Urban Farming

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by mikeo80

I also think that once the first nuke went off, there would be utter panic here in the USA. Absolute chaos as there would be a run on the banks, then the supermarkets, then the gun stores, then the hardware stores, then the gas stations. Or some variation. This might not be the EXACT order...but I think you get my drift.

Several years ago, I drafted a piece on the effects of the various nuclear scares on the United States. I never finished it for lack of time. Essentially, I looked at the various scares and their effects on public order, etc. I started with the outbreak of the Sino-Soviet War and built from there through every juncture at which nukes might have been used. The most significant of these, which occurs on 09 JUL 97, I call the Alarm. Basically, this is a dress rehearsal for the effects of the Thanksgiving Day Massacre (which we know actually lasts a week or so). [Actually, Howling Wilderness calls this event the Thanksgiving Massacre, not the Thanksgiving Day Massacre.]

The good news about these scares is that they give the forces of law and order a chance to see how things might go in the real event. They also lead to a United States that is somewhat better prepared than Howling Wilderness would have us believe. Some folks are determined to pretend all is well, to be sure. The future Shogun in Nevada is in Las Vegas when the Exchange catches up with CONUS. But the effects of the Alarm in July would be absolutely unavoidable. The first use of nuclear weapons, followed by a general Sino-Soviet exchange, would see an unprecedented breakdown of law and order in the US. Rioting and crime of every description, along with mass flight from the cities and all the horrors entailed by having millions of motorists jammed onto the highways leading out of the major cities, could not help but wake the US out of the most determined torpor. Contingency planning would go into high gear. Even soccer moms might get sensible once they got the idea that their kids really were at risk.