will be living in before she does her thing, along with my aged mother in law.

My wife will grab the half flats of water from the garage, ALL of the guns and as much food stuff as she can handle and round everyone up into the bathroom. Ammo is already stored in the bathroom, under the towels.

They will stay there until I arrive. If I never get there, they know enough to stay alive. I hope.

Originally posted by dr_strangecraft
It will be below that on the third day.

The three day rule is a good rule of thumb as MOST types of radiation have short half lives. However, certain things should be abstained from for LIFE. Milk is something that should never be consumed again in an area that received high fallout doses. There is an isotope that resembles calcium, and is used by the body like calcium. It will be passed on through cow’s milk and stored in your bones. Of course, that is just one example. It is likely that knowledge of the danger areas and materials would be easy to come by post sit. x.

If we can believe CBS, nickel should be avoided forever. In the show Jericho tools containing nickel were banned from the trading post.

Tar was once used to collect radioactive fallout because it acts like a fallout magnet. Smoking, while not a good idea anytime, will be a big no-no after the bombs fall. Tar on roofs will also need to be disposed of if it can be done without too much exposure. This could be accomplished by using a long handled tool to scrape it off, as a distance of 3 feet from the tar should keep you relatively safe.

One major thing to consider as well will be clean up. After your three days (7 is better if you can hold out that long) you will want to take a garden hose (assuming you can pump water) and wash your property. Begin with your roof, simply rinsing it off. If you have gutters, attempt to trap the water for safe disposal. If not, dont worry too much, as your next step is to hose off the concrete around your home, to include as far 9out into the street as you can. The idea is to wash everything AWAY from your home. Try to avoid letting the water spill into grass or dirt areas, as this will make ground prep for food growing later more difficult.

Speaking of growing, before you do it make sure you skim the top 8 inches of soil and dispose of it. It would probably be a good idea to get a community radioactive dump going, a place where sealed water containers and bags of radioactive soil/roofing material can be stored until order is restored and the government can dispose of it properly. If that never happens, at least be careful to encourage people not to burn anything.

If you cant keep the water out of growing areas or if it rains, you will need to remove the top 18 inches, at a minimum, of soil before planting.

Share this info with your neighbors and it is possible that you can engage in trade and therefore crop rotation with them later.

And it would probably be a good idea to bring your pets into the shelter with you. I hate to say it, but if you get real hungry cat becomes the other-other white meat.


[edit on 27-5-2007 by cavscout]

[edit on 27-5-2007 by cavscout]

[edit on 27-5-2007 by cavscout]

Wow Cavscout- you keep Ammo in your bathroom under the towels? Suddenly I feel so inadequate and unprepared.

Originally posted by AccessDenied
Wow Cavscout- you keep Ammo in your bathroom under the towels? Suddenly I feel so inadequate and unprepared.

And a gun under the toilet paper. I was sitting on the can one day, just killin time, and I thought "what would I do if storm troopers kicked in the bathroom door." Needless to say, I would be forced to make a mess trying to flee just before I died. So I now keep guns near the toilets.

The ammo thing came about years ago. I asked my wife out of the blue "what would you do if a nuke went off while I was gone?" and she said she would herd the family into the hallway bathroom. We started talking about the things she would grab in the 10 minutes or so before s3ealing it up, and she said a few boxes of ammo. A case would just be too much for her to lift. So, seeing as I need to keep ammo somewhere and we dont have much under the sink but towels, guess where my ammo is stored now.

Thanks, BTW, for making feel crazy

Oh hey no problem. Anytime you need a good laugh, just u2u me. I suppose it is a cool idea.But how big is your bathroom, and would you really want to stay there for days? I couldn't even last 2 seconds after my hubby's been in there( considering you will still use it for normal functions.)

It is the only room in my home that has no exterior walls. Plus that way I wont have to poop in the corner (I know I could have said that nicer, but the word poop is fun.)

I guess I could just tape up the ends of the hall and still have access to the the bathroom, but with that many breathing bodies I fear we would suffocate.

Hey, thanks for the information, I fear that if something like this would happen I just wouldnt have the knowledge to deal with it. I mean I can use my common sense to keep myself as safe as possible but it seems almost certain I would slip up somewhere with something I eat or drink, you guys seem to know a lot. Here in England, where I live I have NEVER been told what to do in the event of nuclear weapons or chemical weapons being dropped near-by.

I'm 19 but still live with my father and mother. Before this thread I think I would rely on my dad to keep me safe, now I think he would rely on me, haha.

I can't really think of a 'safe' room in my home though, all have large windows and exterior walls. We have no cellar and our garage is detached from our home and is probably the least safe place.

I guess the safest would be my parents room, there is no vents in that room, although with large windows I would seal them off with tape that we always have handy. Would gather all the food from downstairs and make sure to gather lots of water. We have no masks in our house so I would gather lots of tea-towels and other cloth to use to cover our faces. No pet's to worry about and no tablets to take.

I'm pretty certain we could make it 3 days in-doors but i'd surely be stuck afterwards with what precautions to take, so threads like these can certainly be really helpful. Thanks again.