Pshaw, one nuke 250 miles over Kansas would take out all 3 power grids and send the US back to the 1800s. Aside from the initial deaths of people due to mechanical, etc. failure, the next to die would be people dependent on prescription medications (not to mention those kept stable by said medications). After that, the elderly, obese, high risk.
Within a matter of months, the US would lose approximately 90% of its population.
Pshaw, one nuke 250 miles over Kansas would take out all 3 power grids and send the US back to the 1800s. Aside from the initial deaths of people due to mechanical, etc. failure, the next to die would be people dependent on prescription medications (not to mention those kept stable by said medications). After that, the elderly, obese, high risk.
Within a matter of months, the US would lose approximately 90% of its population.
I'm not sure why they're talking about it purely in terms of blast radius. The blast radius of my farts is pretty small but you can still smell them from a different room.
Also "if 2000 1 megaton bombs detonated, it would only destroy 5% of the US", is purely talking about blast radius, but when you consider what 5% of the US actually looks like, that's a lot of people. I wouldn't be surprised if two thirds of the US population lives within 5% of the total land mass.