Duck and Cover! An American Spinoff of Protect and Survive.

Cleveland. I might be a tad biased though.

Maybe we can see how the remainder of Congress is surviving.

It would be interesting to see what is happening in Puerto Rico and Guam too.
 
Another shameless plug for CAP...

In regards to the Cessna 172's there are no doubt quite a few of them...and CAP still had one of the biggest fleets of them. CAP is trained to ferry high-value people from point-to-point. (Perhaps a relay system could be set up?) A (stolen, non-CAP) 172 flew from Thunder Bay, Ontario to Elsinore, Missouri a few years back on one tank. (And with USAF tailing him...) On the other hand, the maximum capacity of a Cessna 172 is about four people.
BTW, has CAP been effectively federalized for the duration of the emergency?
 
Tell 'em all!!!

I think you should tell a little bit of each story, and add a new one.

The best way to get out of writer's block after stepping away for a little bit? Just write :)

Prospero -- Maybe they give a little info on what's going on in England.
California -- Who is "The Colonel"?
Cleveland -- Black Snow melting
Nevada -- The Singer is there, right? Whats her story..who is she?
Texas -- The Gospel according to...Waco

And remember, you have fellow Americans on the same trip...Draw on them. :)
 
Update!

[FONT=&quot]Part VI: There Will Come Soft Rains[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The Last City on Earth [4][/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]The Black Snow was melting. The season of spring was slowly arriving late to Cleveland. Some argued that there would be no summer this year. To most, spring would be enough. [/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]After the first broadcast of Voice of America the refugee situation in Cleveland had finally normalized. The few refugees that still trickled in told stories of piles of dead scattering the highways. Frostbite, radiation poisoning, starvation, fights, accidents, and thousands of other causes ended their lives. Conservative estimates would put the figure that nearly 100,000 died trying to make their way to Cleveland. More liberal would put the number closer to 500,000 as they included some people as far away as Canada taking part in the trek.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The very young were the worst off. Few people below the age of 3 survived the first month of the attacks. Highly susceptible to disease, pneumonia, radiation poisoning, and strep throat killed thousands of small children. Yellow fever was just as deadly. All infant mortality post strike climbed to ridiculous levels. 45% of children born within one month would die over the next year from various causes, most dying of starvation or disease over the coming winter.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Whole cemeteries were devoted to the “pure” as the small bodies came to be called. The worst thing for a new mother was to hear that your child was pure; their child would only have a precious few more hours to live.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Slowly joining the diseased ridden child corpses were radiation victims, still births, fatal mutations, and those with premature brain tumors. Suicide rates among maternity ward staff exploded within a few weeks of Armageddon. Few would rise up to fill their ranks, the job was too “damning on the human soul.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The deaths of such skilled medical workers only spelled disaster among expecting mothers. As more and more medical staff began to succumb to disease, suicide, or resign in pure depression, more and more mothers and their children began to die in childbirth. Many would later say that childbirth killed more women and children after Armageddon than all of the nuclear weapons used during the war combined.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The adult refugees fared little better. Before being relocated, most were kept in the concentration type “relocation camps.” With few quality latrines and fewer quality sources of water, the unsanitary conditions caused diseases to rip through the camps with a fury. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Cholera, dysentery, and even in some camps, botulism, killed hundreds. The poor quality of corpse disposal only made the problems worse. Soon refugees were put to digging mass graves. It was said that one couldn’t walk within miles of these camps without smelling the stench of rotting corpses.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Being relocated was the best day in most of the refugees’ new lives. The chance to leave the disease riddled refugee camps would prove to improve the life of a refugee exponentially. Mortality plummeted in most cases after leaving the camps. The refugees were broken into four “relocation classes,” based according to their skill set and experiences.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Primes were supposedly those with extremely rare and important skills. Specific types of scientists, military officials, and political persons found themselves in this. Most were given free housing in some of the better off areas in Cleveland where they worked for the government in administration and planning roles. However it came to be known that corruption when assigning the Prime rank was rampant. Many people whose skills would normally have placed them among the ranks of the skill-less Refugees with good enough personal connections could easily find a plush job, at high pay and with little risk. Primes were mostly housed in abandoned houses left behind after the strikes.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Below Primes were Vitals, also known as “Vees.” Most “Vees” were people with experience running factories, farms or offices. Other “Vees” include people with industry or military vital trade skills and experience. It is not uncommon for both a welder and floor manager to both be considered Vital. Finally Vitals included medical professionals needed as the sick and dying quickly grew. Vitals were most commonly housed in abandoned community centers and schools. