GLASS
Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Museum, Artifacts
“The explosion created a supersonic shock wave which was responsible for destroying most of the buildings in the blast zone. Fully half of the bomb’s released energy was released in the form of this wind, which spread out at 440 meters per second (1600 km/hr or 1000 miles/hr; the speed of sound is 330 meters per second). It not only knocked things down, it also filled the air with debris. The section of concrete wall below has numerous glass shards embedded in it, even though it was 2200 meters (one and a half miles) from the hypocenter, and sheltered from the blast by a low hill.” [Hiroshima]
http://www.richard-seaman.com/Travel/Japan/Hiroshima/AtomicBombMuseum/IndividualArtifacts/
Yukiharu did not realize at first that a bomb had exploded. He thought there had been an electrical accident at the plant building he was working in. Then it suddenly became dark and “I heard a huge explosion. The roof of the building had collapsed, and we were under the broken roof. I felt a pain in my head. I managed to escape from the building. I did not know what was happening to us, because we had not experienced any serious bombing. . . . I was not badly hurt. . . . A piece of broken glass was sticking into my head.” [Hiroshima]
http://users.dickinson.edu/~history/product/steele/seniorthesis.htm
Ordinary wooden houses within a radius of one kilometer of the hypocenter were completely destroyed. Even the concrete buildings left standing were reduced to hollow shells. The buildings collapsed in one direction as if pointing toward the hypocenter. The blast wind slapped people against walls and showered them with a torrent of bullet-like glass splinters and debris.
Goes with this picture:
http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/na-bomb/museum/m2-7e.html
Eiko Taoka, then 21, was one of nearly 100 passengers said to have been on board a streetcar that had left Hiroshima Station at a little after 8:00 a.m. and was in a Hatchobori area, 750 m from ground zero, when the bomb fell. Taoka was heading for Funairi with her one year old son to secure wagon in preparation for her move out of the building which was to be evacuated. At 8:15, as the streetcar approached Hatchobori Station, an intense flash and blast engulfed the car, instantly setting it on fire. Taoka’s son died of radiation sickness on August 28. The survival of only ten people on the streetcar have been confirmed to date.
When we were near in Hatchobori and since I had been holding my son in my arms, the young woman in front of me said, I will be getting off here. Please take this seat.’ We were just changing places when there was a strange smell and sound. It suddenly became dark and before I knew it, I had jumped outside…. I held [my son] firmly and looked down on him. He had been standing by the window and I think fragments of glass had pierced his head. His face was a mess because of the blood flowing from his head.Eiko Taoka, then 21, was one of nearly 100 passengers said to have been on board a streetcar that had left Hiroshima Station at a little after 8:00 a.m. and was in a Hatchobori area, 750 m from ground zero, when the bomb fell. Taoka was heading for Funairi with her one year old son to secure wagon in preparation for her move out of the building which was to be evacuated. At 8:15, as the streetcar approached Hatchobori Station, an intense flash and blast engulfed the car, instantly setting it on fire. Taoka’s son died of radiation sickness on August 28. The survival of only ten people on the streetcar have been confirmed to date.
http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/twocities/hiroshima/page14.shtml
Video – glass, rumbling, wind, darkness
VIDEO: 911.wtc.glass.blew.out Dailymotion
“I was standing next to 1 World Trade Center and then all of a sudden I heard rumbling and we all started running away from it [talking about WTC 2 collapse]. The glass like blew out and threw me onto the sidewalk … and I couldn’t see for like twenty seconds…”
IMG: https://apunked.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/0002.jpg
IMG: https://apunked.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/aftermast25h.jpg
http://drjudywood.com/articles/dirt/dirt3.html
CLOUD and DARKNESS and SMOKE PLUME
Cloud cover
http://www.luogocomune.net/site/modules/911/index.php?filename=911/7-Misc/stampa/focus/focus.html
200,000+ gallons of water on the roof of each tower
Also there was supposed to be 200,000+ gallons of water on the roof of each tower – this water was spilled into stairwells etc, but was later all converted into water vapor reducing the brown color. (Observations Suggesting the Use of Small Hydrogen Bombs)
http://www.saunalahti.fi/wtc2001/soldier4.htm
The bomber, piloted by the commander of the 509th Composite Group, Colonel Paul Tibbets, flew at low altitude on automatic pilot before climbing to 31,000 feet as it neared the target area. At approximately 8:15 a.m. Hiroshima time the Enola Gay released “Little Boy,” its 9,700-pound uranium bomb, over the city. . . . the crew looked back at Hiroshima. “The city was hidden by that awful cloud . . . boiling up, mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall,” Tibbets recalled. The yield of the explosion was later estimated at 15 kilotons (the equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT). [Hiroshima]
http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.htm
Yukiharu did not realize at first that a bomb had exploded. He thought there had been an electrical accident at the plant building he was working in. Then it suddenly became dark and “I heard a huge explosion. The roof of the building had collapsed, and we were under the broken roof. I felt a pain in my head. I managed to escape from the building. I did not know what was happening to us, because we had not experienced any serious bombing. . . . I was not badly hurt. . . . A piece of broken glass was sticking into my head.” [Hiroshima]
http://users.dickinson.edu/~history/product/steele/seniorthesis.htm
The Hiroshima Meteorological Observatory reported that just after the flash, black smoke rose from the ground up to the sky reaching an altitude of several thousand meters, and covered the whole city. When the fireball disappeared, the angry clouds, like grey smoke, rose and reached an altitude of 8,000 meters in 5 minutes after the explosion.
