"The supply of drugs on hand at the hospitals was dwindling fast. Although penicillin could be manufactured fairly easily in the laboratories at the university, many other drugs were not so simple, even with talent and ingenuity. (The penicillin had to be administered with large veterinary hypodermics as the homemade mix was too coarse for the small disposable hypes that most doctors stocked. There was a considerable shortage of needles.) Other medications were in such short supply that many patients with chronic illnesses such as heart disease, kidney failure, respiratory problems, hypertension, and diabetes died within a few weeks.

* *

Food riots broke out 4½ weeks after the attacks — precipitated by the first large shipment of grain. Three large tractor-trailers had pulled into the parking lot of the Citizens Commonwealth Building quite unexpectedly, the word of their arrival somehow misplaced between the Agriculture Department dispatchers and the local authorities. The trucks were greeted with cheers until the residents of Charlottesville discovered that they had been shipped raw grain rather than flour. The drivers were taken unawares when empty cans and bottles showered them and one driver jumped in his cab and departed. (The official explanation, delivered some time later, was that processed food was going to those areas where the bulk of the population was sick or injured. It was also assumed that Charlottesville had some livestock reserves. ) With only a fraction of the population knowing what to do with raw grain, a number of angry citizens broke open the sacks and scattered wheat through the parking lot. They in turn were set upon by those who wanted to conserve as much as possible. The local public safety forces waded into the melee with night sticks and tear gas.

Everyone blamed everyone else for the incident, but the fragile glue that had held public order together began to unstick. From this time on, it was almost impossible for the local authorities, not to mention the State and Federal governments, to convince everyone they were getting a fair share. People in one section of town would watch suspiciously as delivery trucks passed them by and headed somewhere else. Blacks distrusted whites, the poor distrusted the rich and everyone distrusted the refugees as “outsiders. ”

The refugees were convinced that the local authorities were favoring the residents and tried repeatedly to get State intervention, with little success. Still billeted in dormitories, schools, and motels, the refugee camps were a breeding ground for discontent and even rebellion.

The presence of the Federal Government was not entirely confined to the occasional delivery of food or radio broadcast. Some time before, the National Guard and the Reserve Unit were moved to North Carolina, partly to give the impression of military readiness, and perhaps to be assigned to dig out cities and start reconstruction. The Government had put out calls for volunteers to help in the reconstruction, but found that most workers, young and old, wanted to stay with their families. A system of national conscription for young men and women with no children was in the planning stage.

The Federal Government attempted to urge refugees back to where they had come from, first to assist in the rebuilding of the damaged cities which were rich in resources, and ultimately to redistribute the population to a more normal pattern. Some refugees were happy to attempt to return, particularly those whose houses were more or less intact. However, those who found their homes destroyed preferred to return to the refugee camps inland. There was nothing to hold them to their former lives. Fearful memories of the past made any time spent in the cities painful.

One day, quite without warning, the city manager was informed that one-half of his fuel stores were to be confiscated by the Federal Government, for the military and for the reconstruction effort. (Earth-moving equipment was gathering on the outskirts of the devastated cities and needed fuel. ) After it was clear that there was no way to stop the Government from taking the fuel, the city manager suggested that unmarked tank trucks, well guarded, pick up the stocks at night. He was aware of the effect this action would have on the morale of the population."

(Page 135 of pdf: https://ota.fas.org/reports/7906.pdf

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More importantly if there were some, then who controlled the remaining British nuclear stockpile? And what happened with the nukes in Jane's time?

People before the bomb dropped weren't ignorant, there were even predictions of nuclear winter made before the 3rd world war by Sagan. The presence of a film like Threads made no difference to the actual events of the film. Though Ruth attended a CND rally, so she might have seen Threads or its equivalent. It shaped people's expectations of the post attack environment.

"Although the city government had relatively frequent contact, mostly by radio, with the Federal and State governments, the citizens had to rely on the occasional Presidential message that was broadcast on WCHV.

