Aftermath
Immediate
A normal house fire is difficult enough to fight. But within 5-10 miles of an 800kt detonation virtually everything that's flammable could be on fire and a firestorm developing in your neighbourhood. Easy enough to imagine. Look out your window today and just imagine everything being on fire: trees, hedges, flowers, grass, your shed, your fence, your car and likely your neighbours will have the same issues. For miles, all you might see is fire and thick smoke, possibly toxic, and all sucking the oxygen from the air.
You may well be injured:
1. Fractures
2. Burns
3. Lacerations
4. Temporary blindness
5. Permanent blindness
6. Burst ear drums.
You will need to cope with these injuries and fight the fires taking place. You have 10 minutes to fight the fires and get them under control, plus to get your family into shelter, before the first of the fallout radiation starts to fall. Neighbours will be doing the same. There may be screams for help. There may be violence due to desperation, frustration and panic. You will need to ensure your shelter is fallout contamination proof and waterproof. Rain will help control fire but will also be radioactive. You will need to ensure your shelter ventilation is not blocked or damaged. A lot needs to be done in the immediate aftermath under the most extreme of conditions. You should have a well rehearsed drill.
Another detonation may be imminent. If the blast isn't as catastrophic as you anticipated, then highly likely another closer blast is only minutes or seconds away. Only you can make the decision on whether the main blast has happened, or whether it's just the first. A quick 10 second peek outside your inner shelter to check for fire and damage may be your best option.
- If your home has window damage but no fire and no building collapse, then return to your shelter immediately, just in case of another detonation seconds away. Especially if you think it's likely in your area.
- However, if your home is on fire you must fight this and risk that you can do it before another blast takes place.
You may be lucky and a second attempt at detonation fails or isn't targeted. The worst of the detonation damage could be over. But if you stay inside and fail to fight even a small fire, then very quickly this could turn into a fatal inferno.
If there is window damage then you should attempt to repair this as quickly as possible. If it is extensive then it would be better to stay inside your inner shelter and hope it provides the protection needed.
The first hour
If you have managed to fight your fires, secure your shelter, and get your family into the shelter within the first 10 minutes, then the immediate task will be to treat any injuries. If your family are inside the shelter and you are still battling flames, or externally making your shelter secure, you will need to remove your clothes and wash off any possible fallout dust before joining your family.
You will need to check the inside of the shelter thoroughly to ensure it is contamination proof. Sanitation arrangements will need to be in place. Highly likely that vomiting and/or diarrhoea may have already begun due to any gamma radiation received, or through the shock of what's happened. The buckets used for fire fighting may be useful here. You may need to defend your shelter from panicked, unprepared neighbours. If you decide to let them in, they will need to decontaminate. They may beg you. They may confront you. Only you can decide what to do at this point. A deterrent may be useful.
The first day
Fires in the neighbourhood will be raging until everything combustible has burned. Screams will likely be heard before neighbours start slowly dying from their injuries or radiation sickness. Your psychological trauma will be great, the symptoms of shock likely severe. The realities of discomfort may already have started in what will be your new home for the next few weeks. If you have a radio that works you will need to listen for news and be prepared that this may be extremely depressing.
The first 48 hours
It is essential that you stay in your shelter for 48 hours and await any signal that allows you to move out. It is highly likely no such signal will occur within this period. The longer you stay in your shelter the less the risk of fallout radiation contaminating you or your family. No matter how dreadful it is, do not leave your shelter for at least 48 hours. If you can bear it, stay inside your inner shelter for longer.
The first week
Any unprepared panicked neighbours may well now be dead. If you turned them away or used violence against them, your guilt may be terrible. Any surviving vermin and insect life may be in abundance. Better prepared neighbours may now have left their shelters and be seeking additional resources. Again, you may need to defend your shelter from them. If you have not treated your own wounds, or those of your family adequately, infection may already be setting in. If you have no antibiotic supply you may need to go in search, you may decide to head for where the local chemist used to stand and risk punishment for looting, or to head for the nearest overworked, overstretched hospital, if it still remains. In the worst scenario you may consider self-amputation of any infected body parts, your own or your family's.
It is possible that official news will filter through on the radio to alert you of where to assemble. More likely is you will be told to stay inside for another week. Official news may contain:
1. Local recovery needs and how you can help.
2. Incoming aid from overseas and evacuation possibilities.
3. Details of the war. There is a possibility that the war may not be over and invasion still possible, either by the primary enemy or a secondary enemy. Even friendly allies could turn to enemies in a frantic world full of turmoil.
4. Extent of the attack and damage.
A month later
If you have survived this far then it will time to leave your shelter and go in search of supplies and join any rebuilding project. There will be rural survivors without the physical injuries of city dwellers, but sick and desperate nevertheless. Their lack of physical injury may give them physical power over you. Resources will be low and likely rationed. It will be much colder, possibly freezing, as nuclear winter sets in.
Help the rebuild effort or continue to shelter and hideout?
At some stage, there will be an effort to start rebuilding. This could be under the control of an occupying power if the war has been lost. It seems unlikely an invasion will take place, but it is possible. Thankfully it seems more likely that survivors will begin to rebuild under the supervision (or employment) of our own military, working under martial law, or allies providing aid.
We can only hope no hostile invasion takes place and secondly a hope that aid will come from the southern hemisphere. If you escaped to the southern hemisphere you may be required to return to the UK and help in the aid effort. It is possible aid will come. Communities may start developing and re-joining society, and joining them may be your best choice at this stage. It seems highly likely that avoidance would be punished if continuing to hideout and failing to contribute. If you have stocks of food then questions as to 'how' you have so much stock are highly likely. It may also make you very unpopular amongst fellow survivors.
Communications will become easier in time and likely you won't be able to give an excuse that you haven't heard of the rebuilding effort. There will be an expectation, and likely people and controlling bodies will be less kind and understanding than they were before the war started.
This will be a different and unfamiliar, dangerous world. But the world will not be dead. If the war has ended and you have survived then the future may not be as bleak as some predict. There is always hope.