One of the Enola Gay crew recorded in his flight diary, “9:00a.m…..Clouds were observed. Altitude of 12,000 meters or more.” From a distance the cloud formation looked like a mushroom growing out of the ground, with white cloud at the top and yellowish clouds enveloping reddish-black clouds, creating a color that cannot be described as while, black, red or yellow. [Hiroshima]
http://www.gensuikin.org/english/photo.html
The Darkness Immediately after the Explosion — Why did it get pitch-dark?
Tsutomu IGARASHI
In Chiyoko KUWABARA’s testimony, she mentioned that “it got pitch-dark” right after the explosion. In others’ atomic-bomb testimonies on record, we often find descriptions of “a shroud of darkness”. What’s the cause of it? I would like to infer the cause based on “Genshibakudan Saigai Chousa Houkokushu (Collection of Investigation Reports on Atomic Bomb Disaster)”published by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 1953.
Could only dust cause that darkness? What caused the light to be completely blocked for as long a few dozen minutes? I think this can relate how tremendous the atomic-bombing was. Considering that not only the people indoors but the people outdoors like Chiyoko KUWABARA were also shrouded in darkness, it seems that some more complicated and fierce mechanism was hidden in this phenomenon of darkness.
At the point of atomic-bomb explosion above ground zero, “the temperature rose up to the extreme heat of a few million degrees Celsius and a fireball of several hundred thousand atmospheric pressures was created”, the Report says. It continues that “following that explosion the bomb blast (a shock wave and the blast wind), heat rays (infrared rays and visible rays) and initial radiation (gamma ray and neutron) were emitted.” (all information is by courtesy of Kunio NAGATA, teacher at Hiroshima Municipal Ujina Junior High School)
What happened at first was that, by the creation of a fireball, heat rays were emitted and everything was incinerated in a split second. Even on the ground in the hypocenter vicinity, temperatures reached several thousand degrees Celsius. Melted roof tiles and glass can verify that. Heat rays burned out everything. But it only lasted a moment. It says “The fireball blazed for ten seconds”, but I presume in fact it blazed for a second or two and lost its intense heat rapidly. So we can suppose that everything was ignited at that moment due to the heat of several thousand degrees Celsius.
Every organism exposed directly to the heat rays was burned. Trees, grass, houses, and walls, anything burnable was charred when they were exposed to the heat rays and their surfaces also became rough and were bubbled by the intense heat.
There are two things we tend to overlook: First are particles in the air. Numerous fine particles like dust and specks are suspended in the air. Those particles would be charred in a moment.
Related to this, U. S. bombers like the Enola Gay were strictly prohibited to bomb with radar; bombing by sight was always required. After studying the long term records of weather, they intentionally chose a fine clear day. The U.S. Forces really emphasized bombing by sight.
This was because bombing by sight was more accurate. But a more important reason was, if there were clouds, heat rays and radiation would be blocked by the particles in the clouds, and the effects halved. Absorbing the heat rays and the blast, clouds reduce the effects of bombing. If it is raining on the ground, the effects are much more reduced, not only by the particles in clouds but also by the water drops from them. Observation of the explosion also can be disturbed.
That was why they desperately needed a fine clear day for the world’s first atomic bombing. In other words, they chose a clear day not for bombing by sight but more to maximize the effects. As a result, bombing by sight required fine weather to target accurately, and bombing with radar was banned for that purpose.