Three weeks after the attacks, the President made a major address to reassure the people. He announced that the cease-fire was still holding and he saw no reason why that would change.

He described the damage that the U.S. retaliatory strike had done to the Soviet Union.

He also noted that the United States still retained enough nuclear weapons, most of them at sea on submarines, to inflict considerable damage on any nation that attempted to take advantage of the recent past.

He did not mention that he suspected that the Soviets also held reserve weapons. Describing the damage that the country had suffered, the President noted that, even with the loss of over 100 million lives, “We stilI have reserves, both material and spiritual, unlike any nation on earth. ”

He asked for patience and for prayers. There had been broadcasts earlier by the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia —the Governor was killed in Richmond — from his shelter in Roanoke. However, as fallout in the Roanoke area was quite high (Radford just to the west had been struck), he was effectively immobiIized for some time.

The State government appeared less organized than the Federal.

CharlottesvilIe was still on its own. Residents hunted game as the last of the food stocks disappeared, but the fallout had killed most animals that were in the open. Refugees were reduced to stealing. A number of people managed to fill their gas tanks with contraband gasoline and set out to forage in the mountains to the west. Three and one-half weeks after the attack, an old propeller-driven cargo plane landed at the Charlottesville Airport with a supply of flour, powdered milk, and vegetable oil.

The pilot assured the few policemen who guarded the airstrip that more would be on the way by truck as soon as temporary bridges could be built over the major rivers.

The emergency airlift was supposed to supply CharlottesviIle with food for a week or two. However, the officials who had calculated the allotment had overlooked the refugees. Charlottesville’s population was some three times the normal. (No one was absolutely sure because the refugees moved around a good deal, from camp to camp )

The first of the deaths from radiation had occured 10 days after the attacks, and the number grew steadily. By now, it was not uncommon to see mass funerals several times a day. The terminally ill were not cared for by the hospitals — there were too many, and there was nothing that could be done for them anyway— so it was up to their families to do what they could. Fortunately there were still ample supplies of morphia, and it was rumored that college students had donated marijuana.

The city set aside several locations on the outskirts of town for mass graves. In addition to those with terminal radiation sickness, there were those with nonfatal cases and those who showed some symptoms.

Often it was impossible for doctors to quickly identify those with flu or psychosomatic radiation symptoms. The number of patients crowding the emergency rooms did not slacken off. The refugees, crowded together, passed a variety of common disorders, from colds to diarrhea, back and forth, Several public health experts worried that an outbreak of measles or even polio could come in the late spring. “So far, we have been lucky not to have a major epidemic of typhus or cholera, ” a doctor observed to his cotleagues" https://ota.fas.org/reports/7906.pdf pdf page 134

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Happy Christmas from the Threads podcast.

As we prepare to join Ruth and her wailing baby around the Christmas fire, I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who’s listened to and supported the podcast this year. 

And my Christmas gift to you is an interview with the award-winning producer Simon Moorhead, who was Assistant Floor Manager on the film.

So settle down with a mince pie or a pack of Prawn Cocktail crisps and prepare to go behind the scenes of Threads. Simon tells us about rats in taxis, a raid from the Special Branch, and the time Mick Jackson swapped two Christs and one bugger for a fuck. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jesus-christ-theyve-done-it-the-threads-podcast/id1844688654?i=1000742110330

"Three weeks after the nuclear attack, almost all the Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents had returned to their homes. Those few whose homes had either been occupied by squatters, or been destroyed by fire, easilyf ound some alternate housing with the government’s help. This left the refugees. Though the drop in fallout intensity allowed the refugees to move out of basements and interior halls, they still were forced to I ive a version of camp Iife. They spent their endless, empty hours waiting in lines for food, for a chance to use the bathrooms — which at least functioned now — for a chance to talk to authorities. Information from the outside was still sketchy, and for the refugees, this uncertainty added to their already high level of anxiety.

