How Safe Would Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, & New York Be During a Limited Nuclear War?

If you recently thought about nuclear war, you are not alone.

According to a study that was recently published in Air & Space Forces Magazine, 69% of the over 2,500 people surveyed said they were concerned about the possibility of a nuclear war in the next five years.

Most of us who are old enough to remember when the Cold War ended in the early 1990s thought we would never have to be concerned about nuclear war again.

Sure, there were some action and sci-fi movies that gave us a look at how a post-Cold War nuclear conflict could happen, but most of us just categorized those stories as wild fantasies.

Then, in early 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and the possibility of a large-scale nuclear war once again became a possibility.  All it would take is for Russia to attack one of the nations providing aid to Ukraine.  Nations like the United States.

Nuclear War Could Destroy the World in Just Over an Hour

In early 2024, author Annie Jacobsen released her book Nuclear War: A Scenario.

While this chilling book is a work of fiction the scenario presented within is based on research and interviews Jacobsen had conducted with people with the knowledge of how a nuclear war would be fought.

Without completely ruining the book, the scenario ends with the near extinction of the human race.

Fortunately, there is some hope.

READ MORE: Check Out This List of Possible New England Nuclear Targets

Would New England Be Safe During a Nuclear Attack?

According to Newsweek, the team at Scientific American recently modeled how safe different parts of the country would be during a nuclear attack.

Unlike Annie Jacobsen’s all-out war scenario (which reminds us of Threads or On the Beach), the Scientific American scenario features a strike that is aimed specifically at the nuclear missile silos in the Midwest (like The Day After or Red Dawn).

In this scenario, bombs would rain down on Montana, Nebraska, and North Dakota.  This would lead to massive damage in neighboring states like South Dakota and Wyoming.

After the initial explosions, the fallout would spread across the country.

Due to New England’s distance from those missile silos, some of the safest states to be in after such a scenario include Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont.

Of course, if the targets include more than just the missile silos we are going to have problems.  There are a whole slew of juicy targets in New England.  These include the government communications station in Cutler, Maine, Bath Iron Works, and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Regardless, I think we all know that nukes being dropped anywhere on the United States will not be good for anyone.  A nuclear attack will lead to power outages, damaged infrastructure, communications blackouts, increased cancer rates, and millions of deaths from starvation.

Let’s just hope and pray that no one ever gets reckless enough to push the button.