As a grammar schooler in the 1950s I have the memory of being a participant in regular “duck and cover” drills conducted by our school’s administration. Though these events seemed quite entertaining to us — we were pre-teens, after all — even then I did note that they were in context with the home “fallout shelter” and “bomb shelter” articles that came up in Popular Science and the newspapers around then, and the news of Sputnik, the USSR’s first satellite which beat the remainder of the world into orbit for the first time. These events lent a good measure of credibility to the potential threat that we were theoretically getting “prepared” for, and contributed to the mindset of what it meant to be an American kid way back then. We were the greatest country in the world, and we would survive!
As many of us 50’s kids can attest, too, we in fact gained a fair measure of layman’s knowledge regarding “fallout,” and “atom bombs,” and such, and knew this was some pretty nasty adult business. Bunkers, bomb shelter fans, filters, lead shielding, months of stored food and water, wiping down canned goods before opening, weapons (to keep the crazies out of the shelter) and the obligatory “three weeks” before peeking out (as we now know, though, to scenes of devastation, death, and the end of our civilization — at best). These are among the routine facts we took for granted as young baby boomers. The “good old days,” huh?
While I had long forgotten the details of those early lessons in futility, the discovery of a July 11, 2022 video "NYC Emergency Management shares important steps for New Yorkers to follow if a nuclear attack occurs” brought it all rushing back to me, and prompted this diary. Equally quickly, the recollection of the stark horror that a nuclear exchange would garner, facts and impressions that I gained in my adult life, came rushing back, too. The simple fact that the largest city (by population) in the United States saw fit to issue this video now, amidst an extremely unstable international military situation, is extremely notable and should not go unnoticed. I think you would agree.
I assume the intentions of NYC Emergency Management are good. After all, if you are one of the unlucky urban few who are not incinerated into a pile of radioactive ash, or blasted into fragments by the mothers of all shock waves, you can’t just stand there, can you? Do something! Right? But assumed amidst the disturbingly light-hearted, pragmatic tone of this video is the notion that such an attack would be surviveable. It is not. Get real. Unlike what is inferred in the video, there will be no buildings to get into, there will be no water to wash the fallout off with, and for Pete’s sake, there will be no internet, cable TV, or cell phone service to “stay tuned” to. For better or worse (yes, it’s worse, much worse) you will be on your own.
I know some who read this will think along the lines of “Yes, but…,” but the scale of devastation of the hundreds of nuclear holocaust sites that will suddenly blossom above many cities and towns around the world, long targeted by adversaries for their specific strategic and tactical importance, dwarfs what we feared in the 1950s by orders of magnitude. So, why put out such a light weight “public service” video at all, and why NOW? We can each seek those answers out for ourselves, but I fear that once determined they will not be reassuring. I perceive a form of social “innoculation” here, attempting to preclude even greater concern by millions amidst an increasingly rapid development of events.
Humans are known for their tendency to overestimate their own good luck, and to that end, here is a link to basic emergency management information by Sweden, a country rapidly developing into a near front-line on the European front of nascent WW III, entitled If Crisis Or War Comes. While rudimentary, the information therein assumes you are an intelligent, reasoning person, and can handle straight talk. It also illustrates what guidance and assistance we could have as compared to a much smaller yet highly developed society. We can hope that our leaders and managers can do as well (please insert links in the comments if you have them) for our people, too. But if not now, when?
Know that as a society will not survive a major nuclear exchange with either Russia or China. Warheads exchanged with lesser nuclear powers may equally well prove so devastating that the societies of entire regions that may survive may not be ones worth living in, either. While the masters of war now gather and plan, hundreds of thousands of troops are starting to collect to face off across contested borders as yet far from here, and fleets of warships of unimaginable power “project” that power in contest on seas around the world. Can we stop a potential military conflagration of unimaginable magnitude? How? Is there still time, or do we simply put our heads between our knees and...?