[RN7]

NEW YORK

New York, as expected, has suffered greatly in the past two years. With NYC nuked, literally millions of panicked people streamed out of the city and stormed upstate. These mobs of refugees totally swamped and buried the once-peaceful northern half of the state under a tidal wave of violence and desperation. Cities and towns burned as hungry people fought each other for food and transport further west. The loss of civic control in New York was hastened by the lack of a strong National Guard presence that could have helped smooth the relocation of refugees. The state's NG units were nearly all called up and sent to Florida during the early days of the Cuban Crisis, and once the bombs started to fall they were not in a position to return to the state in time. The first winter of 1962 thinned them out, and as soon as the food ran out those that still lived by the spring moved. Behind them they left needless devastation. Today, state is a mix of empty forests and struggling cities.

1) NUCLEAR TARGETS
Date Type Target Note
10/30/62 5 mT Bomb New York City
10/30/62 SS-N-4 New York City
10/30/62 SS-N-4 New York City Partial miss

2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES IN NEW YORK
42nd Infantry Division--Peekskill (300 men)
27th Armored Division--Buffalo (2000 men, 30 AFVs)
------449th Government Unit--Elmira (100 men)

3) NEW YORK CITY
For the first two terrible days of the nuclear war, the metroplex remained untouched, much to the delight of it's panicked citizens. But their respite was short-lived. Early on October 30, a flight of three Tu-95M Bear A bombers, showing a capability not anticipated by US analysts, flew low over the Atlantic and attacked New York City from the east. They were intercepted by three F-102 Delta Daggers, which shot them all down but not before one of them had dropped its bomb. The 5 megaton bomb landed in eastern Queens, between Bayside Avenue and 46th Avenue, killing at least a million people in one instant. That evening, the Soviet Golf I class ballistic missile submarine B-125 lurking off Greenland fired two 1 megaton SS-N-4s at the city, completing the destruction of America's premiere city. The first SLBM airburst six miles high over the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 49th Street in central Manhattan. The second, aimed at Brooklyn, misfired and airburst out at sea, the tidal waves punishing the coastal areas and flooding the subway and train tunnels.
NYC in chaos: In the immediate post-nuke months the city tore itself apart. Gangs looted National Guard armories. Sniper fire and mortar exchanges helped the city’s survivors divide into racial and ethnic enclaves. A lot of refugee camps sprang up in the surrounding counties with suburban militias blocking the bridges and tunnels going into Jersey, Long Island and Westchester to stem the tide of refugees. Fresh drinking water was the big problem. NYC relied on upstate reservoirs and when they lost access to those when the power went and the lines running the water into the city failed, it was the end. With no running water or electricity, people booked out of the city real fast. Massive race and food riots were triggered throughout the city, however, and on December 4, 1962 the US 1st Army declared martial law in New York with the consent of General LeMay. In late May 1964, the drought hit the Mid-Atlantic states. Panic swept the Mid-Atlantic states; rioting and unrest would bring down virtually all the city and municipal governments left in the area. Many of the insane who roam the streets and sewers of the skeleton city have made the gruesome transition to cannibalism. The winter of 1962-63 largely finished off what was left of Manhattan and its power centers. Food reserves dwindled, and, except for a few isolated communities, the city had died out as an entity before the coming of spring. As 1963 wore on, plunder became more sparse for the gangs. Poor crops ruined many communities, the weakened ones falling to the stronger gangs. Today, New York City today is virtually a ghost town with isolated communities huddled in farmed parks. Population is estimated at around 44,000 city wide.