I guess the U.S. already knew about the phenomenon of particles in the air burning and had its data. Charred particles were one of the factors causing the darkness we can’t overlook.
What also burned was the skin of animals and people’s clothes, as Kunio NAGATA, teacher at Hiroshima Municipal Ujina junior high school, mentioned.
When hibakusha were badly damaged by the atomic bombing, they were almost naked. Where were their clothes? At the first stage of the explosion the clothes exposed to the heat got charred and tattered instantaneously. And the heat rays penetrated the clothes, more heat absorbed at the dark parts of clothes, and then burned the skin. The skin also got burned and was hanging like rags. Naturally some parts of their hair got burned, too.
At the second stage, the blast came with the velocity of several hundred meters per second, sweeping away those charred organic materials. So what was left were people whose clothes and burnt skin had been swept away. People were naked or had their flesh exposed without skin. At the same time dirt and burned objects rushed back to them, made their faces filthy, terribly distorting their appearances. The blast wind would carry away some parts of the tissue-damaged skin. There were many people with the remnants of their torn skin hanging from their bodies.
We can see the fierceness of the shock wave from the Atomic-bomb Dome which was almost directly under the explosion. With that super high pressure hitting the ground it is not hard to imagine that the shock wave scooped out the soil and produced tremendous dust. Dust, houses, debris, concrete, and broken roof tiles were all swirled up and then blown away outwards.
And the shock wave hit not only once but twice. First the shock wave generated by the explosion traveled outward with a force several hundred thousand times normal atmospheric pressure. Then, because of the extremely low pressure at the center area, it became a vacuum; and then air rushed back in from the area around it with tremendous speed. That means people were stripped naked by the two blast winds in a few seconds.
The air that rushed in contained all sorts of burnt objects you can think of, including soot, dirt, dust, and the wreckage of buildings, blowing back towards the point of detonation 580 meters above the ground. Inorganic matter didn’t change color much but organic matter got charred and rushed back in. Trees, grass, particles in the air, skins of creatures, clothes, charred human skin and hair, all were absorbed and concentrated. Those which heated to a higher temperature went up further from the central point, forming a huge umbrella which was the lower part of the mushroom cloud. The reason that the lower part of the cloud was dark was that it contained incinerated objects. It was not just due to dirt or debris. We should assume that only incinerated objects which have lighter mass could go that high up.
Those objects went up to the sky and immediately formed a kind of a dome. Directly below it objects had already ignited and were flaming up. With this heat some parts kept rising up forming cumulonimbus cloud. The dome with a 1 kilometer- radius containing these incinerated substances was formed in the sky over ground zero, light was blocked and the ground was shrouded in darkness. This was what happened in just dozens of seconds.
The top of mushroom cloud reached about 9000meters high 8 minutes after the explosion.
Just then the wind was blowing from south-east. The rising cumulonimbus cloud drifted to the north-west as time went by, then was exposed to cold air and became rain that fell on the ground. This is “black rain”. The black rain contained charred organisms, namely burned human skins, hair and burned up clothes. This black rain also contained a great deal of radioactive substances.
The dozens of minutes of darkness generated by the atomic bombing symbolizes the tremendous power and its realities of it. It can be said that the fact that people were stripped naked in a split second led to this dome of darkness. We can also say the dome contained very small amount of burnt skin and clothes and blocked light.
Try to imagine the awful destructive power.
http://homepage2.nifty.com/hiroshimaaozora/yamiEnglish.htm
Interview with Patricia Ondrovic
KT: What did you do when the South Tower started coming down?
PO: I didn’t know what was happening, but there was a loud “roar” — lots of crashing sounds. I was attempting to put my stretcher back into the vehicle. The ground was shaking and I saw a sea of people, mostly the various agencies on scene, Fire, Police, EMS, all running towards me. I had no idea what they were running from, but I decided I’d be ahead of them and just started running west towards the river. As I was running, parked cars were blowing up and some were on fire, the street was cracking a bit as well. Very shortly after I started running, everything became one big black cloud. I was near the West Side Highway and I couldn’t see around me anymore.
http://killtown.blogspot.com/2006/02/911-rescuer-saw-explosions-inside-wtc.html
Chemical Analysis
In the first four hours after two planes hit the WTC towers, a massive cloud of dust and smoke from the collapse and explosions filled the air. “Basically, you had blackout,” Lioy said. The dust gradually settled, resuspended, and settled again over the next few days. On the third and fourth days, it rained and the dust in the air diminished. Fires continued to burn and the plume lofted, yet was intermittently pushed down by inversions. On the 13th day, search and rescue was abandoned, diesel engines started up, and the site became a construction zone. A plume of smoke rose from ground zero until the fires were extinguished on Dec. 20.