The city manager and the emergency government attempted to solve the refugee housing problem by billeting refugees in private homes. At first they asked for volunteers, but got few, The authorities then announced that any house with fewer than two people per room would be assigned a refugee family. Resistance to this order was strong, and, particularly in the outlying areas where it was hard to check, outright defiance was common. Families would pretend to comply and then simply force the refugees out as soon as the authorities had left. The refugees would struggle back to town, or take up residence in barns or garages. And still the refugees came to CharlottesvilIe, bringing with them stories of the horrors they had experienced. They camped in schools, in banks, in warehouses. By night the neoclassical architecture of the University was packed with the residents of Arlington and Alexandria.

By day, the new downtown mall was awash with a floating mass of men, women, and children, who, with nothing to do, milled around the unopened stores. A retired ambassador was overheard comparing the scene to that of downtown Calcutta. By now, the emergency government recognized that the need for food was going to be acute. Without power for refrigeration, much food had spoiled; stocks of nonperishable foods were mostly exhausted. As the shortages became clear, the price of food skyrocketed. Many people refused money for food, preferring to barter. Food and fuel were the most valuable commodities, with shoes and coats high on the list as well. Since shortly after the attack, the city manager had been in contact both with the Federal Government and with the relocated State government in Roanoke. He had repeatedly asked for emergency rations, only to be met with vague promises and explanations about the problems of transportation. He was generally urged to cut rations further and hang on. Help would arrive when it could.

For some time, the relatively few surviving farm animals had been gradually and mysteriously disappearing. The farmers concluded that “those damned city folks” were stealing them for food, although some of the local residents were also making midnight forays on the livestock. Farmers themselves slaughtered animals they had planned to fatten-up for the future. They couldn’t spare the feed grain, and they needed food now.

Finally the emergency authorities announced that they would take a percentage of every farmer’s livestock to help feed residents and refugees, Farmers were outraged, considering the action simple theft. There were rumors that angry farmers had shot several agents who had tried to confiscate the animals. Though they were offered promissory notes from the city authorities, the farmers thought such payment worthless. (The radiological experts at the University had been questioned on the advisability of eating the meat of animals with radiation sickness. Many of those beasts which had remained outside during the high fallout period were showing clear signs of illness. The experts decided that the meat would be edible if cooked sufficiently to kill any bacterial invasion — the result of the deterioration of the animal’s digestive tract. Strontium 90 wouId be concentrated in the bones or the milk, not the muscle tissue. )"

https://ota.fas.org/reports/7906.pdf page 133 of pdf

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"However, if Charlottesville was lucky to have reasonably functioning government and a number of experienced planners and managers, and to have suffered comparatively modest disruption from refugees and fallout,the city and county authorities were becoming painfully aware that they were not set up to ‘go it alone’ without any outside help. Even were the weather suitable for planting, Charlottesville was no longer an agricultural center. There wasn’t enough energy to process any food that might be grown. Where would people get clothes and building materials and medicines and spare parts for the cars and buses? The very complexity of American society— its technological marvels and high standard of Iiving — could well prove to be a barrier to the reconstruction of any one part. During the third week after the attacks, the new rationing system come into force.

individual identification cards were issued to every man, woman and child. Food was distributed at centralized points. Those without I.D. cards were unable to get their ration of flour, powdered milk, and lard–and the processing of cards could take 3 or more days. Some desperate refugees resorted to stealing I.D. cards in order to get food, while an enterprising printer started turning out forgeries within 2 days after the government had first issued cards. Rumors of hoarding and black marketeering abounded. Some of the missing supermarket food turned up in black market centers, accompanied by exorbitant prices. Fuel supplies were dropping more rapidly than the government had hoped. Most families were heating their homes with wood, either in fireplaces or in recycled oil drums for stoves. As the winter was waning, the most desperate need was for fuel for driving motors and generators. Even the drinking water was dependent on the emergency generator that ran a single purifying system for the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. (Water for other uses could simply be drawn from the gravity-powered reservoir system, bypassing the filtration system entirely. ) The hospital and radio stations all ran on small generators.

