Hawaii - 1st State to Prep For N. Korea

[alaskyn66]

Honestly I don't know why the even crap out slogans like two weeks of this and that.

If you have a family of three or four or more you would just about need a tractor trailer full... by the time you add in water..ect.

[kalakoa]

slogans like two weeks of this and that

Every time I hear one of those, I think "oh, you mean the way we live all the time?"

[alaskyn66]

quote:

---

Originally posted by kalakoa

slogans like two weeks of this and that

Every time I hear one of those, I think "oh, you mean the way we live all the time?"

---

Exactly.. just don't make me have to pack it up and move it.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Question for Ino, our resident weather expert:

Given average weather conditions, tradewinds, etc, if a North Korean EMP bomb were detonated at a high altitude west of the islands, would the jet stream or other upper atmosphere wind patterns bring residue or fallout toward the Big Island? Would it also depend on how far north the weapon was exploded?

Moonless, this June night is all the more alive with stars. It's darkness is perfumed with faint gusts from the blossoming lime trees, with the smell of wetted earth and the invisible greenness of the vines. -Music At Night, Aldous Huxley

[Chunkster]

I'm not Ino, but from my Cold War military training memories, I'm pretty sure that a weapon exploded that high would produce little in the way of fallout. Nukes have to explode close enough to the ground to suck up the material that becomes radioactive fallout. An effective EMP would be higher than that. Getting back to Hawaii related matters, a near miss surface blast in these parts would suck up lots of sea water, causing big issues.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

a weapon exploded that high would produce little in the way of fallout. ...
a near miss surface blast in these parts would suck up lots of sea water, causing big issues.

Chunkster,
Thanks for your comments.
I want to be sure I understand correctly what you've said:

* A high level EMP blast would not create fallout, so would have little effect on land, or on sea water. It's main effect would be on electrical components.

* A low level detonation over land would create fallout. A low level burst over the ocean would contaminate the surrounding waters, so no sushi for awhile.

Is that right?

Moonless, this June night is all the more alive with stars. It's darkness is perfumed with faint gusts from the blossoming lime trees, with the smell of wetted earth and the invisible greenness of the vines. -Music At Night, Aldous Huxley

[Tink]

I believe the heat from the explosion over water would create a "rain cloud" of nuclear death that would exponentially expand the "red zone" compared to an over the dirt radioactive dust cloud. For an example, a hydrogen bomb dropped into San Francisco Bay would create a radioactive vapor cloud that would pretty much wipe out most of everything West of the Rockies with wind patterns, radioactive rain and fog for a size comparison, and as you know, moisture seeps everywhere.
Detonation over the City itself would limit damage to the Bay Area, and possibly up and down the Central Valley, certainly a much smaller area of radio active material.

Community begins with Aloha

[DTisme]

I actually read some idiot online claim that Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings created no fallout. I guess all those people with melting skin were just belly-aching complainers. ... SIGH... Now we have nuclear fallout deniers. There is so much misinformation out there about how absolutely devastating any nuclear attack would be that it scares me.

[Chunkster]

@HOTPE: Overall, yes, you got it. We were told that an ocean surface detonation would not only contaminate surrounding waters, but could also produce a local tsunami and drop radioactive rain over an area as much as a few score miles, depending on the strength of the blast and weather conditions at the time. Although EMP was very prominently mentioned, the main focus of our training was the effect that the use of tactical nukes would have in Western and Central Europe. (Utterly gruesome.) The possibility of detonations in the North Sea and Baltic were only mentioned in passing. It is also worth noting that our military has been aware of EMP for a long time and has supposedly taken measures to "harden" critical electronics against it. In reference to Hawaii, I mention water surface explosions because even a very near miss is likely to land in water.

[Chunkster]

@Tink: The Bikini tests spread radioactive water over a surprisingly small area. It was the coral and sand sucked into the explosion that made the place unlivable. I did some research just now and found that the most common water generated nuclear isotopes have half lives of just a few days. While "wipe out most of everything West of the Rockies" might be a bit of an exaggeration, an SF Bay detonation would indeed be catastrophic.

@DTisme: While there were fallout fatalities in Japan, the people with melted skin in the Japanese nukes were victims of flash burns, not fallout. Fallout causes radiation sickness, characterized by nausea, hair loss, and eventual organ failure. We were very thoroughly drilled in recognizing the different effects of the Bomb.