You get five minutes to escape a nuclear blast, what will you do?

[MrPickins]

I'd recommend everyone in this thread read "Alas, Babylon" if you haven't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alas,_Babylon

:thumbsup:

An excellent read.

 

[TXHokie]

I'd go grab an ice cold beer. Chances are it's a false alarm since if the bad guy got hold of a nuke, they'd go after big cities like NYC, LA, DC etc, not my city.

 

[Jodell88]

I'd head to a vault.

 

[sandorski]

Why? If someone can get onto a freeway within a minute and travel at 100+ mph in the opposite direction of the blast, that still puts them around 6-7 miles away, and that's assuming the bomb is dropped directly on their starting point. It's not a very realistic scenario, but it's not a 100% impossibility.

Not far enough and good luck getting on a highway within a minute and traveling 100mph.

 

[BoomerD]

I'm surrounded by Navy bases...including the Bangor Sub base...if it came to nuclear war...I'd be toast no matter where I tried to go...so why bother?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Not far enough and good luck getting on a highway within a minute and traveling 100mph.

There are plenty of workplaces near freeway on-ramps. For most cars it should take no more than ~30 seconds to reach 100mph. Based on the website shown earlier, 6-7 miles should be sufficient to at least avoid the worse effects of the initial blast and shockwave.

 

[jlee]

I'm 1-1.5 miles from 3 different routes to highways - but if everybody was trying to get there, it'd be tough to do it quickly. If nobody else knew and traffic was normal, then yeah no problem.

There are plenty of workplaces near freeway on-ramps. For most cars it should take no more than ~30 seconds to reach 100mph. Based on the website shown earlier, 6-7 miles should be sufficient to at least avoid the worse effects of the initial blast and shockwave.

You're doing it wrong :awe:

 

[jlee]

The idea one can out drive a nuclear blast within 5 minutes is silly. Even with completely empty roads, no vehicle will have the capability of putting enough distance between the blast and the vehicle for the driver to escape.

You have 2 choices already mentioned:

1) Get outside to the highest most open place possible knowing that your death will be instantaneous.

2) Get as far underground as possible for the possibility of surviving.

That'd depend on the blast radius, no? I could go 13 miles in 5 minutes if I was already in the car and on a freeway.

 

[mikeford]

The next time a nuke goes off it won't be delivered by a missile costing millions, but a minivan.

 

[Ruptga]

A minivan? Too hard to conceal its insides. A simple panel van with some Pete's Plumbing decals would be much more practical and nearly as easy. However, nothing's as easy as just putting it on a barge/ferry/transport/whatever and sailing right into a city like Houston. Sure it wouldn't go off downtown, but the economic damage would be at least as bad and the loss of life would be comparable. Plus if it's on a boat you barely need to put any effort into miniaturizing it, and you can make it even bigger if your limiting factor is size and not availability of fissile materials.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Refrigerator

:thumbsup:

It worked for Indy so it can work for me!

 

[xaeniac]

Duck and cover

 

[smakme7757]

Hmmm. Radiation would most likely kill me anyway. Even if i survive the blast I'd have to go outside to find food.

I'd goto the basement, but the building would most likely collapse on me. Hell I'd say your fucked if you can't find a good place and your fucked if you can.

 

[Ichinisan]

... Duck and cover.

Surprised it took so long for the correct answer.

 

[IronWing]

Duck and cover

That's for volcanoes.

 

[SagaLore]

5 minutes isn't enough for me to do anything at all. Where I am temporarily working I'd suppose I'd just grab a water and snack from the vending machine and head down into the basement floor, find a closet I can sit in. The area with the least cell signal is probably best.

 

[Babbles]

I live in the L.A. area so I would be driving to absolutely nowhere.

I live in an apartment, so no basement and the clear option, my refrigerator, isn't big enough for me. I live a couple of minutes walk from the ocean. So I think if I had 5 minutes I would just wade out in the ocean and dive under when The Bomb hits. More than likely won't be perfect, but probably better than just sitting on my couch. While radiation fall-out is immense, the Pacific Ocean is bigger so I would hope that could disperse radiation more so than being in the open. Again, I know it's not the best thing or even rational, but arguably the best option out of the terrible others.

 

[inachu]

I would go to the nearby metro underground tunnels. Anything 25 feet deep down under pure earth is nuke proof.

Nice protection in many of the tunnels. The deepest is in Wheaton maryland which is like
so far down deep you could set off 100 nukes and people down below would hardly feel it.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

There are plenty of workplaces near freeway on-ramps. For most cars it should take no more than ~30 seconds to reach 100mph. Based on the website shown earlier, 6-7 miles should be sufficient to at least avoid the worse effects of the initial blast and shockwave.

What's ground zero? 6-7 miles in one direction could get you further away from the blast and 6-7 in the opposite could take you from a fairly safe area into a certain death zone.

 

[PingviN]

That's for volcanoes.

It's actually not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFT8hLjHtuE

:awe:

 

[IronWing]

It's actually not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFT8hLjHtuE

:awe:

Is too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6ZFkmloarg

 

[Fritzo]

Refrigerator

This. It works.

 

[HeXen]

People put way, way too much thought into this stuff.

 

[CZroe]

This. It works.

I particularly loved how it also somehow latched from the inside and soften impacts.

 

[NoTine42]

I particularly loved how it also somehow latched from the inside and soften impacts.

Dozens of kids have died inside old latching refrigerators (especially old ones sitting outside) getting closed inside one isn't too difficult.