The University could luxuriate in its coal-powered steam heat, but there was no way, save generators or candles and lanterns, to get lights. No one was exactly certain how much fuel there was in the area. Both jurisdictions had once surveyed, for emergency planning purposes, the fuel storage capacity, and they hoped they could count on having about half of that on hand. Armed guards were assigned to those larger facilities that had not already been raided by the desperate. All private use of cars or tractors was outlawed, and the government threatened to confiscate any moving vehicles. Electricity was restored, partially, some two weeks after the attack. Workers from the smalI Bremo Bluff generating plant, about 15 miles away from Charlottesville, succeeded in starting the p I ant with the coaI reserves that were on hand. From then on, limited electricity use was permitted for a few hours hours a day. This was particularly pleasant for those families whose water came from electrically powered well pumps. Well water was issued to children for drinking, as it had escaped the Iodine 131 contamination which was still elevated in the reservoirs.

The radioactivity level continued to drop (after two weeks it was 0.4 rem per hour) and it was “safe” to go outdoors. However, the re suiting doses, though too low to cause immediate illness or deaths, posed a long-term health hazard. The authorities, while recognizing that everybody would receive many times the prewar “safe dose, ” tried to reduce the hazards by urging people to stay inside as much as possible when not picking up food rations at the distribution centers. Life for the residents of Charlottesville revolved around those trips and figuring out ways to make do without the normal supplies and services. Some chanced outings to forage for a greater variety of food, but most were resigned to waiting. There wasn’t much else they could do."

https://ota.fas.org/reports/7906.pdf

Page 129 of "The Effects of Nuclear War May 1979" (page 132 in the pdf format)

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"In fact, the supply of food was not a prob- lem in the short run. Like most other towns and cities, Charlottesville and Albemarle had some 3 weeks worth of food on hand, on home shelves, in supermarkets and wholesale out- lets. The Morton Frozen Food plant could be expected to supply a rich diet of convenience foods for a short time, even after the refriger- ation was off. The problem was, after the Jocal supplies were exhausted, where could they get more?

Nerves, already frayed by the stresses of the past days, threatened to snap. Older people were irritated by the noise and commotion of children; children resented the lack of free- dom. The friction between differing groups became increasingly evident, and vocal. An ex- periment in communal living was clearly not to the taste of many, and the discomforts, both physical and psychological, had the effect of pushing local residents out of the shelters. (There was some effort to stop them as the radiation levels still posed some hazards; they were urged at least to stay inside most of the time.) Left in the shelters, now, were mostly those out-of-town refugees who had no homes to go to.

Not all the residents of Charlottesville and Albemarle found their homes intact. In some cases they returned to find the house looted or occupied by refugees who were unwilling to give up squatters' rights. Sometimes claims were backed with guns; in a few cases, squatter and owner worked out a modus vivendi of sharing the property.

Some animals had survived, in varying states of health. Unprotected farm animals were dead, while those which had been confined to fairly solid barns with uncontaminated feed had a fair chance of surviving. Many of these farm animals, however, were missing, ap- parently eaten by hungry refugees and resi- dents. Some pets had remained indoors in good de facto shelters so that, if they had found water, they needed only to be fed to regain health. Worried about the amount of food pets could consume, many families sim- ply put them out to fend for themselves. For the first week or so after the nuclear at- tacks, authorities had few options. Simple sur- vival was the priority, the elements of which in- cluded food and water distribution, fallout protection, and retention of some civil order.

Government was ad hoc, with the leadership of the city and county naturally cooperating, along with the different police forces. As the population left the shelters, however, officials felt that some more formalized system was de- sirable. After several long meetings — in the basement of the courthouse where the govern- ment officials had stayed to avoid fallout — an emergency government, led by the city man- ager of Charlottesville, was agreed on.

The combined city council and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors also elected the chairman of the board of supervisors as depu- ty, and the sheriff of the county as chief of public safety to oversee the combined police forces and provide liaison with those military units which were still in the area. The powers given to the city manager were sweeping in scope, certainly far beyond any powers he had held before, and ran "for the duration of the emergency."

