LIFE IN SALT LAKE CITY
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The UPI heading means it is from United Press International (UPI) 1981 Conference
SALT LAKE CITY - (UPI-) If a one Megaton bomb was dropped in downtown Salt Lake City the living Would literally envy the dead, and 90 per cent of the population would be dead OR SERIOUSLY INJURED a scientist said Saturday at the "Health Effects of Nuclear War" conference at the University of Utah.
A blowtorch - intensity blast would create a 50 -square-mile inferno, AND, even in the suburbs, debris would hurtle at more than 100 miles per hour, said Dr. H. Jack Geiser.
By contemporary standards, a one megaton bomb is a relatively SMALL BOMB, Geiser said. The two super powers have about 50,000 such weapons in their arsenals. (1981)
"Hiroshima and Nagasaki won't serve as precedents," he said. "To imagine a one megaton bomb, you have to imagine 70 Hiroshima bombs going off all at once over Salt Lake City in the same second."
Geiser, in describing the bombing of Salt Lake City, specifically the City County Building, used the 1970 census figure to estimate casualties.
Of the city's 483,000 population, about 290,000 would be killed outright in such a blast, he said, AND 148,000 would be seriously injured FROM HEAT AND BLAST EFFECTS.
He said that for four (4) miles IN ALL DIRECTIONS, the blast would be strong enough to either destroy even the most modern steel and concrete office buildings, OR to sweep out all the floors and the people in them from the building's skeleton.
However, even before the blast, a huge heat flash would send blowtorch temperatures of up to 800 degrees centigrade, traveling at the speed of light. Of the 148,000 seriously injured, he estimated conservatively that at least 5,000 -10,000 would have third degree burns.
The hospitals would be destroyed and most physicians killed, he said. Even those health care professionals who survive would have no electric power, no communications, no operating rooms, no blood or plasma, no drugs, no X-ray machines. AND no narcotics to ease the suffering, he said.
"AND we are looking at skull fractures, fractures of the spine, crushing injuries, profound lacerations and hemorrhages, second and third degree burns - all in combination."
"IT IS LITERALLY TRUE THAT THE LIVING WOULD ENVY THE DEAD."
Survivors would likely be in the outlying areas, he said. They would have not had buildings collapse on them, would have been protected by land features from the heat, and would have been lucky enough not to be hit by flying bricks, glass or other objects. Even in the suburbs, he said, debris would be traveling at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.
Another speaker, retired Vice Admiral John M. Lee told the crowd on how he thinks a nuclear war might start. The declaration of a nuclear war would start with pressures in the White House, he said. Arguments, conflicting advice and tremendous pressure on the president could make it easy for a president to make the wrong choice, he said.
(Southern Utah Color Country Spectrum, Nov. 8, 1981 page 4)
WILL You please tell me why the Mormon people scoff when I tell them that a million people will die in Utah, from St.George in the south, on up through the State, with most deaths on the Wasatch Front in Utah Valley, Salt Lake Valley and North to Ogden. Downwind communities will get their fallout. I personally have handed information to Governor Leavitt, I have been at his office dozens of times, his receptionist knows my face well. BUT this man like all the other Mormons are waiting for the Church leaders to warn them. It just ain't gonna happen! They will all die. I would love to be a false prophet, and not have it happen. Maybe someone reading this will show the authorities what a bunch of fools they have been and someone will find the guts to speak out and save some lives.
There is so little time left that even a full Blown effort would not help.
Maybe some will start a postcard campaign to the Governor, He could help if he believed. It could save hundreds of thousands of lives. It's worth a try. Do it yourself. It will cost you a postcard stamp. For a chance to live.
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