Manhattan: In Manhattan, the concrete and steel used in the building of the city has survived, leaving many of the giants as their smaller neighbors crumbled into ash. Downtown Manhattan is still a mess, most tall buildings are dark, burnt-out skeletons of twisted metal and dangling concrete. Towering skyscrapers are now just blackened, twisted, flash-melted wreckage. The Empire State building is just a truncated, bare rusty skeleton. A vast field of rubble exists across most of the lower half of the island. Central Park looks like the Ardennes Forest of WWI. The ground is churned up, acres lay bare of trees or vegetation. The various ponds and lakes are bone dry. Destroyed military equipment lay littered around the park, from when the military tried to restore order after the strikes. Yankee Stadium has been abandoned for years, now a No Man's Land. The means over the Hudson River to the west bank are either shattered by the nuke (the George Washington Bridge), blocked with abandoned cars (the Tappan Zee Bridge), or held by hostile forces (the Bear Mountain Bridge). As well, both the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels are flooded, both are jammed with vehicles whose gas tanks exploded, crushed cars, concrete slabs and skeletons, the river flooded right up to the toll gates. On the east side, the Manhattan Bridge is partially intact and the Queens Midtown Tunnel is flooded out. The Brooklyn Bridge is useless, the Brooklyn half partially submerged in the river and the Manhattan half demolished. There is also a rumor recently circulating on the island of an unexploded Russian nuclear weapon sticking out of the side of an apartment building. Is there truth to this rumor? No. The total population of the lower end of the island is now in the low hundreds, sharing the last open areas with literally millions of rats and exponentially multiplied cockroaches. The area of near-total rubble extends from the tip north to the southern edge of Harlem, with only a few cleared areas.
West Harlem: West Harlem burned to the ground in 1962 and 1963. Perhaps nine out of ten buildings are burnt-out shells, and all have been stripped of anything of value. The only large survivor band is called the "Mau Maus" who control the area of Harlem between 125th and 155th Streets based out of Garvey Park. The greenways of the park have been cleared and tilled and the edges bounded by a low rubble wall. The old cast-iron watch tower on top of the park's hill serves as the citadel of the gang. The gang is predominately black with some Puerto Ricans and whites working together. They survive by raiding and planting the numerous vacant lots in the area to feed their 250 members. Some smaller gangs in West Harlem include the "Simbas" and the "Disciples". The Simbas are based out of an old casino on the corner of Lennox and 116th Street. They have raided a National Guard armory in Brooklyn and cached the stores.
East Harlem: Several Puerto Rican gangs dominate East Harlem. The main gang is called "Los Reyes", based in a fortified housing project called "La Fortaleza" (The Fortress), located in the area bordered by 107th and 110th Streets and First Avenue and FDR Drive. Both Jefferson Park and the landscaped areas have been tilled and barricaded. They are heavily armed with automatic weapons and are extremely hostile to outsiders. There are several other Spanish-speaking gangs in East Harlem, including the "Los Borinqueros" and the "Los Discipulos del Muerto".
The Polo Grounds: The home of the Mets baseball team in Harlem. Though it was damaged fairly severely from the blast over Manhattan, it was intact enough to consider farming. In the spring the locals are planning on planting crops there.
The Bronx: This suburb still supports a largish population of some 25,000, mostly centered around the Cloisters, which used to be branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Fort Tryon and Inwood Hill Parks are both in the process of being cleared and planted by this community. Other large groups of survivors are centered around the Van Courtland Park, the Bronx Park, and in the area around Pelham Bay. The 8,000-strong Bronx Park community is run by the remains of the City government, led by Hannibal Dobbs, the former Deputy Commissioner of Housing as acting Mayor, supported by a handful of surviving NYPD officers and a large militia. Dobbs' HQ is at Fordham University, next to the farmland of the New York Botanical Gardens and the grounds of the Bronx Zoo. He The Bronx's real treasure may indeed be Dobb's large stockpile of medical supplies cached at the Fordham Medical Center.
Battery Park: This is now the sole inhabited area of Manhattan Island south of Harlem. About a hundred survivors under a man named Duke have taken over the old nineteenth-century fort Castle Clinton. The adjacent Municipal Ferry Terminal is also under their control, and one of the Staten Island ferries is being refurbished to service, though fuel is virtually nonexistent. The Harbor Rats pirates have been raiding the Battery Park group regularly.
Manhattan Waterfront: This enclave of several blocks of run-down waterfront on the East River at Fulton Street is the home base of a group of pirates called the "Harbor Pirates". The Pirates, who number less than a hundred, are a splinter off the larger Harbor Rats pirate gang, and are led by a minor drug lord named Manuel Diego Huerra. In late 1962, the Pirates took control of some historical vessels that survived the nuclear blast over Manhattan and have been using them to raid coastal areas and ship traffic in New York Harbor ever since. The Harbor Pirates vessels include the Ambrose Lightship, which never leaves its moorings at Pier 16 and serves as the HQ of the group, as well as the storehouse of the gang's gasoline reserve. Four sailing vessels form the nucleus of the fleet: the four-masted bark Peking (armed with a jury-rigged 40mm antiaircraft gun from a M42 Duster on her bow), the three-masted Wavertree, and the two small schooners the Lattie G. Howard and the Pioneer.
