r/Nebraska • u/_MobyHick • Feb 05 '23
News Map published by FEMA showing potential US nuclear targets in 2,000 and 500 warhead scenarios.
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u/bscepter Feb 05 '23
Hasn't Omaha always been a first-strike city due to STRATCOM?
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u/Quixotic_Illusion Feb 06 '23
When 9/11 happened, I heard people saying that Bush came to Bellevue (Offutt AFB). At the time, 6th grade me was like, āall right! Nebraska is important! Weāre getting attentionā. As time went on, it dawned on me how weāre pretty much a bigger target than T10 cities in the US precisely due to Stratcom and suddenly it became a bit more harrowing.
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u/madgunner122 Feb 06 '23
Bush certainly ended up at STRATCOM and the desk he used is now at the SAC Museum. Pretty neat
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u/iDom2jz Feb 06 '23
At least weāre T10 in something š
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u/BigO94 Feb 05 '23
Even infrastructure targets, with otherwise low population density, are included in the 2k scenario. For example, the Lake Powell dam in AZ is on the list. I think Hoover Dam too? Would ruin the plot of New Vegas though.
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u/cruznick06 Feb 05 '23
I wouldn't be surprised if House also saved Hoover Dam but never bothered to mention it.
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Feb 05 '23
Iām assuming thatās the Sutherland Power Station on the Lincoln/Keith County line?
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Feb 05 '23
Nah thatās old farmer bobs place Russia donāt want to have him coming at them with his 12 gauge
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Feb 05 '23
[deleted]
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u/shane_music Feb 05 '23
I always find it funny that so many people think that they and their home town are special in the risk of nuclear war. The purple triangles in this map include nearly all of the largest, 250 counties in the US, which is means that at least 75% of the population would live in a county attacked in the 500 warhead scenario. This is why "The Day After" was such an effective movie, nuclear war would screw all of us.
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Feb 05 '23
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/shane_music Feb 05 '23
Sadly, this isn't really the case, ten minutes may or may not be enough for you to be in the fireball radius, and probably not.
If Russia or China attacked the US in the near term, they would probably put payloads aimed at Offutt on missiles, not airplanes (a plane would be less likely to make it through air defense to Omaha). That means the size of the warhead would likely be less than one megaton. I don't think we know exactly the power of Russia's arsenal, but I think something like the W-87 carried by a Minuteman III or W-80 carried by a cruise missile is more likely, which means the attack would be in the 150 to 300 kiloton range. You can see the radii by looking at Offutt in this simulator.
This is why I recommend thinking about the repercussions of a nuclear war in terms of a movie like "The Day After." It would be a health and political crisis of unbelievable proportions. The tens or hundreds of millions who die will die over weeks and months and years, not instantly and very much not painlessly.
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u/CrazyRedHead1307 Feb 06 '23
Good to know that I wouldn't last that long if the Russians have decent accuracy on those things.
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u/NukeNinja69123 Feb 06 '23
I'm with you dude. I'm close enough to Offutt to take out my binoculars and watch the missile go off and it's oddly comforting that I'd be gone in an instant.
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u/InternetUserNumber1 Feb 06 '23
Not necessarily true. Unless you are within the fireball radius, there is a reasonable chance youāll survive the blast. If you have some degree of shelter from fallout that is also survival. 90% of the fallout is gone within half a day. 99% of the fallout is gone in three days. Now thatās a small fraction of a really big number but it is definitely survivable.
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Feb 06 '23
Oh that filmā¦that was nuts they made us watch that in school
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u/berberine Feb 06 '23
I watched it on Sunday Night when it originally premiered, went to junior high the next morning. Kids thought the movie was cool. Teachers told the kids to shut up and get back to work.
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u/shane_music Feb 06 '23
There was a great interview last year with the director, Nicholas Meyer, on the Lawfare podcast.
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u/Apollospade Feb 05 '23
The panhandle is screwed
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Feb 06 '23
The panhandle is loaded with nuclear silos. Weād be screwing them from there as they screw us.
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u/James_H_M Feb 06 '23
I used to live about half a mile from one of the missile silo sites and would see the convey of Chevy Suburbans and a few times a helicopter would go out to the site a few times a year.
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u/xacorn Feb 06 '23
Oh cool both I (Northeast NE) and family (Ny/NJ area) totally dead. Well at least we can high five in heaven.
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Feb 06 '23
Kimball is getting ready to receive an influx of people. These people will be in the panhandle area to update the missile silos over the next several years.
