I have been thinking about this as of late, mainly because of the threat of war coming our of North Korea as of late. So I thought that I would begin to throw together a Nuclear Apocalypse Survival Plan. I guess it’s similar to a Zombie Apocalyspse Survival Plan, but without the zombies.
First and foremost when it comes to surviving a Nuclear Apocalypse is finding shelter and food. This may not be easy to find. Assuming that I had some time, I would head to the mountains and seek shelter in a cave that runs deep enough to be shielded from nuclear fallout. Upon arrival at the cave the entrance would need to braced and sealed or a second entrance has to be accessible for when it safe to return to civilization, at least what’s left of civilization.
The next problem is food. Who do you grow food in a cave? You surely can’t live off of cave moss for several years. Some sort of garden is necessary to be able to get the proper nutrition to continue survival, and it must be a self sustaining garden. This would mean that some sort of system has to be in place prior to arrival. Some sort of hydroponic system or greenhouse. The most difficult would getting the power to generate the lights. If you are luckey enough you will have found a cave with an underground stream running that perhaps you can power the lighting and everything off of for the garden.
Once the fallout is done with, which is typically 3-5 years I believe, it should be safe to leave your cave. Remember though, you won’t be used to sunlight at all, so eye protection will be necessary so that you don’t burn out your eyes after having been in the dark for the last half a decade. Once you get out into the open world though it’s a whole new ball game and you will have to redevelop your survival skills. Food may not be edible, and there may not be any good place to for shelter anymore.
You will encounter people who were within the blast radius and narrowly survived with their life. They will more than likely remain close to home. Ideally though the military will have set up refuge camps for survivors. You will have to very wary of where you are because of the massive amounts of radiation. Most major urban areas will not habitable anymore, your best bet is to find a military refuge center as stated earlier. Otherwise, find a community of people who were able to flee the urban areas and have set up out in the wilderness.
Food will still be a factor though, as will clean water. Likely situation is going to be that no matter what you eat or drink you will be ingesting radiation. In the end from not having much choice but to eat contaminated food and water, you will die from radiation poisoning. This may be a painful death, but it shouldn’t hit for sometime if what you are eating was far enough out of the blast radius, or if your lucky and your community has clean food and water.
Basically it all comes down to basic survival techniques and common sense. Try not to travel alone either, you don’t know what’s out there at this point. Preapre a shelter and have a plan in place for clean food and water.