Long Island: Long Island was consumed by firestorms as far out as Mineola. Today, the eastern half is actually doing okay, as most people fled the other way, and the UBF has begun trade with them; the MilGov 77th ID in New Jersey has established an outpost there as well.
Queens: Within several miles of the nuclear ground zero in the eastern part of the area, fire-scorched and soot-blackened girders jut from the slag heaps where skyscrapers once stood. The spread-out nature of Queens, however, has led to the survival of several enclaves. The largest of these are centered around LaGuardia Airport and nearby at Flushing Meadows where Corona Park has been tilled and planted. Maritime communities along the southern coast have been active in fishing and trade.
Brooklyn: The largest survivor enclave in southern Brooklyn is controlled by a warlord named "Abraxas", a former NYPD captain in the 60th Precinct. He rules over the scavengers and thugs that cluster around the low-rent housing projects around Coney Island and in the park areas along Jamaica Bay. This area was strangely spared most of the firestorm damage and now has some of the tallest buildings still standing in the city. His greatest achievement is the reopening last year of the elevated train. It has six cars and is pulled by a small Transit Authority locomotive along rails that are not longer electrified, the diesel work train pressed into service when the electric trams were fried by EMP. It only runs on the undamaged section between Church Avenue and the Stillwell Avenue station at Coney Island, and is expensive to ride, but it has provided Abraxas with the needed clout to remain firmly in power.
Brooklyn Navy Yard: In bad shape by 1964, to put it mildly.
Staten Island: Staten Island was badly damaged by the blast across the way in Manhattan and subsequent fires and is now a wasteland. The entire western third of the island as far as Port Richmond in the north and Staten Island Mall in the center was reduced to charred ruins by wildfires fed from burst oil refineries across the river in New Jersey. There is no organized government on the island now, and the population consists of roving bands of scavengers and bandits. The Staten Island Ferry is now half-submerged off the northern point.
The Upper Bay: In the cold waters of this great anchorage in the mouth of the Hudson River there is additional carnage. The nuclear blast over Manhattan caught a number of ships unawares, the flash melting the superstructures and the blast wave capsizing them. Today the mouth of the river is clogged with half sunken hulks, nearly blocking off all access to the river from the Atlantic. Only small boats and brave pilots make the effort. Dozens of rusty hulks sit in the bay around the lower tip of Manhattan, masts and superstructures above water. Some of the great liners of the world are wrecked here--even the SS United States, lying on her side below the Battery. As well, the Essex class aircraft carrier CVA-38 Shangri-La is here, half-sunken with her flight deck tilted into the water.
Governor's Island: Home to the "Harbor Rats" the largest pirate gang in the New York area, with some 260 members. There are six boats ranging from a small cabin cruiser named the Cypress Queento a number of speedboats all in the 20'-35' range liberated from the city's marinas. The arms range mainly from small arms to a number of M14s and a few civilian rifles. They are based out of the Fort Jay Military Reservation, and the barracks and bunkers of the fort are stuffed with loot and booty. Their leader is named Barney Halverson, a self-proclaimed Viking who calls himself "Bjarni" and carries a looted Viking sword and battle axe. After having explored the area, The group has recently discovered an old US Navy frigate protected from the mostly intact in Bayonne, where many surplus warships were mothballed. They are not sure how to do it, but they have plans to use it as a mobile base for them in the future. Close to the shore of Governor's Island a large, rust-covered liner is beached on a mud bank. She was run aground at high tide, and at low tide she looms over the water, canted at a crazy angle. Returning from Europe when the first nuke hit Manhattan, the ship's blinded boatswain ran her aground.
Ellis Island: Now totally deserted, serving only as a prison for the Harbor Rats.