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Below the “Vees” were Refugees. Normal “fugees” had little to no useful skills. Many middle class and low class jobs afforded one the rank of a refugee. Lawyers, day laborers, and accountants found themselves thrown in the same classes. Most fugees lived in slum like conditions in loosely organized favella like towns on the outskirts of Cleveland. Life barely improved for “fugees,” however they had jobs and food. The luckiest worked on factory floors, where they were sheltered from the elements. The worst off worked in the sewers or on corpse clearing crews. Disease and death among these refugees was rampant.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The final classes were the innocuously named “Type Four” refugees. Type Four were refugees who wouldn’t survive the week. Radiation poisoned, sick and dying, they were left to rot in “relocation camps.” No people were recorded to have survived after being classified “Type Four.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]While life for a refugee was filled with hard work and few comforts, the locals to Cleveland were living almost their normal lives. Most locals whose jobs were vital to running the city kept their jobs, and it wasn’t hard for a local to get classified a Prime and allowed to stay in their old jobs and houses. Besides the currency change, the overt presence of law enforcement (to prevent another riot,) and exploding prices of food, your normal Clevelander could almost claim that life was almost normal after Armageddon. Children went to school, parents went to work, choosing to ignore the rampant poverty just outside their walls.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Around this time was also one of the first “resource location/acquisition missions” approved by the Mayor’s council and the local military commanders.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Soldiers would locate a town that had either a food warehouse, a granary, or in some cases, a factory farm. They would swoop down on the town and offer the local leaders a deal. Give Cleveland some of your surplus food and they would protect them from bandit raids. As bandits and criminals grew bolder over the weeks following Armageddon, many towns agreed to join the Cleveland Continuity Cooperation Program. Through the poorly named “CCCP” Cleveland was slowly able to feed itself and its growing population.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]*The Refugee was returning to his house after his day at the factory. The snow had almost all melted by now and as he joined one of the lines leaving the city limits he could almost feel a warmish breeze play across his face.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]He walked up to the fence. After handing the military policeman at the booth his “R card” he was waved through the first gate, and then the second. He smiled with pride at the double layer chain-link fence surrounding the whole city.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]The city said that the Columbia government had warned that bandit attacks could be coming with the spring thaw. The Cleveland government had decreed “to protect our citizens” they would build the wall.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Some argued that it was to keep the refugees out. The Refugee had no idea who to believe so he didn’t. Better to not waste thought on such a silly matter. Politics was dead, replaced by the gallows he was passing. Dissenters and criminals of all kinds were hung day after day. [/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Farther beyond the gallows and just before his home slum of Anytown, he passed the girls. Scantily clad in the cold spring night, everyone knew why they were out there. Their skeletal frames looked awkward in such ill fitting clothes. Few if anyone would find them all that attractive.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]They were trying to take advantage of the 12 hr shift rush. The Refugee shook his head with dismay at the sight of a small, definitely younger than 17, girl being lead off by a guy on his shift. He couldn’t blame them though. Food was worth almost any price nowadays. [/FONT]
 
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This actually puts the few surviving Germans at an advantage from their American counterparts. They, having to reconstruct after WWII didn't have the money to afford the newest appliances thus keeping the wood fired ones around longer. Even your house could have been partially heated from that small wooden stove. Though coming across coal will be nigh impossible unless they come across some kind of broke coal train.

I have to add that the coal heating was installed here in the Ruhrgebiet due to being in the shadows of the local coalmines... This part of Germany would have been nuked thoroughly, but coal-areas in the US might be less affected and still get coal to the communities around.
Besides, East Germans of the 1980s were in some regions still massively using "Brown Coal" for heating, thus leading to the appalling level of smog (again, certainly thoroughly plastered areas, though).
In some rural areas, huge tiled stoves are still traditionally to be found in old houses. They heat up a place massively!

In West Germany suburban building of the 1970s and 80s, open fireplaces were quite fashionable. Though that is probably a lot less efficient when compared to a stove (these were built in order to look good and provide cosiness, not too provide the main heating), they are better than nothing (I would know which a few houses to check in my neighbourhood - ah, too bad, we are probably multi-nuked from different directions, but you know what I mean).