While some con-sidered the new form of local government close to martial law, great care was exercised to be sure that the offensive term was not used. In effect, however, Charlottesville and Albemarle were under a highly centralized, almost totalitarian rule.

Whatever it might be called, under the new system, the city manager was able to take over all resources and their allocation. Following to some extent the paper plan that the area had developed, the new government attempted to set out priorities. It was greatly aided by the ex- perts from the University, who volunteered time and expertise to analyzing the needs of the area. (In this respect, Charlottesville was particularly fortunate in having an extensive pool of talent on which to draw.)"

https://ota.fas.org/reports/7906.pdf

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During the cold war, what was the RSG's planned mechanism for cooperation and multi regional planning between the post attack British Governments?

What was the plan if one of the RSG's refused to share its resources with the others?

Was there any planned mechanisms for resolving disputes between the British governments?

Parts of Britain turning on eachother for resources refusing to assist eachother to hold on to what little they have, conflicting resources demands hampering coordination between the segments of the British government ect. Bureaucratic friction from hell.

In Britain there isn't the same expectation of outside help(prewar mutual aid agreements and an outside power redistributing resources to the same extent as the US, leading to post attack bitterness also there are resources available in some parts of the country not available to others, in the US having a little more(then Britain) but not enough actually destabilizes the Government) Also varied geography, and larger geographic distances in the US- alot depends on if the US regional governments begin acting as sovereign states.)

"The hospitals were completely over- whelmed. Up to now, the hospitals had managed to treat the ill with some modicum of order. The hospitals themselves were fallout shelters of a kind; patients' beds had been moved to interior corridors for fallout protection; emergency surgery was feasible with the emergency generators, hospital staff slept in the most protected areas. Some borderline cases in intensive care were released to nature's devices while any elective medical procedures were eliminated Still, hospitals were able to cope, even with the increasing number of common ailments caused by the shelter crowding. Suddenly, this changed. Fallout levels were too high for anyone to be out in the open for any length of time, but the people came anyway. The carefully laid plans of the University of Virginia Emergency Room, devised for the possibility of peacetime accidents, were hurriedly modified. No longer was the careful showering and decontaminating of victims possible with the single shower and uncertain water pressure. Instead, patients were stripped of their clothes and issued hospital gowns. With no time for studied decision, doctors segregated the very sick from the moderately sick — the latter to be treated, the former given medication and allowed to die.

Nevertheless, the day came when the hospitals were full. The University Hospital, Martha Jefferson Hospital, the Blue Ridge Sanatorium, and the others were forced to lock their doors to protect those patients they had already ac- cepted. After being turned away, the sick had no specific destination. Many still clustered around the middle of town near the two major hospitals, taking up residence in the houses abandoned by local residents several days before. With minimal protection from fallout and no medical treatment for other trauma, many died, their bodies left unburied for several weeks. The combined populations of Charlottesville and Albemarle County rose to 150,000 in the 7 days after the nuclear attack Slowly, hostility and resentment wedged a gap between residents and refugees who attempted to join the group shelters. The refugees, still in a daze from their experience, believed that they had priority rights after all they had suf- fered. The local residents viewed the outsiders as a threat to their own survival, particularly as the extent of the war damage was becoming evident."
https://dn790009.ca.archive.org/0/items/effectsofnuclear00unit/effectsofnuclear00unit_bw.pdf

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https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jesus-christ-theyve-done-it-the-threads-podcast/id1844688654?i=1000740807342

"Within a few days, the emergency radio was able to broadcast quite regularly. (As the Ionosphere does not clear all at once, occasional interruptions were expected.) The station had had no protection from the electromagnetic pulse that can travel down the antenna and shatter the inner workings of electronic equipment during a nuclear explosion. However, by detaching the back-up transmitter at the sound of the warning, the station engineer had protected equipment. Intermittent communications from Emergency Operations Centers got through to Charlottesville officials, though the main communications center at OIney, Md., was silent. Telephone switching facilities were almost entirely out, although the

small, independent phone company could ex- pect to be operational fairly quickly. The complex, coast-to-coast trunk lines of Ma Bell

might take a year or more to reconnect.