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/NCW/8142aerosols.html
Video – smoke and heat
VIDEO: Wtc1_stairway_hot Dailymotion
Survivor in WTC 1 stairwell during WTC 2 collapse: “…and all of a sudden this huge cloud of dark grey smoke comes shooting up the stairway … and it was hot – very, very hot.”
Video – dust cloud and white plume
VIDEO: Wtc2_smoke Dailymotion
White smoke emerging from the dust cloud of the collapsing WTC 2.
Video – glass, rumbling, wind
VIDEO: 911.wtc.glass.blew.out Dailymotion
“I was standing next to 1 World Trade Center and then all of a sudden I heard rumbling and we all started running away from it. The glass like blew out and threw me onto the sidewalk … and I couldn’t see for like twenty seconds…”
COMBINED EFFECTS
Video of combined effects
VIDEO: EFFECTS Dailymotion | AtomicArchive
Chronological development of an air burst
URL: http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/nuclear-low-yield-weapons-impact.htm
On the ground moments before the blast it was a calm and sunny Monday morning. An air raid alert from earlier that morning had been called off after only a solitary aircraft was seen (the weather plane), and by 8:15 the city was alive with activity — soldiers doing their morning calisthenics, commuters on foot or on bicycles, groups of women and children working outside to clear firebreaks. Those closest to the explosion died instantly, their bodies turned to black char. Nearby birds burst into flames in mid-air, and dry, combustible materials such as paper instantly ignited as far away as 6,400 feet from ground zero. The white light acted as a giant flashbulb, burning the dark patterns of clothing onto skin (right) and the shadows of bodies onto walls. Survivors outdoors close to the blast generally describe a literally blinding light combined with a sudden and overwhelming wave of heat. (The effects of radiation are usually not immediately apparent.) The blast wave followed almost instantly for those close-in, often knocking them from their feet. Those that were indoors were usually spared the flash burns, but flying glass from broken windows filled most rooms, and all but the very strongest structures collapsed. One boy was blown through the windows of his house and across the street as the house collapsed behind him. Within minutes 9 out of 10 people half a mile or less from ground zero were dead.
People farther from the point of detonation experienced first the flash and heat, followed seconds later by a deafening boom and the blast wave. Nearly every structure within one mile of ground zero was destroyed, and almost every building within three miles was damaged. [Hiroshima]
URL: http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.htm
After finishing his shift at the factory, Akio Sakita returned home and went to his backyard to do the washing. He heard the drone of airplanes above, but since the air raid alarm had been called off, he assumed that the planes he saw were Japanese planes out on surveillance runs. At that moment, he heard a loud roar in the sky, and as he looked up, “wondering if it had in fact been the enemy, a blinding flash of light filled the sky and my body was showered in a wave of intense heat. I felt a searing pain in my face and threw myself on to the ground with my eyes firmly shut. The rush of heat continued for several seconds. It was like a glimpse into the horror of hell. . . . I had suffered terrible burns all over the upper half of my body. [Hiroshima]
URL: http://users.dickinson.edu/~history/product/steele/seniorthesis.htm
Mr. Sumiteru Taniguchi was a sixteen year old postal carrier at the time of the bomb. He was delivering mail on his normal route in Sumiyoshi town when the atomic bomb exploded. “After the sky flashed as lightning I was thrown with a bicycle on the ground when I came to around my skin on the left arm peeled off and hung down to fingertip, my back and hips were burned and became sore and clothes nearly didn’t remain. [Nagasaki]
URL: http://users.dickinson.edu/~history/product/steele/seniorthesis.htm
The Hiroshima Meteorological Observatory reported that just after the flash, black smoke rose from the ground up to the sky reaching an altitude of several thousand meters, and covered the whole city. When the fireball disappeared, the angry clouds, like grey smoke, rose and reached an altitude of 8,000 meters in 5 minutes after the explosion.