Perhaps as they are fairly "easy" to machine, wood stoves could become common place with government subsidies?

Wherever you have a government... and subsidies.... sure. In most cases I would rather see it as pillaging empty houses or directly occupying them if you find a more suitable mode of heating than at home.
 
I'm lost and at a crossroads.


Finish telling the Prospero Redux?

This is it. You started it and now I would like to know how you correct the situation. :eek:

Besides, it gives Chipperback a little time to catch up. I mean, the situation is bad already in his Nebraska, but whenever I read it I think "oh, those were the happy times before it happened".
 
And me again...

- Yellow Fever

Does that imply the use of Biological Weapons? Otherwise I would find it odd to be rampant even as far North as Cleveland.

- Infant Mortality

...should probably be seen in context of adult mortality. 85% shocked me, I have to admit. Where most adults are just a step away from death, conditions for a child to survive are not given, sure. OTOH, if the Persian lady from the parallel "Wolves"-storyline would give birth in Niagara county, I doubt its chances of survival would be as low as 15%. But even if it is would have a 30,40 or 50% chance to live to its 5th birthday, that would be pretty bad nevertheless.

(Worst present-day OTL figures are 20.6% in Chad. German 19th century figures go as far up as 35% for some region. Both goes to the 5th birthday, however.)

That leads me to a general question which lingers in my mind for a few weeks now and I would like to see some estimates on that.

I am pretty sure that although we all know on which day most people on Earth died, that would just be the start of an overall demographic decline. How long would it take (in an affected country in North America or Europe, not some lucky isolated place without direct hits or just one or two) to reach the nadir before population figures stabilize or rise; not just in few communities which are led with extreme skill or are just luck, but generally?

In other words, when have radiation, famine, diseases, crime etc. have killed enough people so that those surviving are few and tough enough to find a sustainable balance of ressources allowing them not only to keep on dying (people just don't seem to quit that habit), but also to think of raising families. Yes, it sounds odd to think of starting families in that context; but well, if people just survive without doing so, population numbers still drop and drop, albeit slower. Also, families with a demographical impact still have to involve a lot more than 2.1 kids. That is, in order to bring two children to adult life, it will probably for a longer time be necessary to undergo a lot more pregnancies for a woman than 2. Additionally, these families might have to offset the numbers of people possibly having become infertile (I am not familiar with the latter, just a thought).

My first guess for the nadir was winter 1986/87. Having written all that, I would suspect it to be past 1990, though (though I would think that population numbers wouldn't drop drastically any more past '86).

- CCP? Couldn't you fit in another C?
 
"sides, it gives Chipperback a little time to catch up. I mean, the situation is bad already in his Nebraska, but whenever I read it I think "oh, those were the happy times before it happened"

Those times are going to get a lot less happy :(
 

Falkenburg

Monthly Donor
Cleveland Community Co-operation Pact, perhaps?

Imagine the fun when some outsider stumbles across a 'Requisition Party' with vehicles tagged 'CCCP'. ;)

The population decline/collapse will be one of the greatest challenges facing efforts to re-establish working Nation States, Post Exchange.

Beyond the immediate losses and subsequent 'die offs', many may succumb to previously innocuous, or managable, ailments.
Diabetes and even high blood pressure are now killers. Likewise tetanus and influenza.
The pre-existing measures that held contagion in check, never mind pro-active countermeasures, are gone and may be far down anyones list of priorities (or just plain beyond their capabilities).
Rabies epidemic, anyone?

It seems plausible that there will be waves of epidemics, in the aftermath.
This could well see 'The Dying' continue for years.
Hopefully not into the 90s but almost certainly throughout the 80s.

20 - 25% surviving population? And that heavily skewed towards younger people (10 - 30yrs). Overly optimistic?

That would set the scene for a population boom towards the end of the decade, once the immediate job of survival has been secured.

Falkenburg
 
"Farther beyond the gallows and just before his home slum of Anytown, he passed the girls. Scantily clad in the cold spring night, everyone knew why they were out there. Their skeletal frames looked awkward in such ill fitting clothes. Few if anyone would find them all that attractive.

