How ready is the US for a possible nuclear strike?

Question

Do our cities have enough fallout shelters for everyone? Should I make my own shelter? Are we up to date with survival supplies? Where can I get more information?

Answer 1

Do you realize how difficult it is for a foreign country to successfully strike the US?

It's not as easy as u might think.

Very few countries have the long-range capability of hitting the US. Don't worry it ain't going to happen unless our gov't provokes someone.

Answer 2

The U.S. has never had enough of any of the things you listed and never could have for a major strike. The thing that was joked about but also very true is that neither us or the Russians ever did it because it was a MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) scenario; regardless of who struck first the other side would launch and destroy the other. The main reason the nuclear arsenals were built was to ensure enough existed to scare the other side into not using them. From the 60's-If the U.S. and Russia got into a nuclear war who would win? Answer-The Chinese.

Answer 3

This question is a little old-fashioned I think. A nuclear strike would create a huge radiation zone called America. So why create a country that you can't take over and inhabit or where you can't grow or make anything ?

Since the next war on America will be in terms of both to obtain her resources AND living room, it would be a better strategy just to use biological or germ warfare together with conventional weapons wouldn't it ? And, of course, it would also make sense if this was a sneak attack on America. And the result is inevitable.

If an enemy of America were to do this, it would cancel out all the advantages that America would have regarding their Advanced Military Technology.

And you can't fight germs with nuclear bombs....

Read this article as evidence:

http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2007/0309.html



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Answer 4

No! there are not enough fallout shelters for everyone, the lucky will be those killed in the attack.

"REMEMBER DUCK & COVER"

After the bomb blast will come the radiation poisoning then the nuclear winter.

"REMEMBER DUCK & COVER"

You have the money to buy the materials for a shelter?? as its
got to be a couple of hundred foot underground, with self contained food, heating and air conditioning systems.

"REMEMBER DUCK & COVER"

Maybe you should go and get a few little friends to build a tree house instead.

"REMEMBER DUCK & COVER"

Answer 5

No, the US is not prepared for a nuclear strike. Building shelters basically prolongs your death. I live in Iowa. I doubt if there is a target in the entire state. But a major exchange with Russia would kill all of us. We would get several thousand rems worth of ratioactive fallout from strikes on the silos in the dakotas. Survival with that sort of radiation on top of you is not very likely. Of all the nations I can think of only Switzerland ever seriously prepared for such an eventuality. Every building had to have a shelter large enough for the occupants. Currently the be-prepared attitude seems to have eroded:

wiss close doors on giant nuclear shelter


By Sam Cage



LUCERNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - For 30 years, tourists speeding south through the Sonnenberg tunnel to Italy have had no idea they are driving through one of the world's biggest nuclear bunkers.



Swiss authorities could never be accused of failing to take the threat of nuclear war seriously. But they are now closing down most of this eerie communal shelter as part of a rethink of threats to national security.



"The emergency scenario is much different now from the one during the Cold War," tour guide Julia Meier said.



The big problem with Sonnenberg is that it takes up to two weeks to get ready as a safe haven for 20,000 local residents.



And the doors don't close.



The shutdown is part of a reassessment of Swiss defence priorities, from the relative certainties of the Cold War to the unpredictable threats of terrorism and natural disasters, said Civil Protection Ministry spokesman Pascal Aebischer.



The Swiss government figures it will now have several years' warning of rising tensions before the outbreak of any major international conflict that might threaten the country.



So in an effort to save public money, the country will maintain only those facilities required to deal with unexpected disasters and emergencies, and which can quickly be made operational.



"These days, damage from catastrophes and emergencies stands at the centre of our calculations," Aebischer said.



CHANGING THREATS



Switzerland passed a law at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s requiring space in a nuclear fallout shelter for every resident.



The city of Lucerne, at the foot of the Alps, found it had too little space and decided to solve the problem by using new motorway tunnels -- on the main tourist route south from Germany to Italy -- under the Sonnenberg mountain on the edge of town.



A shelter was built in the 1970s connected to the two new tunnels, creating a virtual city within a mountain complete with air filtration, a command centre, a prison and a hospital with space for 350 patients.



Lucerne's authorities have now decided such a giant facility -- thought to be the largest in Europe -- no longer makes sense and will reduce its capacity to the 2,000 people who can fit into the command centre in an effort to save some of the maintenance costs of 500,000 Swiss francs (215,000 pounds) a year.



"Today in peacetime, the value of the shelters is being questioned," Aebischer said.



"Terrorism is also a much greater threat."



While Sonnenberg's central bunker will be maintained, the motorway tunnels, which would have been closed off with giant doors, will no longer be used as shelters.



UNPREPARED



These days, Switzerland's nuclear bunkers -- many of which are cellars of houses and apartment blocks -- may seem as outdated as the contents of Sonnenberg, with its 30-year-old signs and medical equipment.



In the event, the shelter was never used in conflict -- luckily, since in a practice run in 1987 it took two days to close the tunnel doors because they had not been properly maintained.



Conditions would be far from comfortable. The administration and medical facilities are in a purpose-built bunker with running water and toilets, but civilians would have slept in four-tier canvas bunks in the two motorway tunnels.



Standing in the bunker, it's easy to imagine the fear of 20,000 men, women and children packed into this complex of command rooms, operating theatres and air filtration systems.



The clocks have a panel that shows red in daylight and black at night time, while the light yellow and green colour scheme -- supposedly designed to ease the mind -- achieves the exact opposite among some visitors.



Even on a sunny day, when the lights go out in here, it brings a new meaning to darkness, with only the echoing sound of holiday traffic a reminder of the world outside.



Yet local authorities planned to have just one psychologist on hand, while there were only six tiny detention cells to deal with any troublemakers.



"They didn't have any conception of what to do with people when they get scared en masse or someone goes crazy," said tour guide Meier, a psychology student at the University of Berne.

Reuters (IDS)

Answer 6

How ready is the world for a possible nuclear attack. Whoever lauches a nuke, do you not think US will launch all? Could be the end of the world as we know it today.

Answer 7

No.
No.
No.
http://www.fema.gov

If we got hit by a full-blown nuclear attack, would you really want to spend your life (such as it was) in a basement waiting for the radiation level to die down? You'd run out of food first.

Answer 8

Just about as ready as any other nation in the world. All I can say is when it goes up, find the highest building you can get to quickly, run to the edge, drop your pants and kiss your a** goodbye.

Answer 9

No country is ready for any nuclear strikes.

If it happens... it will be the end of the world.

Answer 10

not very.
no,but you could look at an auction for a school desk. stock up on supplies.

added. http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/


http://search.fema.gov/search?q=nuclear+attack&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=ready&proxystylesheet=ready&site=ready_america&btnG.x=12&btnG.y=10