A nuclear attack on US soil would most likely target one of six cities New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Washington, DC.
Business Insider Report
But public-health experts say each of those cities would struggle to provide emergency services to the wounded.
The cities also no longer have designated fallout shelters to protect people from radiation.The chances that a nuclear bomb would strike a US city are slim, but nuclear experts warn that its not out of the question.
A nuclear attack in a large metropolitan area is one of the 15 disaster scenarios for which the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has an emergency strategy.
The agency’s plan involves deploying first responders, providing immediate shelter for evacuees, and decontaminating victims who have been exposed to radiation.
For everyday citizens, FEMA has some simple advice Get inside, stay inside, and stay tuned.
But according to Irwin Redlener, a public-health expert at Columbia University who is specialized in disaster preparedness, these federal guidelines aren’t enough to prepare a city for a nuclear attack.
Irwin Redlener, public-health expert at Columbia University
There isn’t a single jurisdiction in America that has anything approaching an adequate plan to deal with a nuclear detonation
That includes the six urban areas that Redlener thinks are the most likely targets of a nuclear attack New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.
These cities are not only some of the largest and densest in the country, but they are also home to critical infrastructure like energy plants, financial hubs, government facilities, and wireless transmission systems that are vital to US security.
Each city has an emergency management website that informs citizens about what to do in a crisis, but most of those sites with the exception of LA and New York don’t directly mention a nuclear attack.
That makes it difficult for residents to learn how to protect themselves if a bomb were to hit one of those cities.
Cities might struggle to provide emergency services after nuclear strike Nuclear bombs can produce clouds of dust and sand-like radioactive particles that disperse into the atmosphere – whats referred to as nuclear fallout.
Exposure to this fallout can result in radiation poisoning, which can damage the bodys’ cells and prove fatal.
The debris takes about 15 minutes to reach ground level after an explosion, so a persons response during that period could be a matter of life and death.
People can protect themselves from fallout by immediately seeking refuge inside a steel or concrete building with no windows.
A little bit of information can save a lot of lives, Brooke Buddemeier, a health physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told Business Insider.
Buddemeier advises emergency managers about how to protect populations from nuclear attacks.
If we can just get people inside, we can significantly reduce their exposure, he said.
The most important scenario to prepare for, according to Redlener, isn’t all-out nuclear war, but a single nuclear explosion such as a missile launch from North Korea.
Right now, he said, North Korean missiles are capable of reaching Alaska or Hawaii, but they could soon be able to reach cities along the West Coast.
Another source of an attack could be a nuclear device that was built, purchased, or stolen by a terrorist organization.
All six cities Redlener identified are listed as Tier 1 areas by the US Department of Homeland Security – meaning they’re considered places where a terrorist attack would yield the most devastation.
There is no safe city, Redlener said.
For example: In New York City, the detonation of a Hiroshima-sized bomb, or even one a little smaller, could have anywhere between 50,000 to 100,000 fatalities – depending on the time of day and where the action struck – and hundreds of thousands of people injured.
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