What to Do When the Nuclear Push Alert is Real

You have 12 to 13 minutes of time. What do you do with it?

Report: Israel Had Nuclear Device at Ready to End Six-Day War
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How is the government going to keep you safe from an inbound ballistic missile? Esquire reports that you might not want to know. After an emergency worker accidentally sent out a “this is not a drill” push notification to Hawaiians on Saturday that indicated the island was going to be demolished in a few minutes by a North Korean nuclear bomb, naturally, people are asking: What do we do when the nuclear push alert comes through and it’s real?

“Across the country, emergency-management officials have been quietly dusting off plans drawn up during the cold war and in the aftermath of September 11 to be ready for what they euphemistically label a “catastrophic nation-state threat,” e.g., a North Korean nuclear missile,” Garrett M. Graff writes in Esquire. Any attempt to intercept the missile would likely be unsuccessful, Graff reports, and says people have about 12-13 minutes to take cover after the warning goes out.

“The advice suggested by the nation’s top emergency-management minds is simple: “Go inside, stay inside, stay tuned.” It’s the modern equivalent of “Duck and cover,” the advice offered by civil-defense mascot Bert the Turtle.”

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