Roosevelt Island: Though severely damaged by the nuclear strike over Manhattan, the residents of this island have cordoned off the island and are now living in total isolation. They have blocked off the Queensborough and 36th Avenue Bridges. There is now a population of some 1,000 people on the island, led by one of the island's pre-war residents, a retired Marine colonel named Randolph Phillips. Under Colonel Phillips, an 80-man militia has been formed and drills daily. Small sailboats and converted motor launches patrol the approaches to the island. Several attempts at conquest by the various harbor pirate groups have been repulsed. They have farmed the limited land on the island, including the grounds of the hospitals, landscaping areas around housing developments and such. The several hospitals on the island all have heavily guarded stocks of medicines.
The Statue of Liberty: Lady Liberty has stood strong, surviving the blasts with only a barrage of scars and her head blown off. The fires have coated her with a thick layer of soot and today she is black as night. Her massive severed head now sits in ten feet of dirty water right off Liberty Island with a colony of lobsters living in her nostrils, her spikes have been known to tear open the hulls of inattentive sailors. The Harbor Rats pirate gang considers her sacred territory now and keep people away from "Our Lady".
New Jersey side: Most of the New Jersey side is a radioactive mess today. Fires leapt the Hudson River, setting ablaze the oil refineries of Hoboken and Jersey City. Jersey City burned fast, the flames whipped by a stiff eastward wind. Charred twisted spires are all that remains of skyscrapers, mounds of blistered wreckage and piles of blackened debris litter the landscape.
Newark: Though devastated by firestorms, Newark is known now as the "Free City of Newark". The Verazano Narrows Bridge is blocked with an immovable crush of vehicles.
Hoboken: The streets of Hoboken are still clogged with thousands of automobile carcasses blocking all but a few passages. Some of the clearways had been made by survivors and other gangs for purposes of routing traffic into their clutches. Hoboken is run by the "Two mayors". The mayors are two pilots that took over and organized the city out of the post-nuke chaos, consolidating power and gaining almost cult like status amongst the survivors. One of pilots, a former USAF test pilot and aspiring astronaut, is the visible spokesman, the other a silent behind-the-scenes type. The reason for his secrecy is that he is in fact the pilot of one of the Tu-95Ms that was shot down shot down over the city in 1962. Of even more special note, his Tu-95M, which crashed south of Plainview on Long Island, is still there today with two intact 1 megaton bombs buried in the wreckage.

4) HUDSON RIVER VALLEY
Here, fertile lowlands and a high water table have allowed farms to yield significant (if unspectacular) crops, and the Adirondacks still offer good fishing and hunting opportunities. The area was a main refugee route for the east coast cities and it shows. The road system is in sorry repair, and getting rapidly worse. Trees down here, poles broken there, surprising numbers of washed out culverts and impassable exchanges. Abandoned vehicles and landslides. Many bridges are blocked by horrendous traffic jams, others visibly unsafe with sagging spans, and still others actually collapsed and lying in the water.
Albany: The state capital is still that, though it controls only the immediate area. On the first night of the war, Governor Nelson Rockefeller was in New York City and is presumed dead. A man named Jimmy Briscom took over the empty seat in December of 1962. he claimed to be the logical successor to Rockefeller, because he was the state's assistant secretary of commerce and the only one on the chain willing to take on the responsibility. He tried at first to bring Lieutenant Governor Wilson in Buffalo into the fold, but Wilson has refused to acknowledge Briscom's legitimacy. For whatever reason, probably for fear of drawing attention, Briscom moved the capital into the suburb of Rensselaer to the campus of the university there. Here he has some local police and some National Guardsmen to patrol the local area. The NG men are widely hated in the area, as they use their powers to loot and rape the people they are supposed to protect. Briscom's attempts to collect taxes are also unpopular. The city itself is in sad shape, with widespread ruin, crumbling and gutted buildings overgrown with trees and underbrush, the norm. The New York State Police armory and the former Watervliet National Guard Armory have both been looted of weapons but both still contain a variety of useful equipments, including spare vehicle parts and winter clothing. While there are no large scale gangs in the area, only small bands of up to ten people, Albany is one of those places that gunfire is heard almost every night.
