So this is where we are now, apparently. NBC News has dedicated more than 1,500 words to the subject of how to survive a North Korean nuclear attack. If you’re thinking “How to survive a nuclear attack?” and laughing bitterly, you’re not alone, but NBC’s James Rainey has assembled a parade of experts here to tell you to stay inside—preferably way inside—and not to try to escape.
"There is a lot of fatalism on this subject, the feeling that there will be untold death and destruction and there is nothing to be done," said Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness. "But the thing that is frustrating for me is that, with some very simple public messaging, we could save hundreds of thousands of lives in a nuclear detonation." [...]
"Go as far below ground as possible or in the center of a tall building," says Ready.gov, the website created by FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security. "The goal is to put as many walls and as much concrete, brick and soil between you and the radioactive material outside." The site recommends staying inside for at least 24 hours, unless authorities recommend coming out sooner.
“Stay inside for at least 24 hours after a nuclear bomb goes off” does not seem like advice anyone should need to be given, and yet you know that there would be at least a few people going “Well, it’s been an entire 18 hours so we should probably head outside to check things out.”
According to models, these precautions could save hundreds of thousands of lives. Alternatively, avoiding nuclear war would save even more lives. But considering the current heads of state in North Korea and the United States … duck and cover drills as in the video below will, we hope, remain a thing of the past, but it’s not that difficult to remember the instruction to go inside and if possible below ground.