Its all going to hell......

Mar 27, 2007 16:39


Went hiking City Creek Canyon with Matt (Good freind, part time little brother, Hey Mister Founder, shamless corporate whore, Importer of Good Beers, user of corporate slang) on Friday....

Whilst descending the Canyon and heading back for Matt's Truck, we somehow started talking about Nukes. Nuclear weapons, Nuclear war, and all the fun and interesting consequences of them....(Sidebar: Nuclear is CORRECTLY Pronounced "NEW-CLEE-AR".....or NEW-CLEE-ARRRRRRR if you are a pirate.

It is NOT pronounced NOOK-YA-LURR!)

Anyway, as we hiked we were talking about probable targets in the US for Nuclear attack, silly ideas about preserving congress in big fancy shelters with congressional chambers (The Greenbrier!!) so they could still govern, and what the landscape would be like post strike (Physically and politically)....and the really shitty special effects in the movie "The Day After". It was a pretty strange conversation.

Among the things that we discussed was what the remnants of the Country would be like post strike....In a word: Ungovernable--so there goes the need for that fancy, expensive shelter for Congress and the House at/under the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.

I think that should the USA ever piss off someone (or enough someones) and become the victim of a large scale Nuclear strike, things would be forever altered (duh).

In the largely urban areas in the Eastern USA, areas not outright vaporized or heavily damamged would become chaotic--think New Orleans immeadiatly following Hurricane Katrina. Power and water facilities like electrical substations, Power lines, light poles and water pipes/mains would be destroyed or damaged by EMP (ElectroMagnetic Pulse) or heat and blast. Large areas would be without power and water, although some would be able to subsist on emergency generators or backup storage tanks. Firefighting would be near impossible as the pipes, mains, and hydrants would be damaged or unuseable and EMP would knock out a large number of Firefighting vehicles.

Transportation systems like surface Roads, Rail lines, airports and Freeway systems would be destroyed outright or choked with traffic and the hulks of damaged or destroyed vehicles. (And you thought your morning commute sucks now!)

National, internaltional, and local Communication systems--military and civillian--are destroyed or heavily damaged by the EMP or blast and heat from air and ground detonated Nuclear weapons. Local, Long distance, fiber optic landline, cellular/SMR, and satillite telephone systems and facilities will suffer the same fate--with few exceptions (for hardened or EMP protected landline and satillite networks reserved for Military traffic.) Cable and satillite TV are totally wiped out....there goes the internets and my myspace.com account!! Oh noes!!!1!

Essential services like Fire department, Police, and Emergency Medical services, as well as regular hospitals and clinic would be overwhelmed and break down under the strain. Anarchy would reign supreme on a wide scale. Cities would become largely unliveable for a majority of residents or survivors... People would flee to smaller urban or suburban areas or the countryside.

Survival of the fittest would cease to be a theory and become the very REAL daily situation for the injured and the survivors in urban areas. law and order woulld be largely absent, except for a token Police or rear-echelon militray presence and the likely vigalante group.....

In the largely rural, suburban, and agrarian Central US, as well as portions of the Southern US, things would revert to a situation closely resembling the late 1800's or early 1900's: A whole system of life and trade centered around the growth and production of foodstuffs for survival and for purposes of trade--but devoid of the large scale megafarms we see in the area today.

HUGE tractors and other ultra modern machinery would be replaced by mostly manual (Or manuel) labor and few older tractors and other machinery not affected by the EMP. A strong resurgance of the Family farm would occur, with most people working the land or raising livestock to feed their families and conduct trade on a local level. Communal farms may also take root, with refugees from Urban centers of the East taking over abandoned properties or banding together with those offering support and protection.

Essential uitilities and services may be damaged to a fairly moderate degree, but will survive, albeit under a considerable amount of stress.

In the western US, things will remain relatively unchanged--suburban centers seperated by miles and miles of essentially lawless territory. Agriculture will remain a dominant activity; moreso post strike as all of the mega farms and the complicated machinery that support and maintain them will cease to function as a result of EMP blast. The Chaos and disorder that will undoubtedly plague major urban will not be a problem as essential services and the facilities that support them will largely survive. This fact coupled with the already rugged, conservative, and suspicious nature of the population in the area will sharply reduce any lawlessness and disorder. The stereotypical image of the western sheriff, rough and ready in the street at high noon or bandits hanging by the neck from the nearest tree may not be far removed from the truth.

Taking advantage of the USA's disarray and general preoccupation with survival, Mexico may invade the Southwestern border areas in an attempt to reclaim them...Only to be met by Indians arguing about whos land got stoled by the white man first!  Anyway, running gunfights with local rednecks and US Army units will sap already strained resources and take more lives (Besides, mexico has been covertly invading those ares for quite some time.....who'd be able to tell the difference!?!1)

The west coast of the US will be hit nearly as hard as the east..In Southern California major civillian and military targets will be subjected to major bombardment, resulting in overkill...and saving the world from any made for TV movies and further celebrity "news".Northern California will remain largely untouched.....With the exception of Coastal areas that are hom to Naval and other military facilities, Oregon and Washington will also remain untouched.......touching off a MASSIVE migration of hippies...The value of bud from Humboldt County, California will increase 9,823,213 times in value.........

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