Indian Point Nuclear Reactor: Briscom's one ace in the hole might be the Indian Point nuclear reactor down in Westchester County near Peekskill, which had just begin full operation in October of 1962 and was quickly taken offline once the nukes started to fly. Briscom had heard as early as 1963 that although abandoned, the plant was intact and has sent a large contingent of 300 soldiers to check it out. The plant facility is now held by a largish unit of New York National Guardsmen that traveled down the Hudson River to here. This is a unit of the 42nd Infantry Division, that was in South Florida preparing supporting the invasion of Cuba when the nukes started to fly. While most of the unit was gathered up and shipped off to die in Europe, many of the men awolled, with many soldiers heading back north for home, including this particular group which is made up of men from a number of component units. The soldiers are not happy about being here instead of their homes but they understand that the power plant is the region's best hope for recovery and are determined to see it working. The reason this unit is here is that the commander, Major Charles Kane, was once on the station staff before being called up to active duty and therefore is in the best position to help in the recovery of it. The plant needs some minor repairs to the turbines and generators, and major work on the control circuitry, but Kane is confidant that the plant can be back in operation by early spring. With this in mind, he has his men out scouring the area for tools and wiring. Kane is aware of Briscom's dubious claim on gubernatorial power and is secretly planning on turning independent once the plant is operational, selling the power to the highest bidder. Agents of Lieutenant Governor Wilson in Buffalo are currently making their way down to Indian Point to negotiate with him.
Newburgh: Now home to some 18,000 souls. It is the capital of the "Republic of Katskil" and "Emperor" Brian Williams, formerly the Mayor of the city. Organized in 1963 as a provisional government center to aid in the restoration of state power, Mayor Williams soon fell into a crazy illness and began to run the city like a monarchy, so much so that by early 1964 he had taken the title of Emperor and was calling everyone his "loyal subjects". He is an efficient organizer and good to his people, so the citizens just play along, even taking some pride in their Republic. Governor Briscom is currently working to have him killed.
Kingston: A survivor enclave and an active trading partner with both Albany and Newburgh, Kingston has become an almost totally agrarian town, with fields and farms where there once was concrete and brick.

5) NORTHERN NEW YORK
Once a popular vacation area, the war caused the people to leave. Now the forest is busy taking the buildings, the road and everything else man-made back into itself. Many of the larger towns in the Adirondacks region, such as Tupper Lake, Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, are deserted and looted, uninhabited except for a few transient families combing the ruins for salvage. The flu came through this area last winter, further weakening the population. New America controls many of northern New York's surviving communities and a marauder band/cult called the "Army of the Pure Bible" is active in the area as well.
Camp Drum Military Reservation: Fallen into ruin and there is nothing more than foundations filled in with the wreckage of what once was. A rumor amongst the locals s that the place is haunted, a place of death, shunned even by animals. Some speculate that chemical weapons stored at the base are responsible.
Plattsburgh Air Force Base: Home of twelve empty Atlas F ICBM silos, located at Champlain, Millsboro, Lewis, Au Sable Forks, Riverview, Redford, Dannemora, Brainardsville, Ellenburg Depot, and Moeers plus two located on the other side of Lake Champlain in Vermont at Alburg and Swanton. The complex was just completed in early October of 1962, and the missiles had just arrived when the Cuban War exploded. Nevertheless, the missiles were hastily launched on their deadly missions, leaving only empty silos.

6) CENTRAL NEW YORK
Syracuse: Most of the residents of Syracuse either fled to the mountains or scattered to seek the comparative safety of the small towns in rural New York. Today, a new city of sorts has sprung up around Syracuse-Hancock International Airport, thanks to it's centralized location in the region. As well, the remnants of industries in Syracuse still provide some material goods.
Elmira: This small city is home of the CivGov 449th Government Unit, a 100-man reinforced company detached from the 27th Armored Division in Buffalo that is responsible for organization and relief efforts in this area of central New York. The company commander is a pompous, arrogant man who treats the citizens with utter contempt. He has had several citizens publicly flogged for "failing to show proper respect to a US Army officer." His men follow his example. The population are simply biding their time for the right moment to rise up.