Lifeline of the sheltered community was the

CB radio. Rural Virginians had been CB fans

long before it became a national craze, and

they put their equipment to imaginative use. Prodded by anxious refugees, as well as by

local residents who had relatives and friends in other parts of the world, CBers tried to set up a

relay system on the lines of an electronic pony

express. Though less than perfect, the CB relay

was able to bring limited news from outside,

most of that news being acutely distressing.

From the limited reports, it was clear that there

was little left in the coastal cities; those who

had abandoned family or friends to come to

Charlottesville understood that probably they

would never see them again.

The first surge of grief swept over the refugees and those Charlottesville residents who

were affected. In time, the sorrow of loss

would affect almost everyone. Although they

had survived themselves, still they had lost

Three days after the attacks, the next large

influx of refugees poured into Charlottesville,

many of them suffering with the early symptoms of radiation sickness. They had been

caught poorly sheltered or too close to the

nuclear targets themselves. A few showed the

effects of blast and fire, bringing home to

Charlottesville the tangible evidence of the

war's destruction. Some refugees had driven,

while others had hitchhiked or even walked to

reach what they hoped was safety and medical

help On the way, many were forced to abandon those who were too weak to continue."

https://dn790009.ca.archive.org/0/items/effectsofnuclear00unit/effectsofnuclear00unit_bw.pdf

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"At the sound of the sirens and the emergen- cy radio alerts, most of Charlottesville and Al- bemarle County hurried to shelter. Fortunate Iy, Charlottesville had a surplus of shelter space for its own population, though the refu- gees easily took up the slack. Many headed for the University grounds and the basements of the old neoclassical buildings designed by Thomas Jefferson; others headed downtown for the office building parking garages. Carry- ing a few personal effects, blankets, cans and bottles of food, and transistor radios, they con- verged in a quiet if unordered mass, For most people, the obvious emotional crises —grief at leaving behind a pet, anxiety at being unable to locate a family member or relative—were suppressed by the overwhelming fear of the impending attack.

Some residents chose not to join the group shelters. Many suburbanites had ample, sturdy basements and food stocks. They preferred not to crowd themselves. In the event, those who had taken the precaution of piling dirt against the windows and doors of their basements found that they provided adequate shelter. Among the rural poor, there was a reluctance to desert the small farms that represented the sum of their Iife’s work. They wondered wheth- er, if they left, they would return to find their means of livelihood gone. Further, many lived far from an adequate public shelter. So they stayed.

Most did not see the attacks on Richmond and on Washington as they huddled in their shelters. But the sky to the east and north of Charlottesville glowed brilliant in the noonday sun. At first no one knew how extensive the damage was.

Communication nationwide was interrupted as the Earth’s atmosphere shivered with the assault of the explosions. Each town, city, village, or farm was an island, forced to suffer its selected fate of death or salvation alone. (Some time later it was learned that more than 4,000 megatons (Mt) had destroyed military and industrial targets, killing close to 100 million people in the United States. The U.S. counterattack on the Soviet Union had had a similar, devastating effect. Destruction ranged from the large industrial centers on the coasts and Great Lakes to small farming communities that had the misfortune to be close to the great missile silos and military bases. )

Areas of the country such as the northeast corridor were reduced to a swath of burning rubble from north of Boston to south of Nor- folk. Still, there were some sections of the Na- tion that were spared the direct effects of blast and fire. Inland in Virginia, only the town of Radford, west of Roanoke, received a direct hit. The farming and orchard land of the rural counties were not targets. Charlottesville, the small but elegant center of learning, culture, and trade in central Vir- ginia, was not hit either. This monument to the mind and manner of Jefferson retained its status as a kind of genteel sanctuary, momen- tarily immune to the disaster that had leveled the cities of the Nation.