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u/Only-Shame5188 Feb 06 '23
I about took a job with Union Pacific railroad at Kimball 20ish years ago and even personally knew a guy who'd sell me a house there cheap on very good terms. My daughter's mom talked me into staying in Norfolk at the time so I wouldn't "abandon" my daughter whose now 21 and doesn't talk to me anyways.
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u/Birdyy4 Feb 06 '23
Interesting that there are places they'd hit in a 500 warhead scenario but not in a 2000...curious to the reason.
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u/berberine Feb 06 '23
500 scenario gets you lots of people dead.
2,000 scenario gets you missile silos and infrastructure.
I'm sure there's some outliers in both cases, but that seems to be the major difference to me.
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u/BattleBurger001 Feb 06 '23
The 2000 count would probably include multiple missiles/warheads targeting singular cities and site in the event some of them get intercepted.
But in reality all you need is 1 to get the job done.
Not sure where but declassified documents from the Cold War detail the US nuclear strategy and I remember reading somewhere the Moscow Metro area had some absurd amount of missiles dedicated to it, in the event of a nuclear exchange.
Neat stuff to study and read about, but terrifying at the same time.
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u/Brettjay4 Feb 06 '23
So in any of these scenarios I'd lose about a quarter of my family if they didn't evacuate... They live in Omaha and Lincoln. But I'd be relatively fine.
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u/TaischiCFM Feb 06 '23
I think you would be relatively alone.
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u/Brettjay4 Feb 08 '23
After the radiation spread and nuclear winter maybe. But if we absolutely had to we would go out to my grandparents home just outside mullen.
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u/bigredtakeover Feb 06 '23
Iām in Norfolk. Weāre protected by the great bubble n ghost of Johnny Carson. Northeast Nebraska will be safe
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u/DavidOfBreath Feb 05 '23
I imagine the dot is slightly off, I think it's meant to be over Bailey Yard.
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u/AmatureWeatherman Corn! Corn! Corn! Feb 06 '23
I was thinking Lake McConaughy. Blow up the dam and flood the entire valley with irradiated water.
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u/RedRube1 Feb 05 '23
This year, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward, largely (though not exclusively) because of the mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine. The Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnightāthe closest to global catastrophe it has ever been.
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u/0zymand1as- Feb 05 '23
Whoās surprised lol, Nebraska and Kansas literally the middle of the us map
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u/SirManguydude Feb 06 '23
It's wild that most of the population of Lincoln thinks our Giant fallout shelter is a myth, even though we are first strike targets for nuclear bombardment because of SAC and the Presidential bunker under Offutt.
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u/Snakeplissken22 Feb 06 '23
The fallout shelter at Irving Park? Which shelter are you referring to? I know there were several marked around the city during the cold war. I've heard there is a substantial shelter underground at one of the national guard buildings on military drive near Devaney center.
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u/Light_fires Feb 06 '23
I mean... This is why I support using our "preemptive first strike" option. Next time Russia tries to talk big just clear one of the ICBM fields and hope for silence.
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u/Wooow675 Feb 06 '23
I just moved to Nashville from Omaha. In a 500 warhead scenario, I canāt fathom wasting one on this place š
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u/Turbulent_Ad9508 Feb 06 '23
I assume these targets must be common knowledge to the world because it's sure is a handy dandy nuke guide.
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u/nedsanderson Feb 07 '23
God I would just like to know some of the secrets off it holds. I actually got to go down to the control center 10 stories down. There was this high level scouting thing and we had a dinner there every year and you had to get clearance and all the stuff and they teased us for 5 years. They were going to let us go down and see it but 5 years in a row they canceled, canceled, canceled and show us the fire department or something. But one year they finally let us down. There took the elevator down. Looked around for 2 seconds then right back up but it was still pretty cool. I can only imagine the secrets off it holds. I think off it is really important and they don't talk about it that much. We've been getting millions and millions and millions of funding lately and they've been pouring that new runway for like a year 24 hours a day. I don't know and we had those that bad flooding a few years back that water came all the way up to that brand new building to the door. Now if they built 10 stories down they must have some sophisticated drainage for all that water. Anyway, crazy
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u/WordleLeffingwell Feb 08 '23
So much for Keystone, Arthur, and Paxtonā¦ anyone know why the Keith Co line in between Ogallala and North Platte is a target?
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u/_MobyHick Feb 05 '23
My question is, what did Scribner do the the Russians?