They were trying to take advantage of the 12 hr shift rush. The Refugee shook his head with dismay at the sight of a small, definitely younger than 17, girl being lead off by a guy on his shift. He couldn’t blame them though. Food was worth almost any price nowadays.

Cleveland looks to be a madhouse.

"This could well see 'The Dying' continue for years.
Hopefully not into the 90s but almost certainly throughout the 80s.

We've already had the modern equivalent of the Black Plague in one 6 hours stretch of time.

What happens when you have people making their own Streptomycin?
 
And me again...

- Yellow Fever

Does that imply the use of Biological Weapons? Otherwise I would find it odd to be rampant even as far North as Cleveland.

Lets say that a smallpox outbreak will slowly evolve from the remains of the CDC center (in Georgia?) where it is stored. Perhaps the USSR hits us with biological weapons? We may hit them with some. Thus world wide pandemic of smallpox, anthrax, and other bio-weapons. *shudder*

- Infant Mortality

...should probably be seen in context of adult mortality. 85% shocked me, I have to admit. Where most adults are just a step away from death, conditions for a child to survive are not given, sure. OTOH, if the Persian lady from the parallel "Wolves"-storyline would give birth in Niagara county, I doubt its chances of survival would be as low as 15%. But even if it is would have a 30,40 or 50% chance to live to its 5th birthday, that would be pretty bad nevertheless.

(Worst present-day OTL figures are 20.6% in Chad. German 19th century figures go as far up as 35% for some region. Both goes to the 5th birthday, however.)

That leads me to a general question which lingers in my mind for a few weeks now and I would like to see some estimates on that.

I am pretty sure that although we all know on which day most people on Earth died, that would just be the start of an overall demographic decline. How long would it take (in an affected country in North America or Europe, not some lucky isolated place without direct hits or just one or two) to reach the nadir before population figures stabilize or rise; not just in few communities which are led with extreme skill or are just luck, but generally?

In other words, when have radiation, famine, diseases, crime etc. have killed enough people so that those surviving are few and tough enough to find a sustainable balance of ressources allowing them not only to keep on dying (people just don't seem to quit that habit), but also to think of raising families. Yes, it sounds odd to think of starting families in that context; but well, if people just survive without doing so, population numbers still drop and drop, albeit slower. Also, families with a demographical impact still have to involve a lot more than 2.1 kids. That is, in order to bring two children to adult life, it will probably for a longer time be necessary to undergo a lot more pregnancies for a woman than 2. Additionally, these families might have to offset the numbers of people possibly having become infertile (I am not familiar with the latter, just a thought).

My first guess for the nadir was winter 1986/87. Having written all that, I would suspect it to be past 1990, though (though I would think that population numbers wouldn't drop drastically any more past '86).

- CCP? Couldn't you fit in another C?
I changed the figure to be more realistic. As for population growth after the strikes, I truly have no idea. Though 1990 sounds reasonable if a bit conservative.

"CCCP" hmmm.....

Cleveland Community Co-operation Pact, perhaps?

Imagine the fun when some outsider stumbles across a 'Requisition Party' with vehicles tagged 'CCCP'. ;)

The population decline/collapse will be one of the greatest challenges facing efforts to re-establish working Nation States, Post Exchange.

Beyond the immediate losses and subsequent 'die offs', many may succumb to previously innocuous, or managable, ailments.
Diabetes and even high blood pressure are now killers. Likewise tetanus and influenza.
The pre-existing measures that held contagion in check, never mind pro-active countermeasures, are gone and may be far down anyones list of priorities (or just plain beyond their capabilities).
Rabies epidemic, anyone?

It seems plausible that there will be waves of epidemics, in the aftermath.
This could well see 'The Dying' continue for years.
Hopefully not into the 90s but almost certainly throughout the 80s.

20 - 25% surviving population? And that heavily skewed towards younger people (10 - 30yrs). Overly optimistic?

That would set the scene for a population boom towards the end of the decade, once the immediate job of survival has been secured.

Falkenburg

I prefer "Cleveland Continuity Cooperation Program" sounds more official and appropriate. I'll adjust the reference.

Cleveland looks to be a madhouse.

