Results Of Nuclear Attacks In Iowa And Illinois

Happy 2025... what a terrible thing to think about. Yet it is at the top of many people's minds. Newsweek used maps made by a professor and historian named Alex Wellerstein to determine the impact of a Russian nuclear strike using their most powerful missile. So, if you're looking for nuke results from a different country... they would most likely look pretty similar.

Both Iowa and Illinois actually have cities that ranked in the top 10 most likely nuclear targets from our enemies.

Council Bluffs Iowa Target

The target is located on the border of Iowa and Nebraska. Wallstreet 24/7 even puts this location in the top 15 in America. This spot is known as the Offutt Air Force Base and is actually the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command.

In the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush, who was in Florida at the time they struck, was first flown to Barksdale AFB (No. 15), then to Offutt, where he was taken into an underground command center bunker designed to withstand a nuclear blast and as a place from which a presidential order to go to nuclear war could be issued. There he held an hours-long teleconference with his senior cabinet staff, the CIA, Pentagon, and FBI, among

others.

Chicago Illinois Target

I bet you saw this one coming.

With four nuclear power plants within 50 miles of the city – the nearest not 20 miles away – Chicago is another possible civilian target. If these power plants are hit in addition to the city in a nuclear attack, it could exacerbate conditions in Chicago. Any attack on O’Hare International Airport, the world’s fourth largest, would severely cripple travel in North America.

To take it a step further...Here Is The Nuclear Impact On Chicago. Reading the death tally out loud made me realize just how many people there are in Chicago. While it might not look big on a map, it would be very deadly. The report went on to say

In any given 24-hour period, there are on average 7,616,006 people in the full blast range (all four circles) of the simulated detonation in Chicago. There would be an estimated 1,991,320 fatalities and 2,543,730 injuries.

About half the blast's total area would reach across Lake Michigan.

What the results of an attack on Des Moines, Iowa Would Look Like

It is reported that a blast could and would affect people for many miles, but the worst of it is obviously at the drop point.

Severe shockwave damage could extend to about a half mile. Severe thermal damage would extend out about a mile. Flying debris could extend up to a few miles. Initial (prompt) nuclear radiation for a 10-Kt blast could expose unprotected people within about 3/4 mile of the explosion site to lethal radiation dose.

The population of Des Moines is around 210,381. It is double the population size of Cedar Rapids.

Again, this is a very extreme example.