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What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

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Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah. I actually thought filling the bathtub was a measure to mitigate the effects of the heat wave and maybe the radiation as well.

I think it's so if you survive, you have clean drinking water for when the infrastructure has failed and you're waiting for rescue.

This is exactly the thought. Water is the #1 survival necessity but an enormously fragile resource. Electricity can go out, pipes can burst, water supplies can be tainted. Some people keep years worth of canned food around but almost nobody has a year's supply of water.

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#152
post #17

I'm currently living in Japan. So obviously I have a plan for nuclear war. First, I'm going to press send on the doomsday draft which is sitting in my e-mail. Second, I'm going to go to youtube and play "We all go together" by Tom Leher. Third, I got a bottle sitting in my desk that I'm going to pop open. Presumably I'll be in the office at the time so one final round with the coworkers. The people in this article se…

I'm guessing that you don't have children. And no, your plan isn't as good as any other; its just one that suits your own fatalistic attitude toward the risks involved.

Unless you're saying this person is worth less than you, then the plan suited to them is indeed as good as the one suited to you.

A few popular assumptions that aren't necessarily true: Living is always better than dying. Your actions have an effect on the outcome. You can do it. People should always do what they should. It matters.

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#153
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most developers there is no overlap with what they know about software and the things listed above.

The best time to start learning electrical engineering was 10 years ago. The second best time is today! ;)

Also survival skills and amateur radio skills.

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What software development skills will be most useful in a post-apocalyptic world?

Those skills which led you to master programming will enable you solve countless problems the apocalypse will bring.

So problem solving? That does seem pretty useful, yep.

Management skills could be crucial too. But there’s prob gonna be people around who are better at it.

Hopefully survival in the post apocalypse doesn’t hinge on time estimates. Then we’re all doomed.

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#155
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I think it's one of the worst reactions you could have. Without any indication of how bad the attack actually is, you should really assume the best and set yourself up to be able to survive. What if it's a conventional bombing, or you're not directly in the blast zone? Or if the nuke fails to detonate? The immediate aftermath if the most important time. While he's futzing around with Youtube and getting drunk th…

>What if it's a conventional bombing, or you're not directly in the blast zone? Or if the nuke fails to detonate? Yeah, this has been the most frustrating thing reading all of these accounts. A "ballistic missile" does not necessarily have a nuclear warhead. I don't see anyone correcting this and it seems like an important thing to know.

Yes, but in the minutes you have between warning and impact, how do you make this assessment? I think most people's immediate thoughts after the warning was North Korea and Nuke.

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#156
post #25

A good piece of perspective on this -- it's what many civilians feel day in day out in places like Pakistan when killer drones are flying over.

Until it becomes the sad norm and you just get on with your life I guess.

(Just for clarification, this doesn't make it any better or less traumatizing. It is probably much more traumatizing, people just have to cope with it, because you can't live in constant fear forever.)

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#157

I live in New York City and I felt a small degree of panic when the reports showed up on Twitter. However, my initial instinct was "either the system doesn't work, or someone messed up". If someone started firing missiles at the US, the risk that we'd start shooting them back seems high, and I think NYC would be a city that would get pummeled in retaliation. This is probably true for a lot of major coastal cities, es…

I wasn't in Hawaii, but I also imagine that I would assume that an alert like this is a false alarm. I've just lived through too many scenarios like this, albeit not on the same scale (think false fire alarms.) Upon reflection, however, this seems like the definition of survivor bias.

A couple things to keep in mind:

1. Your most logical thinking doesn't occur at 8am on a weekend when you just woke up.

2. Hawaii has a more ingrained trust of the EAS than most other states. We test our sirens and EAS monthly. Sirens for tsunamis aren't that uncommon, and there are several horror stories in Hawaii of how people have ignored the sirens and warning signs in the past and got killed.

3. It's a lot easier to determine its a false alarm in hindsight. At the time, you have no information other than the alert and the knowledge about the current tensions with North Korea. We all knew there was a chance it was a false alarm and sure hoped it was, but when your life is on the line it doesn't matter.

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#158
post #90

I saw a high-effort self-post on Reddit that gave a good framework for evaluating what might have happened. I thought it was good enough that I've recopied it here in full hoping that author appreciates reaching a larger audience and that discussion here might be better than that on Reddit. Repeating, I'm not the author of what's written below. --- A couple of possibilities for what REALLY went down in Hawaii yesterd…

Regardless of the credentials of the poster, the fact that it was posted in r/conspiracy makes me think it's not that useful of a comment. r/conspiracy attracts a certain type of poster, one who finds possible consiparcy in everything.

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What will you do if you can't get into your church building?

I had considered that too and breaking a window to gain access was an option. I'm not a member of the church, but I chose this building specifically as it was most likely to have other people seeking shelter there who also had keys to the building. Indeed, the first family to arrive after us lived a block away and I did verify they do have a key.

Out of curiosity, why does being around other people matter? Wouldn't you want to find a structure that would withstand the blast/fallout?

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#160

I live on O'ahu and was holding my phone when the emergency alert came in at 8:07am. I yelled "Oh my God!" and ran to show my wife the message. I've run through this scenario a few times in my head before and I knew every minute was critical -- so I went into action mode immediately. I told my two kids to get dressed now because we were leaving in exactly 1 minute. The reason we were leaving is our house is single-wa…

Definitely a good day for all the online preparedness stores.
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