For those of us who have never been in these situations, Redditor TheBestMoronEver wondered:
"If you heard nuclear sirens go off in the middle of the night how would you react?"
These Redditors had a casual response.
Nonplussed
"Probably curse about the damned tornado sirens going off again, and rolling over to go back to sleep."
– KaliCalamity
White Noise
"My area sets off the sirens if we have a severe thunderstorm warning, so nobody really pays much attention to them any more."
– notthesedays
Please Identify
"Since I don't know what a nuclear siren sounds like I would probably say, 'What is that?'"
– BlueRFR3100
Here are some unexpected responses.
Healed
"Well I'm deaf, so first I'd say 'Holy sh't, I got my hearing back!'"
– OH_NO_HE_DINT
All About Location
"Given that I'm pretty close to the North Korean border, I'd say I'd guess they were attacking."
– somek_pamak
A Grave Possibility
"I'm pretty close to Russian border (in Finland) so I'd assume it's Putin paying a visit."
– vilefairyx
Laughing Matter
"Jokes on them, the lead paint and asbestos in my apartment will protect me."
"Jokes on me, that will mean I need to go to work right away. :("
– pm-me-racecars
Some people found it easier to accept their fate.
Rest Easy
"Might as well try to enjoy some more sleep for the last moments of my life."
– schmidty33333
Taking The Hit
"Probably die like most people because I have no where to go that could withstand a nuclear blast."
– gameofthrones_addict
Final Viewing
"Might as well go outside and watch."
– BoomZhakaLaka
If Case You Are Out Of The Radius
"You have a better chance of survival if you are indoors. Basement with concrete ideally. All windows and doors shut. The point is to avoid having the fallout settle on your skin. Once inside you stay in for 24-48 hours."
"This, of course, does not apply if you are within the blast radius. In that case it doesn’t matter too much."
– ex_ter_min_ate_
Hawaiians shared their recollections of the false alarm.
"This kind of happened to me in Hawaii a few years ago. I got an ‘incoming nuclear missile, this is not a test’ alert on my phone. My family and I just stood around in shock for a couple minutes, then we went to the underground parking garage and just… waited. Nobody knew what the hell to do. After about 15 minutes it started to become clear that it was a mistake. What a rollercoaster ride that was, holy sh*t…"
– dick-nipples
Harrowing 20 Minutes
"Ooh I was in Hawaii too when this happened!! Was 7 months pregnant with my now 4 year old. Went down to the restaurant to get some breakfast at our hotel and didn’t bring our phones. All of a sudden, we hear the mass text warnings from everyone’s phone going off. Everyone started running and kids started crying. Didn’t know what was going on until we asked someone with a phone and they showed us the alert. We were in shock and kind of just checked out. Went down to the beach because we thought that if missiles were to hit, buildings would collapse and we’d be stuck (lol idk what we were thinking at the time) and what better place to die than at the beach with your lifetime partner and unborn baby. There were barely any people out there except for a few homeless. Found a nice older couple who had the same idea as us and asked if we could use their phone to say our goodbyes to our family. Only knew my brother’s number by heart since my parents recently changed their numbers. All this happened in a span of 20 min I think. Then finally found a police officer that started telling people it was a false alarm. Was so scared I was gonna give birth from all the stress lol."
– GoldenStateMommy
Advice From A Survivor
"There was a Japanese woman who survived either Hiroshima or Nagasaki living on Hawaii when the alert went out. She read it, decided she would rather die than live through a another nuclear blast, and went back to bed."
"So, from a nuclear blast survivor the recommended advice seems to be to die quickly rather than suffer."
– DoomGoober
One Last Drink
"Pour a nice glass of scotch and enjoy the last few minutes of my life."
– thesupplyguy1
It appears once anyone hears a nuclear siren go off, there aren't a lot of options to escape the blast.
And based on what the survivor of the nuclear attacks on Japan said, living through the aftermath sounds like a fate worse than death.
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