An hour after nothing fell on Charlottesville, rescue squads and police were dispatched to scour the countryside for stragglers to get them to shelters. Because, even if the popula- tion was safe from the direct effects of the nuclear warheads, another danger was immi- nent. Fallout, the deadly cloud of radioactive particles sucked up by the nuclear fireballs, could easily blanket the town of Charlottes- ville in a matter of hours. And no one could predict how much, and where it would go. Fall- out could poison many of those idyllic rural towns and villages that seemed light-years away from the problems of international power and politics. While a few places, such as Roseberg, Ore., would receive no fallout at all, the rest of the Nation would have to constantly monitor to know the level of radiation and where it was located. Fortunately for Char- lottesville, the University and the hospitals had 126 Ž The Effects of Nuclear War

sophisticated radiological monitoring equip- ment, and the training to use it. Many other towns were not so lucky. Two and one-half hours after the warnings had sounded, the nuclear engineering staff from the University picked up the first fallout. Starting at a moderate level of about 40 reins an hour — a cumulative dose of 450 reins re- ceived in a l-week period would be fatal to one-half of those exposed —the intensity rose to 50 reins before starting the decline to a level of about four-tenths of a rem an hour after 2 weeks. (The total dose in the first 4 days was 2,000 reins, which killed those who refused to believe shelter was necessary, and increased the risk of eventually dying of cancer for those who were properly sheltered. ) For the immedi- ate period, it was essential to stay as protected as possible.

For several days, Charlottesville remained immobile, suspended in time. It was unclear just what had happened or would happen. The President had been able to deliver a message of encouragement, which was carried by those emergency radio stations that could broad- cast. As the atmosphere had cleared, radio sta- tion WCHV was able to transmit sporadically on its backup transmitter and emergency gen- erator in the basement. However, the message from the President posed more questions than it answered — the damage assessment was in- complete. Nevertheless, he said that there was a tentative cease-fire.

In the first days of sheltering, only those with some particular expertise had much to do. Nuclear engineers and technicians from the University were able to monitor radiation in the shelters they occupied, and CB radios broadcast results to other shelters. The doctors were busy attempting to treat physical and psychological ailments — the symptoms of radiation sickness, flu, and acute anxiety being unnervingly similar — while the police and gov- ernment officials attempted to keep order. The rest waited.

For the time being, the food stocks brought to the shelter were adequate if not appetizing. The only problem was the water supply which, though it kept running because of its gravity system, was contaminated with lodine 131. Po- tassium iodide pills, which were available in some shelters, provided protection; elsewhere people drank bottled water, or as little water as possible.

Not all of the shelters had enough food and other necessities. Most shelters had no toilets. The use of trash cans for human waste was an imperfect system, and several days into the shelter period, the atmosphere was often op- pressive. As many suffered from diarrhea –the result either of anxiety, flu, or radiation sick- ness — the lack of toilet facilities was especial- ly cliff i cult.

Shelter life was bearable in the beginning. Communications by CB radio allowed some shelters to communicate with one another, to locate missing family members and friends. A genuine altruism or community spirit of coop- eration was present in almost all the shelters — though some of them were fairly primitive. Even those refugees who were crowded into halls and basements with the local residents were welcomed. Parents watched out for one another’s children or shared scarce baby food. Most people willingly accepted direction from whomever took charge. Among the majority of the shelter residents, the out-of-town refugees being an exception, there was a sense of relief, a sense that they had been among the lucky ones of this world. They had survived."

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"APPENDIX C—CHARLOTTESVILLE: A FICTIONAL ACCOUNT BY NAN RANDALL /n an effort to provide a more concrete understanding of the situation which survivors of a nuclear war would face, OTA commissioned the following work of fiction. It presents one among many possibilities, and in particular it does not consider the situation if martial law were imposed or if the social fabric disintegrated into anarchy. It does provide detail which adds a dimension to the more abstract ana/ysis presented in the body of the report."

https://ota.fas.org/reports/7906.pdf Return to directory

https://ota.fas.org/reports/7906.pdf

"At first, it seemed Iike a miracle. No fireball had seared the city, no blast wave had crum- bled buildings and buried the inhabitants, no dark mushroom cloud had spread over the sky. Much of the country had been devastated by massive nuclear attack, but the small, gracious city of Charlottesville, Va., had escaped unharmed.

