What can I do to protect my cat and myself in a nuclear attack?!

A topical question bearing in mind the current tensions in Europe and Ukraine is whether you are thinking about preparing for nuclear war! I don't know about you but sometimes it crosses my mind that I should do something to protect myself and my cat in the event that Putin does the unthinkable and commences a nuclear war. 

The fortified door of a shelter. Apartment blocks in Finland often have such shelters in the basement if there is no community shelter nearby. Note the international civil defence symbol on the door. Photo: MPorciusCato (Wikipedia)

It is very unlikely that there will be a nuclear war, but it is not implausible to believe that he might set off a series of tactical nuclear bombs which may escalate to nuclear war. It would certainly escalate to NATO intervening on the ground, I think. That in turn may result in a catastrophic nuclear war. Putin has hinted at this.

So, what do you do to help save the life of your cat and yourself? I did a bit of research and as you might expect there is not much to do 😢😒 but obviously it depends where the bombs go off 😊😒.

The first problem is that there won't be any real warning. So, as mentioned, it depends where the nuclear bomb goes off. If you live deep in the countryside and the bomb goes off in the capital city of the country in which you live, you've got to think about radiation and whether you are downwind of the explosion.

If you are within say 5-10 miles of the explosion, you'll probably die anyway because the blast wave will demolish everything unless you have a shelter.

And all the advice given, always comes back to shelters but how many people have a shelter underneath their home or in their backyard? Not many. The rich and famous probably have shelters stocked fully with some great food, a bathroom and a toilet et cetera et cetera but for the masses living in apartments or homes we don't have these extravagant facilities.

If you are outside when the blast occurs, and you survive find shelter and remove all your clothes and dispose of them and shower to get rid of any radiation on you.

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Some countries are more tuned in to the possibility of a nuclear war. Finland appears to be an example as they have public shelters. The Helsinki metro stations double as hard shelters. The Finnish shelter system is among the most comprehensive in the western world, being capable of accommodating the country's urban population completely. 

This is because their neighbour is bloody Russia!

And that means you'll have to find a public shelter of some sort. I live near London and I know of no shelters except there's the underground which would be a substitute shelter for millions of people. But you've got to get to it and that might not be feasible after the bomb has gone off. That's the big issue; getting to the shelter without you and your cat being poisoned by radiation.

If it's not feasible, the advice is to go to the middle of your home or the basement if you have one and close all the windows and stay put for at least 72 hours if not a couple of weeks to allow the radiation to disperse. And of course, the same applies to your cat companion. That is going to mean keeping him or her indoors for a very long time which will be very difficult if they are used to going outside unsupervised.

You should also cover all your skin and face when hiding inside your home if you don't have a proper shelter. This is to protect your skin from burns.

It also means having a lot of cat litter available and plenty of black bags to dispose of it. It seems the key to all this is that you got to stay inside unless you can find a shelter nearby either private or public.

This means that people should have a stockpile of foods both for themselves and their cat companion including medication if they are on a repeat prescription.

It also means that you should have plenty of bottled water or you can drink from your toilet cistern but that won't last long. This recommendation is important because there is a distinct possibility that the water from the main supply will be contaminated.

So that means a lot of food for yourself and your cat. It's the kind of preparation you can take if you genuinely believe that a nuclear strike will occur. The US government apparently suggests that their citizens should only eat or drink packaged food items or items that are inside a building.

Another important survival technique is to have a radio which is not powered by batteries. This will allow you to listen in on the news and find out what is going on while you are isolated in your home. You can buy hand cranked radios and I am sure that they are available on Amazon.

Once again this is down to preparation and how far you want to go. The problem is there is no warning because if there was a warning of an imminent nuclear strike perhaps in 12 hours then you could jump in a camper van or any other vehicle and get yourself to the deep countryside, to a place which is not downwind of the explosion (understand the prevailing winds of your country to work this out). And if in that place there was a fully stocked bunker together with other facilities, you would be doing pretty well the maximum you could do to survive.

But there's no point in jumping into a camper van with your cat if a nuclear explosion has gone off about 10 miles away because you are more exposed in a vehicle to radiation than you are tucked away in a safe place in your home. I guess the basic instruction here is to place as much mass between you and the radiation to protect yourself from it.

One website says that the dangerous fallout zone can reach up to 20 miles from the explosion depending upon the size of the bomb and the weather conditions. That's a question of luck whether the bomb goes off near you or hundred miles away as I see it.

But if you live in the countryside with no obvious targets within 50 or hundred miles of you then it is highly unlikely that a bomb will go off near you. But if you live in London or near London there is obviously a much greater chance that you and your cat will be incinerated or receive a killing dose of radiation if you survive the 3rd° burns which would kill you anyway and your cat.