Houston is probably the #1 target city in the south. Major shipping port and a lot of refineries. Dallas is also high on the list; major financial, business and data center.

 

You got that right!

 

I know a couple. They were stated targets in the 80s and there are maps, but would it be wise to list them in an online forum?

 

During my working career, I was close to teams doing the 'targeting'. The theories of selecting targets vary. It depends a lot on other strategies.

Previously we nuked two cities, but not the largest population centers. They were industrial cities with harbors and factories, producing war materials. They were looked at as a method of crippling the war effort.

Is that a strategy that an enemy today would use?

If you bring together a group of ten people to form a list of targets, that group will need to make a list of criteria.

Another group would form a completely different list of criteria.

No two groups would derive the same list of criteria, nor would they end up with the same list of targets.

Targets change every week, as the people in these groups change. Some people hold a high value for 'food' plants [factories that ultra-process foods], but someone else might put high value of petroleum refineries. Everyone is different, and everyone's list of targets will be different.

People from different cultures have different worldviews, different values.

The attacks of 2001, focused on attacking the World Trade Organization. They did not target a dense population. They did not target nuclear reactors. They did not target ports.

Anyone can publish a book suggesting a list of targets, and such a list is just as valid as anyone else's list.

If you stop municipal water/sewage treatment, or disable the power grid, or destroy all bridges, most of our cities would quickly collapse and people would turn on each other. Our cities could be destroyed without any need for an enemy to target our cities.

 

3 guesses and the first 2 don't count!

 

In the south … far more than most realize.
Most countries possess missile that contain multiple warheads. If a country decides to go past the point of no return they aren’t going to worry about a treaty or an agreement. They are beyond that. Thousands of nukes still exist. Mutually assured destruction is still a likely scenario. Nukes might be like gasoline engines. They are not the best but we try to make them better until we have better options. They are dirty and maintenance is one of the biggest expenses. Eventually someone will create something new or find a way to truly render them useless. Until then we have the same forbidden Pandora’s box as a few others. The only way a nuke would be detonated might be insanity, accidental, or the majority of nations agree it’s the only course of action left. You send one and neutral countries will be against you and looking to stop you.
Could a rogue player cause total mayhem in a number of ways … yes. Is it likely with a nuke … probably not so. I think most will begin to attack at the most vulnerable … our infrastructure and technology. Hopefully resources are insulated enough from outside attacks.

 

One of the best analogies I've seen yet and makes perfect sense.

 

All the major cities of the south are at risk, especially the port cities. To me, one of the biggest concerns of the USSR being in Cuba is the tactical advantage of being so close to the entire southern coast shipping lanes.

 

History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes... Mark Twain

 

Way back, about Cuban Missile Crisis time, we were concerned about them-anybody-tossing one at New Orleans and overshooting🙈Wouldnt take much, Im a 100 mi North..that was when places like Cleveland and Kansas City were on the lists..
Nowadays, short of a massive exchange, I dont cities think will be targeted…time they smear the military bases and ports-a 100 or so, there wouldnt be much left to waste nukes on…Im sure NYC would go for the financial center, and DC just because..But just smearing cities to smear them?
Only if everybody launches everything at once..
I have an old nuke target map from CD, circa 1968 or so, the cities even then were dropping off..The Chemical Corridor-all the refineries and plants from Baton Rouge to New Orleans on the river -was still on there but I doubt those go now..jmo

 

It would not be wise to discard those locations As probabilities

 

Well... it'd be better than the UN getting their way...
Then we really would wish we were dead. 😂

 

Forget nukes. Imagine thousands of cheap drones armed with a pound of explosives slamming into hundreds of cell phone tower antennas around major cities.

Imagine others dropping ampules of poison into some but not all municipal water treatment plants.

Imagine a half dozen self driving cars, the trunks packed with dirty radioactive waste and flammable fluids impacting into each other and exploding in a major intersection in a major city. Imagine this happening in a hundred intersections in the top 50 cities across the US.

Imagine the power being cut off at 100 hospitals simultaneously. Imagine the backup generators rigged with explosives and detonating at the same time.

Imagine a truck bombs outside corporate HQ across the country. A nasty computer virus unleashed on the trading floor at Wall St. imagine signal systems for railroads all shutting down at the same time.

Imagine the chaos. Imagine the uncertainty, the rumors, the mistrust, the blame, the unknown.


That’s

 

You can find maps of the likely Russian nuke targets in the U.S. All major cities will be hit. I bet even China would destroy most with their arsenal as well.

 

MA Surv,

Ref # 1;

To start at the very beginning, during the time of maxed out non-confrontational hostilities, all the D.C critical organizations will be finalizing their relocation to their pre-existing hardened Emergency Operations Centers.

D.C. will be left with the hall-walkers, consultants, and report-writers for public consumption. Can't discuss NYC.

My list of targets:

• Houston, New Orleans - America's protoplasm refurbished by oil and gas.
• Hampton Roads, Virginia - This is Elizabeth City North Carolina eastward to Williamsburg. Navy Norfolk "is" Hampton Roads (plus much else eg Dahlgren, Va but that's really now part of the D.C. Swamp).

 

pre-existing hardened Emergency Operations Centers

I wouldn't count on that working if it were me, I'm pretty sure they know where they are.

Note that the real money is betting on time + distance...

 

Sandor,

Ref # 12;

The UN does have a HQ building in NYC.

Loss of this place means loss of their gift store's beautiful postage stamps.

NYC's restaurant trade will beg their Congressional delegations for a capital infusion.

Foot Note: UN blue helmets will continue to be a collector's item.

