Can You Survive a Nuclear Explosion in Your City or Town?
Proximity to ground zero is crucial.
By Ruben Castaneda, Staff Writer | Aug. 21, 2017, at 12:53 p.m.
It’s possible to survive a nuclear blast near ground zero if you happen to be inside a robust building, such as a fortified structure or an underground facility. (Getty Images)
Could you survive the detonation of a nuclear bomb in your city or town? Is there any point to planning for a nuclear blast, however unlikely it is to happen? The answers are “yes” and “yes.”
Your chances of living through a nuclear detonation depend on your proximity to the nuclear device when it exploded; a difference of a few hundred meters could mean the difference between immediate death and survival. For instance, a nuclear blast from a bomb about the size of the one U.S. forces dropped on Hiroshima could immediately kill about 75,000 people in a major city and leave hundreds of thousands of people wounded from the explosion, burns, radiation, glass cuts and other injuries, says Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University in New York City. However, many people not at ground zero would survive, he says. “The farther away you are from the initial blast, the better your chances of survival,” Redlener says. “Two to five miles away, you could be killed by flying glass or fire, but not necessarily by the initial blast or even the radiation.”
http://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2017-08-21/can-you-survive-a-nuclear-explosion-in-your-city-or-town
