In a previous article we talked about living in a city and how, because of your location, you may be the target of an attack. A target simply because of the population density, or in some cases, you may be a target because of critical infrastructure, or your city may be having a symbolic celebration, or it could be chosen randomly.
Smaller towns or suburbs could be targeted, as well. Lone wolf attacks are possible, or larger groups or cells could use a small town to hone their skills to build up to bigger targets, a dry run if you will.
Typically, an attacker would be captured or killed, but those that may have trained the attacker or follow the developments on the news or who may have provided material support will learn from the attack and adjust their methods depending on the response. Attackers may believe that law enforcement presence may be less in smaller towns, and thus, can carry out their deadly acts unopposed or with little resistance.
Your rural home is not likely to be a specific target of a nuclear attack, but the radiation fallout could pose a hazard depending on how close you are to the attacked area. Of course, the disruption in supply chains, heavy law enforcement and possibly military presence in and around the area and a host of other problems caused by the attack will have an effect on you.
Even in you live in what you consider a very rural area, you still may have to move further from the attack site to avoid radiation fallout, avoid the mass exodus of people, and avoid possible Martial Law.
No matter where you live you will be touched by an attack. Your physical well-being may not be in immediate jeopardy unlike those that live in the city that was attacked. Therefore, living in a rural area is safer and you can better weather the aftermath of an attack if you are properly prepared.
If you have to immediately seek food and other supplies because the local grocer cannot stock their shelves, then you will put yourself in harm’s way by trying to travel to a more populated area hoping for supplies.
Those in the city at the heart of the attack would not fare well. Even if they survived the initial attack, radiation poisoning could cause many fatalities in the weeks that follow. Those within range of the fallout, which can be up to 200 miles, would have to evacuate almost immediately, and even some would become sick or eventually succumb to the radiation.
Water reservoirs could be contaminated with fallout. We don’t know the extent of the destruction because no one has ever launched and detonated a nuclear device of the kind we have today with the intent of destroying a city, or country.
The destruction may be more than we ever imagined. The chaos alone would kill much more, along with the lack of electricity, which means hospitals will not be in operation so many life saving procedures will go undone and many will die because they cannot get dialysis in the following days. It is impossible right now to even guess at the fatality rate even from a single attack on one city. It would take weeks and months for some of the fallout to result in deaths.