It doesn't look like a madhouse, it IS a madhouse. Trust me that city will be facing serious problems over the winter. Sorry, Quid Pro Quo, but I'm saving some serious nightmare fuel for Cleveland. Sorry. :(
 
Considering the alternative of living in Missouri which would be a wasteland following the war I'd rather be in Cleveland.For better or worse its still a living,many other places are gone.Many places in the States are literally gone especially in the Midwest.For better or worse in Cleveland you have a chance in other places not really.
 
While looking over the targeted cities list over on the Protect and Survive thread, I saw that Toledo, Ohio wasn't on the target list.

Would it be possible that Cleveland enters into some kind of agreement with Toledo and other nearby surviving cities - Youngstown, Ohio; Muncie, Indiana, for example?

The agreement could cover food, fuel and any number of areas meant to address the present situation and plan for the future.

I am thinking someone realizes that the resources, and professors, at the surviving universities of Toledo, Youngstown State and Ball State, in conjuction with those at Case Western Reserve, John Carroll and Cleveland State could be useful in any number of areas.

City leaders would have had to draft the Cleveland Clinic's resources, as well.

Since Ann Arbor and Lansing, Michigan, weren't on the target list, FEMA may want to tap into the resources at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. If Pfizer's facilities were around in Ann Arbor in 1983, that's another resource to put to use.

The Upjohn pharmaceutical company is located in Kalamazoo, so FEMA/Cleveland would want access to those facilities.

Those facilities and the people manning them may give the people of Cleveland, and northern Ohio, eastern Indiana and Michigan, an edge in surviving this mess.
 
Cleveland will have serious social problems in the future, given the treatment of refugees. Some kind of sanctions may fall on the Mayor's Council when things return to some kind of normalcy nationwide.

Keep it up, Gen_Patton!:)
 
And me again...

- Yellow Fever

Does that imply the use of Biological Weapons? Otherwise I would find it odd to be rampant even as far North as Cleveland.

- Infant Mortality

...should probably be seen in context of adult mortality. 85% shocked me, I have to admit. Where most adults are just a step away from death, conditions for a child to survive are not given, sure. OTOH, if the Persian lady from the parallel "Wolves"-storyline would give birth in Niagara county, I doubt its chances of survival would be as low as 15%. But even if it is would have a 30,40 or 50% chance to live to its 5th birthday, that would be pretty bad nevertheless.

(Worst present-day OTL figures are 20.6% in Chad. German 19th century figures go as far up as 35% for some region. Both goes to the 5th birthday, however.)

That leads me to a general question which lingers in my mind for a few weeks now and I would like to see some estimates on that.

I am pretty sure that although we all know on which day most people on Earth died, that would just be the start of an overall demographic decline. How long would it take (in an affected country in North America or Europe, not some lucky isolated place without direct hits or just one or two) to reach the nadir before population figures stabilize or rise; not just in few communities which are led with extreme skill or are just luck, but generally?

In other words, when have radiation, famine, diseases, crime etc. have killed enough people so that those surviving are few and tough enough to find a sustainable balance of ressources allowing them not only to keep on dying (people just don't seem to quit that habit), but also to think of raising families. Yes, it sounds odd to think of starting families in that context; but well, if people just survive without doing so, population numbers still drop and drop, albeit slower. Also, families with a demographical impact still have to involve a lot more than 2.1 kids. That is, in order to bring two children to adult life, it will probably for a longer time be necessary to undergo a lot more pregnancies for a woman than 2. Additionally, these families might have to offset the numbers of people possibly having become infertile (I am not familiar with the latter, just a thought).

My first guess for the nadir was winter 1986/87. Having written all that, I would suspect it to be past 1990, though (though I would think that population numbers wouldn't drop drastically any more past '86).

- CCP? Couldn't you fit in another C?
Population collapse and stabilisation will depend on how quickly the effect of radiation poisoning ends, and the medical services, law enforcement and food supplies are restored to a modern level. Otherwise some countries might fall to population levels they had on the last time they had a similar standard of life. For the USA, I would think that it may take a decade to see real population growth, although stabilization might occur when you said (1986).
 
I wonder if billeting has been envisionned as a solution to the refugee problem?

I know that many people would not want strangers in their house in this situation, but to be fair thning out and spreading the refugees among the population might solve some problems.

Cleveland faces huges issues but at least there seem to be some kind of organisation going on there, even if it also seem that the Cleveland government don't have a clue about a lot of things as well. Winter will be very tough that's a certainty and it is therefore a necessity to find out what the primary means of heating used in the area are.

