[Olefin]

per HW there is only enough food for 1/4 of the surviving population to make it to the end of the year

surviving population = 1/2 of prewar US population

Thus only 1/8th of the US population can survive to the end of 2001

so you have 3/8th of the prewar population starving to death and or dying in other ways while figting to get to the food that can keep 1/8th alive - now add in disease from the dead bodies piling up everywhere from the fun and all those who die trying to stave off the 3/8th of the prewar US population who there is no food for

oh and also all those who die when it finally rains and they can put a harvest in again but still no food while said harvest grows

what do you get - maybe, if you are really lucky, 1/16th to 1/32nd of the pre-war US population still alive by the time said harvest happens in 2002

with the result that the US that most likely never be a major power of any sort again - and basically destroy just about any remnant of technology left intact - meaning no American Arm by 2300 AD as was their intention

the authors clearly didnt think thru what they wrote during a time of pressure to get material out and published under looming deadlines - or take the time to game out what would happen with what they wrote

you would have had US cities in that kind of situation ending up looking like Sydney in Max Max Thunderdome - and thats with only a one year uber drought

So there is my answer to you Targan but instead of going on how about looking at this thread from purely a recovery standpoint and not about a discussion on the HW drought, which has been debated ad naseum here for a long time by various people. After all that is what this thread was to be about.

There is a lot of possibilities out there for recovery and stablization missions - as was mentioned the Pennsylvania mini-module in Challenge is a definite guide in how they could be approached.