With Russian President Vladimir Putin not considering ordering the Russian military out of Ukraine, and the NATO member nations trying hard to get him to do that, the fear is the war could escalate into a nuclear war that could affect the world. Since that is a possibility, this article tells you what to do to give yourself the best chance of surviving a nuclear bomb attack.
Surviving a nuclear bomb attack has a lot to do with luck because one cannot know the exact spot the bomb will detonate, and the distance away from the center of the blast, called the hypocenter, matters a lot. It is a known fact that the farther away one is from the hypocenter, the higher the chances of that person surviving. Having said that, according to a report by Vice, here are the 5 things to do if the war escalates and there is a nuclear bomb attack in your area.
1) Get inside a strong concrete building if you have no immediate access to a reinforced bunker
Staying inside a building or better still a bunker, if the building has one, is one’s best chance of surviving the blast. The building if strong could protect one from the direct impact of the heat, fire, and radiation that follows detonation.
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If there is a warning that reveals the location of the explosion minutes before it happens, attempting to run away with cars will not help as there could be traffic on the road with many people also trying to escape. That will leave one exposed as the car cannot offer any protection.
2) Don’t look at the bright flash of light that goes with the explosion
The light the bomb emits as it detonates is so bright that it causes blindness. The blindness is temporal as it may last for a few seconds or minutes, however, it is not ideal as things could be collapsing or burning around you immediately after impact.
3) Don’t leave the building or bunker a few hours after the explosion
On the explosion of the bomb comes the flash of bright light, a wave of intense heat, radiation, a fireball, a blast of air, and radioactive fallout. All that happens quickly and goes away except the radioactive fallout, which is simply clouds of fine radioactive particles of dust and bomb debris that fall back to the ground.
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Therefore, if the building withstood the impact and is not on fire, it is best to remain inside for about 3 or 4 days if it is only one explosion, as those dust particles that were mixed up with fission products produced during the explosion are radioactive and dangerous to the body.
If the body was exposed, an early warning sign is nausea and vomiting. It is said that long exposure to radioactive debris causes sicknesses like leukemia, cancer, birth defects, and infertility.
4) Bath with soap and water if you are outside as it explodes
If you happened to be outside at the time of the explosion or had to go outside immediately after the explosion, once you get to a building remove your clothes, put them in a plastic bag and take them as far away from you as possible. The next thing to do is to take a bath with soap and water or to use bottled water to dampen a towel to wipe off the exposed parts of your body.