Regarding agriculture, it must not be forgotten that a good amount of wheat planted in the northern hemisphere is winter wheat. Winter wheat is planted in October of November during the preceding year, so 1984 crop of winter wheat has already been planted a few months and now just needs to be tendered too, which helps things somewhat I would think.
 
Yellow fever is a nonstarter as with "nuclear winter" the agent of transmission (a mosquito) won't be around. Unless the Soviets use smallpox bioweapons not happening either, a smallpox sample in liquid N2 in Atlanta in a containment lab won't spread no matter what (unless deliberately so). enteric diseases (like typhoid and cholera) will be bad news, as will louse borne diseases like typhus (poor sanitation, personal uncleanliness, keeping lots of unclean clothes on all the time for warmth etc). Bubonic plague is theoretically possible as there is a zoonotic focus of this in the southwest/4 corners area but getting it transmitted from the to Ohio will take some time given the transportation issues.

FYI you will only get mutations in fetuses <12 weeks gestation when exposed or even "younger". You will not see radiation induced tumors of any kind for a goodly interval after armageddon (latency period for effects). Having said that, the very young (<5), the old, and those with chronic illnesses will have a very high mortality in this scenario as their ability to fight off disease even without added radiation sickness, malnutrition, exposure is lower. Also, anyone who needs daily medication to stay alive (like insulin) is toast.
 
Most of Indiana,and Ohio are in the path of fallout from the Midwest strikes,Cleveland is just barely north of that.Most survivors in these states excluding the ones who fled north would die due to radiation poisoning.So not much of an agreement with surviving communities here since most would be dead or have fled to other regions.Disease would be a problem post-war not aided by the fact that so many have suffered injuries that would make them even less likely to survive an outbreak.
 
Most of Indiana,and Ohio are in the path of fallout from the Midwest strikes,Cleveland is just barely north of that.Most survivors in these states excluding the ones who fled north would die due to radiation poisoning.So not much of an agreement with surviving communities here since most would be dead or have fled to other regions.Disease would be a problem post-war not aided by the fact that so many have suffered injuries that would make them even less likely to survive an outbreak.

Disease will indeed be a problem, but I too have very strong doubts about yellow fever, the plague, smallpox or heck why not even Malaria for the sake of it becoming pandemics post war.

The decades of accumulated medical knowledge won't be lost instantly because of the strike. Antisceptics and antibiotics are still known and it is easy to forget that a LOT of antisceptics are rather eays to make, the same is true for basic antibiotics chiefly penicillin which can be made by any good University laboratory. With regards to antisceptics pure ethanol is frankly easy to make in breweries by distillation, or alternatively there is always the option of using chlorinated water to treat wounds as well, something achievable by electrolysis.

Let's also be very real on the subject of mutated babies, especially as there is considerable doubt that the horrible photographs of mutated badies circulating around the Internet can actually be traced back to have Chernobyl as the cause of the mutations. The statistical record in Belarus points out to a very low rate of mutations, less than 0.01% of the number of total births which is frankly negligible.
As I have also said before, the radiation released from a nuclear explosion decays a lot faster than the radiation released by a nuclear meltdown as the isotopes and molecules involved are rather different. This is the tenth time I repeat this on the P&S forum, but I will repeat it as long as necessary as accuracy is very important.
Mutations will occur (they occur naturally anyway) and there will be a noticeable increase in the rate of cancers in some areas down the line. But things won't suddenly become straight out of sci fi novel with three legged monsters and flesh eating mutated insects.

The post strike conditions can be approximated to the ones existing in the former Siberian Gulags and Nazi concentration/extermination camps. I would consequently encourage anyone writing P&S stories to research this a little bit, as there is a lot of fascinating information to be gleaned from prisoners stories on how people survivd under terrible conditions.
The big difference here is that no one is actually trying to kill the refugees for the sake of it, which will further reduce the mortality rate.

The Black Plague is also an interesting area to study in my opinion, especially as rather often a lot of the deaths were sudden and the disease took up to two thirds of the population of some areas quickly and without warning.
Some interesting studies relating it to nuclear warfare here:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_memoranda/2005/RM4700.pdf
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/westtech/x14thc.htm
 
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