Griffiss Air Force Base: Now home to a healthy enclave of survivors and brains. In the hours before the mobs came, the fissionable materials from the AEC laboratories at Oak Ridge, Tennessee were crated up and shipped by air north here to Griffiss AFB where they remain today. They are kept in an underground bunker in the center of the base. The remaining staff of Oak Ridge has joined with the airbase personnel to create an oasis of safety in upstate New York. The base is in excellent condition, although it has no aircraft left by 1964, and it is well-defended and carries on trade with numerous local communities, who have become dependant on the base themselves. Trucks and wagons come and go everyday as the base trades technological goods for foodstuffs. The base has two old WWII cannons with less than ten rounds apiece and three tanks that are the backbone of the defenses.
Ithaca: A small but growing survivor enclave centered on the Cornell University campus, led by "Commander" Peter Croucher and a militia composed of the remains of the Campus Police, local law enforcement, and levies. Commander Croucher is an interesting character. He had been a personnel manager at a textile plant in Boston before the war. Drafted soon after the nuclear exchanges, he was sent to England and saw some hazardous adventures there. In mid-1963 he deserted along with some other men when his unit mutinied. Some of the mutineers stole a plane, and with Croucher on it, and flew it to Newfoundland. From there he worked his way west back to his sister's home in central New York. By early 1964, he had used his managerial skills to work his way into a position of power within the struggling campus security force. Ithaca had been suffering greatly from cholera and marauder raids for nearly a year before Croucher arrived, but he was able to whip them into shape and protect what was left. Croucher now runs the campus, which has absorbed most of the remaining population of the town, with the help of a council of academics. He has set up a hygiene program and reorganized food production to meet demands.
Romulus: There are rumors that there are rogue soldiers occupying the former military weapons depot here, where chemical weapons are also rumored to be held. These soldiers are a collection of deserters and marauders from the New York City area. This Army depot has been a treasure trove for them. The depot held a few dozen old Sherman tanks in the war-reserve stockpile into the 1960s and these vehicles have made them a major force in the region. There are a lot of Garand rifles at the depot, as well as other WW II surplus that are showing up on the local markets as the soldiers begin trading them for foodstuffs.

7) WESTERN NEW YORK
Even with the devastation of New York City and the collapse of Military Region 1, the western counties of New York state have managed to maintain some semblance of order. Immediately after the nukings. Lieutenant Governor Malcolm Wilson, who was in Buffalo when the bombs fell, once he learned of the disappearance of Governor Rockefeller, tried to return to Albany to take over the state government. But the capital city was being swarmed with thousands of refugees from New York City, many of whom were battling police and rampaging through the city. Wilson decided then to go back to Buffalo and took personal charge of the area, effectively abandoning the eastern region of the state. The Great Lakes coast of New York was becoming the last stop for a number of refugees from Ohio and Pennsylvania. The fields of western New York produced enough food to support the reduced population, though the last year saw a decline in the region's fortune as more refugees sought entrance and then needed to be turned away. Due to further pressures on the militia from marauders and from the Now America enclave in the north, more militia needed to be armed, stricter measures enforced, and less ground held. Wilson has never recognized the legitimacy of Jimmy Briscom, the new Governor in Albany. Clearly, if Wilson can manage to control to a small enough area around Buffalo to defend, yet large enough to grow food on, his government may survive. The local county militias, along with state police units and 105 surviving members of the Fort Drum military staff, have formed a more or less unified command, although they are too few in number (only 650) to watch the borders and provide internal security. Wilson, who now claims the title Governor/Mayor of Buffalo and Major General David Dellvechio is head of the combined militias. He has declared the new capital to be Buffalo. The bulk of the New York National Guardsmen of the CivGov 27th Armored Division (2000 men, 30 AFVs) are now garrisoning the area. The division is very strong, with some 2,000 men under arms, and is well equipped with automatic rifles, large quantities of ammunition, grenades, man-portable anti-tank rockets, heavy machine guns, as well as some 21 assorted artillery pieces. For vehicles, the unit still operates 30 tanks, 90 trucks and 42 jeeps. The various airfields and airports in the area still house 32 jet fighter-bombers, 12 helicopters, and 15 wide-bodied transports, but these are mostly grounded for lack of fuel. Engineers have occupied and partially restarted the hydroelectric plant, providing the area with a trickle of semi-reliable power. However, western New York is being forced to share the hydroelectric plant with the new Canadian government, reducing the power available. Today, some 28,500 people live in the Buffalo area.