Six cities in the US could be targets for a nuclear strike, but none of them are ready for its consequences

The chance of a nuclear bomb hitting an American city is slim, but nuclear experts say it's not out of the question. Yahoo.

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A nuclear attack in a major metropolitan area is one of 15 natural disaster scenarios for which the US Federal Emergency Management Agency has an action strategy. The agency's plan includes the deployment of rapid response teams, immediate shelter for evacuees, and decontamination of victims exposed to radiation.

For ordinary citizens, FEMA has a simple tip: go indoors, stay inside, and stay tuned.

But according to Irwin Redlener, a public health expert at Columbia University who specializes in disaster preparedness, these federal regulations are not enough to prepare a city for a nuclear attack.

“There is not a single jurisdiction in America that has anything close to an adequate plan of action in the event of a nuclear explosion,” he said.

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This includes six urban areas that Redlener believes are the most likely targets for a nuclear attack: New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC. These cities are not only among the largest and densest in the country, but they contain critical infrastructure (such as power plants, financial centers, government offices, and wireless transmission systems) that are vital to US security.

Every city has an emergency management website that informs citizens about what to do in case of a crisis. But most of these sites (with the exception of Los Angeles and New York) do not directly mention the nuclear attack. This makes it difficult for residents to know how to protect themselves if a bomb hits one of these cities.

“It wouldn’t be the end of life as we know it,” Redlener said of the scenario. “It would just be a terrible disaster with many, many unknowns and cascading consequences.”

Cities may struggle to provide emergency services after a nuclear attack

Nuclear bombs can create clouds of dust and sand-like radioactive particles that disperse into the atmosphere, known as nuclear fallout. Exposure to these fallouts can lead to radiation poisoning, which can damage body cells and be fatal.

Debris takes at least 15 minutes to reach ground level after an explosion, so human response during this period can be a matter of life and death. People can protect themselves from fallout by immediately taking shelter in the center or basement of a brick steel or concrete building—preferably without windows.

“A little information can save a lot of lives,” said Brook Baddemeyer, a medical physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Baddemeyer advises emergency managers on how to protect the public from nuclear attacks.

“If we can just get people inside the premises, we will significantly reduce the negative impact,” he said.

The most important scenario to prepare for, according to Redlener, is not a full-scale nuclear war, but a single nuclear explosion, such as a missile launch from North Korea. Right now, North Korean missiles are capable of reaching Alaska or Hawaii, he said, but soon they will be able to reach cities on the west coast.

Another source of attack could be a nuclear device that has been manufactured, purchased, or stolen by a terrorist organization. All six cities identified by Redlener are listed by the US Department of Homeland Security as "Tier 1" areas, meaning they are considered places where a terrorist attack could cause the most destruction.

“There is no such thing as a safe city,” Redlener said. “In New York, a bomb the size of Hiroshima, or even one slightly smaller, could kill between 50 and 000 people—depending on the time of day and location—and could injure hundreds of thousands of people.”

Some ratings are even higher. Data from Alex Wellerstein, a nuclear weapons historian at Stevens Institute of Technology, shows that a 15-kiloton explosion (like the one at Hiroshima) would kill more than 225 people and injure 000 people in New York City.

Under such circumstances, even in the whole state of New York there would not be enough hospital beds to care for the wounded.

“New York State has 40 hospital beds, nearly all of which are full-time,” Redlener said.

He also expressed concern about what might happen to the emergency services.

“Are we actually going to order National Guard troops or U.S. soldiers to go into areas with high levels of radioactivity? Will we force bus drivers to go in there and pick up people to take them to safety? - he said. “Every strategic or tactical response is fraught with disadvantages.”

There are no fallout shelters in big cities

In 1961, around the height of the Cold War, the United States launched the Community Fallout Shelter Program, which identified safe places to hide after a nuclear attack in cities across the country. Most of the shelters were on the top floors of high-rise buildings, so they were designed to protect people only from radiation, and not from the explosion itself.

Cities were responsible for supplying these places with food, sanitation, and medical supplies paid for by the federal government. By the time funding for the program ran out in the 1970s, 18 fallout shelters had been set up in New York City to protect up to 000 million people.

In 2017, New York authorities began removing the yellow signs that once marked these shelters to avoid the misconception that they are still in operation.

Redlener said there's a reason shelters no longer exist: Major cities like New York and San Francisco need more affordable housing, making it hard for city officials to justify reserving space for food and medicine.

“Can you imagine a government official keeping buildings intact for fallout shelters when the real estate market is so tight?” Redlener said.

“This is part of our reality of the 21st century”

Redlener said many city officials are concerned that even the proposal of plans to respond to nuclear explosions could cause panic among residents.

“Public officials fear that if they go out and publicly say, ‘This is what you need to know in the event of a nuclear attack,’ then many people will fear that the mayor knows something that the public doesn’t,” he said.

But educating the public doesn't have to be intimidating, as Buddemeyer said.

“The good news is that 'come inside, stay inside, stay connected' still works,” he said. “If your clothes catch fire, hopefully it won’t make you afraid of the fire, but will give you the opportunity to take action to save your life.”

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants, and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New Y.

Both experts agreed that in order for a city to be ready for a nuclear attack, it must recognize that such an attack is possible - even if the threat is removed.

“It’s part of our 21st-century reality,” Redlener said. “I apologized to my children and grandchildren for leaving the world in such a terrible mess, but now it is what it is.”

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