Psa for Nuclear attack in New York

We just returned back home and my husband and I were browsing social media and an alert came up in the form of a 90 second video PSA for a Nuclear attack in New York City. With raised eye brows we watched the PSA and wondered if it was cause for concern. I have never seen a warning for a nuclear attack in my entire time here on earth and it I’m not going to lie , it made my heart skip a few beats.

The video had the feel of a preflight safety video you watch while you are preparing for flight on the plane. The PSA starts with an animated scene of an empty city street, accompanied by eerie music and police sirens. A woman walks out and starts by saying ” So there has been a nuclear attack. Don’t ask me how or why. Just know that the big one has hit.” Then she follows up with Ok?… So what do we do now?

The woman in the video gives very basic information on the steps to take in the event of a nuclear attack.

The steps were as follows:

• Find shelter, go inside, shut the windows and head into the basement or as far into the middle of the building as possible.
• Stay inside
• Don’t stay in our cars
• wash our clothes, body and hair without conditioner if you were exposed to the blast.
• and don’t forget to subscribe to Emergency Management updates.

After she warns us and provides these steps she states ” Alright you’ve got this.” and the PSA ends. Ummm… excuse me Miss Ma’am! We’ve got this? Really this is how you’r going to end this PSA of a nuclear attack? You give us a few steps and then follow it up with that?

Digging a little deeper I found some additional steps that would have been helpful in the PSA. According to ready.gov here are some additional steps that need to be taken.

• Identify shelter locations. These locations should be near your daily commute or where you spend a lot of time. The best locations are underground and in the middle of larger buildings.
• Emergency Supply kit, Be prepared to stay longer than 24 hours. Have bottled water, packaged foods, emergency medicines, and hand crank or battery powered radio to get information in case the power is out, a flash light and extra batteries.
• If possible set aside items such as soap, hand sanitizer that contains 60 % alcohol and general house hold cleaning supplies that you can use to disinfect surfaces that you regularly touch.

If you are outdoors during the blast take cover from the blast behind anything that might offer you protection.

• Lie face down to protect exposed skin from the heat and flying debris.
• Avoid touching your eye’s nose and mouth as much as possible.
• After the shock passes, get inside the nearest shelter to protect from potential fallout. You will have 10 minutes or so to find adequate shelter.
• Be inside before he fallout arrives. The highest outdoor radiation levels from fallout occur immediately after the fallout arrives and decreases with time.
• Remember that we are still in Covid 19 times and so if you are told by authorities to evacuate to a public shelter, try bringing items that can help protect yourself and your loved ones.

Some hazards that are related to nuclear explosions are as follows:

• Bright flashes that can cause temporary blindness for around a minute.
• Blast wave can cause death, injury, and damage to structures several miles out from the blast.
• Radiation can cause damage to cells of our bodies, large exposures can cause radiation sickness.
• Fire and Heat can cause death, burn injuries, and damage to structures several miles out.
• Electromagnetic Pulse ( EMP ) can damage electrical power equipment and electronics several miles out from the detonation and cause temporary disruptions further out.
• Fall out is radio active, visible dirt and debris raining down from several miles up that can cause sickness to those that are outside.

During a news briefing Tuesday afternoon Mayor Eric Adams stated that he did not believe the video was alarmist. ” I’m a big believer in, Better safe than sorry. I take my hat off to OEM. This was right after the attacks in Ukraine, and OEM took a very proactive step to say Let’s be prepared.” Mayor Eric Adams went on to say that ” There are no imminent threats to the city, but we always have to be prepared as New Yorker’s. And I think OEM did the right thing. We are going to always be proactive, Not panic, but we are always going to be prepared.”

Zach Iscol the emergency management Commissioner stated ” As the threat landscape continues to evolve, it is important that New Yorker’s know we are preparing for any imminent threats and are providing them with the resources they need to stay safe and informed.”

in March of 2022 Micheal Dobbs stated ” The risk of a direct confrontation between US and Russian forces may be fairly low at present, but if you multiply that by x months or X years and the number of things that could go wrong, they turn out to be similar mathematically to the one in three nuclear war odds that President John F Kennedy had calculated during the Cuban Missile Crisis.”

Shannon Bugos stated in March of 2022 ” The likelihood of Putin actually using nuclear weapons remains low, but the threat is still there.”

Siegfried Hecker stated in April 2022 ” I don’t really know whether Putin is going to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine or elsewhere, although the chances are certainly non- zero.”

What does this all mean people are wondering, why this PSA now? Maybe we will never know why and let’s hope we don’t find out, but I think it’s important that we all inform ourselves and do our best to protect our loved ones and our selves just in case. ” Proper preparation prevents poor performance. ” Stay vigilant and safe.