 

This book: The Attack by Kurt Schlichter
Might be worthy of your time. I heard the author on a radio show, then found it on Amazon, I have the free books on Audible. Took me 2 days to finish it, though I'm not a slow reader. It's thought provoking.

Amazon.com : the attack kurt schlichter

 

The US has been working on pulsed lasers that can not only shoot missiles down, but can carve a line a mile long 10' deep and 10'wide from a satellite.
With just a push of a mouse. So you people can relax....
Thats all in saying....

 

I remember back during the cold war and my F-16 maintainer days, my squadron deployed to our FOB in West Germany. This was to participate in a Reforger exercise. During every combat exercise we practiced, we would be working in full chem gear towards the end of the training, normally a one week period. The goal was to support U.S. Army and NATO forces trying to stop Russian armor rolling through the Fulda Gap. In EVERY exercise we would be flying air to air and air to ground conventional sorties, culminating in not being able to hold the Russians back. Stateside, we would load the B-61 "silver bullets" as a final mass launch to nuke the Russian armor columns. These were concrete filled inert practice weapons...stateside.

In Germany however, towards the end of the Reforger exercise, we loaded live B-61 silver bullets....nukes. The squadron would get targeting orders from NATO and authorization from POTUS and we would taxi 18 airplanes loaded with live B-61 nukes.

A lead airplane was configured for air to air along with another following the bombers during the "elephant walk"....mass taxi out onto the runway. If any of the nuke laden bomber pilots went crazy and tried to take off, security forces on the ground would try and stop the rogue pilot from getting airborne by shooting up the plane with 50 caliber rounds from their escorting HUMVEEs during the taxi. If a bomber did manage to get airborne, the chase planes would quickly take off and were instructed to shoot down the rogue airplane ASAP.

THAT was the most sobering time of my life, watching 18 F-16's loaded with live nukes taxi by. I prayed my work was perfect on those planes, but it scared the crap out of me. The nukes we carried were polished like mirrors so there was no mistaking what they were. The polished bombs permitted thorough inspection for damage during storage, handling, and loading.

 

If reality is anything like this map, unless you are in Elko, NV or Idaho Falls, or maybe central Oregon, you we will probably glow in the dark.

 

If reality is anything like this map, the unless you are in Elko, NV or Idaho Falls you will probably glow in the dark.

View attachment 582175

Exactly. You would need to be living in Uruguay or another South American country to try and escape the immediate affects.

 

My Addendum;

When I was a Federal Emergency Manager, part of my AO was the Canal Zone with their 2 big cities (and NAVSTA on their West Coast).

 

User,

Ref # 25;

With favorable winds, the map makes it look like North Carolina's Outer Banks safe from the nuclear detonations.

Those partying on the Outer Banks will continue to contribute to the mortality charts due driving under the influence of rot-gut brew.

 

You joke right? Camp Lejeune and the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point would be targets, and due to the Westerly winds would decimate anything on the Outer Banks.

 

Northern Maine is looking pretty good.

 

Any major city in the south will be hit along with military bases. You do not start WWIII and only attack a few main cities. You attack all cities 500K plus population along with military bases.

 

Houston/Galveston, New Orleans, Mobile, Pensacola, and Tampa would be almost guaranteed targets in a nuke war in the Southern US.

 

So you mention New Orleans as an almost guaranteed target. How about Charlotte or Atlanta? I believe Atlanta has been mentioned in the thread.

 

If we had a nuclear war or if we're attacked by terrorists it's quite obvious cities such as New York and Washington D.C. would be at great risk. Thankfully we've never had a nuclear war (unless you want to consider WWII a nuclear war when nukes were used in Japan although I don't consider it a full scale nuclear war since it was only two nukes that were used at the very end of the war and it was only the allied forces that were using nukes, namely the USA, not the axis) but we did have a terrorist attack in 2001 when the World Trade Center was hit as well as the Pentagon and apparently the Capital building was also targeted but thankfully it was stopped by passengers and the plane instead crashed into a field near Shanksville, PA.

So it's well known that if the USA is attacked cities such as NYC and D.C. would be targeted but Im concerned about some of the major cities in the south, if they would be targeted and how high the threat level would be. Cities such as Atlanta, Charlotte, New Orleans. Should we be more concerned for the safety of such cities?

Yes. All major cities would be targets. There is nothing magical about the south, Everything east of the great plains is massively populated there is no safe place out there

Choose your homestead wisely:

 

Thess II,

Ref # 31;

Lejeune, Cherry Point, ... I'm adding Bragg, New River, ... during hostile non-confrontation stage, will use similar plan like real Pentagon uses.

The Marines and Army would already have relocated to other facilities for their mobilization, if not deployed already. Their actual base areas empty lots.

Now I did mention favorable winds. The US will have a response and atmospheric winds could change to easterly. Who knows ?!

......

Probably the only safe area in North Carolina would be Fort Fisher Air Force Recreational Area on coast south of Wilmington.

 

Thess II, already at work, lawless.
Spec vs Log.
Only certain when.

Scratch that, you were directing comment to person, disregard. 😜

 

MA, I'd be far more concerned about storage pools that require a functioning grid to keep from cooking off.

 

Well the thing is, Im in the process of purchasing some property in a major southern city.

 

My opinion is: Good luck planning your way out of a nuclear holocaust. I can understand an academic discussion about it for entertainment purposes, but if we're talking about nuclear holocaust survival as a practical criteria for real estate selection, it sits firmly in the realm of fantasy.

 

Agree, unless you have 100s of millions of dollars and are using some of that to prepare.