Update 29 December 2025:

The situation has escalated to the point where I do not see how this can resolve itself without major global conflict. I am now far from alone in thinking that. Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Belarus’ leader, Kim Jong Un, Masoud Pezeshkian, various pundits, have issued WW3 warnings in various forms, all very clear and direct.

To be clear: I am saying this is a nuclear threat to the United States and much of the world.

What Can I Do? Summary

• Distance of 35-50 miles from large cities is best. I specifically include Columbus, Ohio.
• If you are within 50 miles of a large city and yours and all neighbors’ power goes off, keep an eye on the news.
• If there is a total infrastructure outage (no power and no communication) treat it as a nuclear siren. The safest place is your basement, on the wall closest to the city.
• Be able to filter and sanitize water.
• Enough food for 2-3 months.
• Candles.
• Masks for radioactive fallout dust. A major key to avoiding radioactive poison is to avoid ingesting or breathing it. Radioactive material is much less harmful if it remains outside the body.
• Ear plugs for any loud noises (psy-op type noises I mean).
• Geiger counter if possible.
• Don’t go crazy. Board games. This has been a possibility for 80 years.
• I would not trust help offered until I could communicate normally with the outside world again. The first help on scene could be enemy or something nefarious. (I realize that may be untenable, but I would be suspicious of what goes on “in the dark of an infrastructure outage.”)
• *Do not separate from children.* I would not even go with anybody who could potentially separate me from my children.
• I think it will be short, not long and drawn out. Specifically, I think the lights will be on in Los Angeles by 23 January 2026.
• From the first nuke to the last, I would expect less than 2 days, and I would be shocked if it were more than 2-3 weeks from first to last.

This here is a great guide. I have read parts of it. Notice it says it’s not as bad as people think!

More Details

• When: starting between 30 November 2025 – 2 January 2026, or more specifically starting 14-19 December 2025. UPDATE: I was wrong about 14-19 December, but things started to really heat up around Christmas Day. On the positive side, if the lights really go out, I would expect them to be back on at least in LA by 23 January 2026.
• What: Russia nuclear strike on the US, then infrastructure outage like in the movie Leave the World Behind, lasting 2 weeks to 2 months. No cell phones, gasoline, water, food, flights, etc. Possible nuclear attack on multiple United States cities.
• Where: Europe, continental US, Canada, possibly Alaska.

Basics

With minimal effort, you can improve your situation a LOT with the following:

• Distance of 35-50 miles from large cities is best. I specifically include Columbus, Ohio.
• Act early. If cell phones go down, get to your safe place right away. Don’t assume service will return quickly.
• A pre-agreed-upon plan of where to go and how to get there without cell phones.
• Water supply and a plan to filter and sanitize water.
• Food supply.
• Some basic communication, like simple radios.

Basics to Buy, Less Than $250 Total

• Sawyer filter for water filtering.
• Clorox bleach and glass droppers for water sanitation.
• Large bags of dry rice.
• Olive oil. Peanut butter.
• Anything non-perishable you already normally eat that lasts a year or so without going bad. Be sure to have an extra full pantry. (nothing happens, no problem you have some extra)
• Common Radios with USB car charger.
• Geiger Counter

Pre-Trigger Communication and Travel Protocols

The following measures can be maintained for a month without disrupting normal life if nothing happens.

• Know where all family members are at all times.
• Have an agreed-upon safe meet-up location.
• Avoid large cities for 2 reasons:
• 1. more people means less water and food per person.
• 2. Cities are targets for nuclear attack.
• If communication goes down (cell phones and internet), proceed immediately home (or to meet-up location). Don’t wait very long for communications to return to operational like we would normally do.

“Trigger” Events

• Nuclear bomb dropped anywhere in the world.
• If communications go down.
• Cyber attack causing multiple of any catastrophe like plane crashes or boat crashes.
• Common sense, anything obviously bad enough to threaten infrastructure.

Water

• Fill up bath tub with water and any other large containers available.
• Rule of thumb water quantity requirement is ~1 gallon per person per day, which is quite a lot of water and does not include bathing.
• In general, filters are good for large contaminants while disinfectant is good for small contaminants. Both filtration and sanitation are necessary for safe water.
• The Sawyer filter was recommended to me and notice it can filter up to 100,000 gallons of water. Don’t let it freeze. If you don’t have a dedicated filter, a paper towel is better than nothing.
• Disinfect water with Clorox bleach using 8 drops of unscented bleach per gallon of water. Notice this is a very low ratio of bleach to water, less than 1 part bleach per 5,000 parts water. So, a gallon of bleach can disinfect over 5,000 gallons of water. Glass droppers are useful for measuring disinfectant.
• Remember if you have well water, you typically need electricity for the pump to work, so use the pump while you can to get usable water up.
• Remember water is heavy, so you are unlikely be able to carry enough water to survive on for very long. Water is not portable long-term. You need to have a source.
• If you boil water, rolling boil for 1 minute is sufficient.

Food

If preparing for December, you don’t need to buy expensive food that lasts decades. You can really just have an unusually full pantry of non-perishable food that you can eat whether something happens or not. The following can last a year or two and you can eat it normally if nothing happens.

• Bags of dry rice.
• Olive oil lasts a year or two and contains a lot of calories.
• Beans.

Radios

Radios are useful only if somebody else is communicating on the other end, so best to get common radios that are cheap enough to have 2 of.

Without a ham radio rig, you won’t be able to transmit more than a mile or so. However, would be nice to have receivers to hear transmissions. Receiving requires a lot less battery than transmitting.

• This is the most common radio on Amazon currently. I picked a version with a scanner.
• This is the most common type of CB radio. I selected the option with an antenna and 15-foot cable because your transmission range is largely dependent on antenna size and height. You don’t have to set up the antenna ahead of time. If something happens there will be plenty of time for antenna set-up.
• If the power is out, car batteries will probably still work for a while, at least to power a CB radio or charge USB-charged radios. Would be nice to have one or two USB car chargers available to be able to charge without having the car turned on wasting electricity or gas. If your car doesn’t have accessory mode, you can connect the positive terminal to the point and negative terminal to the side of the cigarette lighter connector to charge directly from the car battery.
• Plan to attempt communication at the most recognizable natural events: sunrise and sunset.

Suggested Movie

Watch the movie “Leave the World Behind” and pay attention to what it would really be like to be in that situation. Remember we don’t see beyond the point where water and food run out. Notice especially the inability to coordinate plans and navigate without cell phones. Being separated or lost could be a big problem especially if you happen to be in an unfamiliar place. The movie was produced by Barack Obama, with his input as a former president. It has potential as both predictive programming and an idea of modern psychological warfare.

Summary

Just in writing this I feel a better about my family’s preparedness. I hope it helps – but mostly I hope it is not needed.

Post History

This post was called “Convenient Precautions” 21 Oct – 26 Nov, then “Take Some Action” 27 Nov – 28 Dec. Now, 29 December I would try to stay near where I want to be for an infrastructure outage from a nuclear war.