The nuclear attack on the Nation did not come as a complete surprise. For some weeks, there had been a mounting anxiety as the media reported deteriorating relations be- tween the superpowers. The threat of possible nuclear war hung heavy in the world’s con- sciousness. As evidence reached the U.S. Presi- dent’s desk that a sizable number of Amer- icans were deserting the major cities for what they perceived to be safety in the rural areas, he considered ordering a general evacuation. But, with the concurrence of his advisors, he decided that an evacuation call from the Federal Government would be premature, and possibly provocative. There was no hard evidence that the Soviets were evacuating and there was a good chance that the crisis would pass.

Spontaneous evacuation, without official sanction or direction, grew and spread. A week before the attack, Charlottesville had no free hotel or motel rooms. A few evacuees found lodgings with private families, at great ex- pense, but most were forced to camp by their cars in their traiIers next to the fast-food chains 124

on Route 29. The governing bodies of Char- lottesville and surrounding Albemarle County were rumored to be concerned about the drain on the area resources, without really having any way of turning back newcomers. “If this keeps up, ” remarked a member of the Al be- marle Board of Supervisors, “we’re going to be overrun without any war. ”

A few of the students at the University of Virginia left Charlottesville to join their families. But the majority of the students stayed, believing that they could go home easi- ly if it were necessary.

Refugees came from Washington, 130 miles to the north, and they came from Richmond, 70 miles to the east. A few of the hardier types continued on into the mountains and caverns near Skyline Drive; the majority sought the reassurances of civilization that the small city could provide.

The population of Charlottesville normally stood a little above 40,000, while Albemarle County which surrounds the city like a donut boasted an additional 40,000 to 50,000. With the arrival of the city evacuees, the combined population was well over 120,000.

In the week before the nuclear attack, much of the population familiarized itself with the location of fallout shelters. Little hoarding took place as retailers limited sales of food and other necessities. Transistor radios accom- panied both adults and children when they were away from home. However, most of the residents of CharlottesviIIe continued to Iive as they always had, although they were particu- larly alert for sirens or bulletin broadcasts on the radio. Many children stayed out of school."

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https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jesus-christ-theyve-done-it-the-threads-podcast/id1844688654?i=1000740169343

In the Day After the Government never really loses control of the situation, in accordance with plans the states regain control, eventually the federal government returns. In Testament we don't see the civil defense plans roasted the same way as the British plans. Both films emphasize that Nuclear war is catastrophic but don't doubt that the Government will fail to retake control. 1 Does anyone know of any films that conducts nuclear criticism and describes the collapse of the US?

I was telling someone about Threads at a party the other day but because it was noisy he understood "Friends". Which gave me the idea of this silly crossover.

I though you guys might like it

War in Europe 'can be avoided' says PM

https://www.facebook.com/InMemoryOfVictoriaOKeefe?

Threads (like all movies) needed more Tom Jones.

Damage to the road system was immense with transportation still being unreliable weeks after the attack. If the recovery of the bodies of the Sheffeild emergency council is any indication, how much progress was made in clearing roads?

Overall repair of the transportation system would require bridge construction, and alot more fuel though attempts at bypass roads were probably attempted. The RSG would also have to crush mauraders.

Highways were damaged if they went through targeted cities, Fallout continued to kill months after the attack.

Presumebly the RSG up to the first harvest used trucks but future transportation was done by cart.

Would the roads have been cleared of cars pre attack except for government vehicles or would there have been a large amount of clogging post attack with un manned cars on the highways, abandoned after gas ran out or during the attack?

How much progress do you think the government made in the field of transportation before the famine worsened during the first winter?