Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Nuclear blast victims would have to wait - USATODAY.com

Nuclear blast victims would have to wait - USATODAY.com: "The White House has warned state and local governments not to expect a 'significant federal response' at the scene of a terrorist nuclear attack for 24 to 72 hours after the blast, according to a planning guide."

So what? This is supposed to be new or something? That's what they've been saying for decades and not just for nukes. It always takes them at least 72 hours before they get on site. It usually takes about 2 weeks before things return to nominal.
This is just another reminder to have a 72 hour evacuation kit and a 2+ week supply at home.

I scanned through the planning guide and it seems to have some really good information. Nothing really new except that the assumption is a single ground level 10kt nuke rather then multiple 1Mt bombs. Which makes sense. If you haven't read anything on this before it is a fine place to start.

Terrorists have certain target limitations, the target has to be known to most people in the world to have any effect. Sure blowing up Greeley, CO would be pretty easy, no one outside of Colorado knows anything about it. They have to go for big name cities: DC, NY, and the like. Sure there was a terror plot for Denver so even a minor city like that is a target. They also want to target something iconic like City Hall or some other famous building in your city or just the biggest or highest concentration of buildings to maximize the effect.

That was the gripping hand, now what about the other hand? If Chicago style politics is good enough for the Tea Party (if they hit us, we hit back twice as hard, if they bring a knife, we bring a gun)
Why is it not good enough for the people actually trying to kill us? If they hit us we slap them on the wrist, if they bring a gun we bring a butter knife.

I can't pretend to know what the President is thinking or in what ways he might be limited. However, it seems to becoming more apparent that staying away from big cities is getting to be a better idea and also getting to know the wind patterns.

We get wind from two major directions here: the NW and the SE quadrants. The only major city within 50 miles of us in either of those directions is Denver, and a lot would depend on the exact wind direction.
A ground burst has minimal EMP effect and we have some terrain between us and downtown Denver that should shield us. Since it takes about an hour before the fallout starts to come down, I'd bias toward evacuation. We could be on the road in just a few minutes, though I'd still avoid the Interstate at first.