One of the Enola Gay crew recorded in his flight diary, “9:00a.m…..Clouds were observed. Altitude of 12,000 meters or more.” From a distance the cloud formation looked like a mushroom growing out of the ground, with white cloud at the top and yellowish clouds enveloping reddish-black clouds, creating a color that cannot be described as while, black, red or yellow. [Hiroshima]
URL: http://www.gensuikin.org/english/photo.html
Trinity Test – Explosion
At 05:29:45 local time (Mountain War Time), (11:29:45 GMT) the device exploded with an energy equivalent to around 20 kilotons of TNT (87.5 TJ). It left a crater of radioactive glass in the desert 10 feet (3 meters) deep and 1,100 ft (330 meters) wide. At the time of detonation, the surrounding mountains were illuminated brighter than daytime for one to two seconds, and the heat was reported as being as hot as an oven at the base camp. The observed colors of the illumination ranged from purple to green and eventually to white. The roar of the shock wave took 40 seconds to reach the observers.[4] The shock wave was felt over 100 miles (160 km) away, and the mushroom cloud reached 7.5 miles (12 km) in height [..]
In the official report on the test, General Farrell wrote, “The lighting effects beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun. It was golden, purple, violet, gray, and blue. It lighted every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described but must be seen to be imagined…”[7]
News reports quoted a forest ranger 150 miles (240 km) west of the site as saying he saw “a flash of fire followed by an explosion and black smoke.” A New Mexican 150 miles (240 km) north said, “The explosion lighted up the sky like the sun.” Other reports remarked that windows were rattled and the sound of the explosion could be heard up to 200 miles (320 km) away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_test
Interview with Patricia Ondrovic
KT: What did you do when the South Tower started coming down?
PO: I didn’t know what was happening, but there was a loud “roar” — lots of crashing sounds. I was attempting to put my stretcher back into the vehicle. The ground was shaking and I saw a sea of people, mostly the various agencies on scene, Fire, Police, EMS, all running towards me. I had no idea what they were running from, but I decided I’d be ahead of them and just started running west towards the river. As I was running, parked cars were blowing up and some were on fire, the street was cracking a bit as well. Very shortly after I started running, everything became one big black cloud. I was near the West Side Highway and I couldn’t see around me anymore.
http://killtown.blogspot.com/2006/02/911-rescuer-saw-explosions-inside-wtc.html
Ondrovic Interiew – Buildings WTC 5 and 6 blowing up at the same time as WTC 2 (South Tower)
KT: Can you describe more about how the building blew up on you? Did you feel the shock wave from the explosion and/or debris falling down near you?
PO: Well, one second I was trying to put my stretcher into the ambulance, the next thing I know I am thrown to the ground as the ground was shaking. Debris was flying at me from where the building I was parked in front of. There was a continual loud rumbling, there was just debris flying from every direction and then everything being covered in the black and gray smoke.
KT: Let’s recap real quickly; your ambulance was parked backed up against the WTC 6, near the 6′s corner by the alleyway between the WTC 5 and 6 …
http://killtown.blogspot.com/2006/02/911-rescuer-saw-explosions-inside-wtc.html
“We start walking back there and then I heard a ground level explosion and I’m like holy shit, and then you heard that twisting metal wreckage again.” [James McKinley — E.M.T. (E.M.S.)]
‘When the rescue team reached an area directly in front of Tower Two, Antonio said he’d take over the equipment cart Will had pushed from Building 5. … The team moved ahead. … Suddenly the hallway began to shudder as a terrible deafening roar swept over them. That’s when Will saw the giant fireball explode in the street.’ [bowhunter.com]
http://www.bowhunter.com/feature_articles/BN_FromTheRubble/
Video – fireball
VIDEO: Wtc2_fireball Dailymotion
His story: He escapes from the South Tower and while he is running away, he is hit by a fireball. He is probably the last person out alive. He says he saw a fireball and heard a loud noise, and that’s all he remembers. He woke up 6 days later in St Vincents.
‘As Ron DiFrancesco ran away [from WTC 2] he was hit by a fireball … he was probably the last person out alive. “I saw the fireball and heard a loud noise. That’s all I remember…”‘
Video – Carol Marin heard a roar and saw the towers explode and a giant ball of flame
VIDEO: 911.wtc.carol.marin Dailymotion
“All of a sudden I heard a roar and I saw one of the towers blow … I saw from street level as though it exploded up, a giant rolling ball of flame…”
Same reporter:
“I hear simultaneously this roar and see what appears to be a gigantic fireball rising up at ground level . . . I remember seeing this giant ball of fire come out of the earth as I heard this roar” [Running Toward Danger: Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11 – P 239]
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0742523160/102-6566811-8060134?v=glance&n=283155
Video – smoke and heat
VIDEO: Wtc1_stairway_hot Dailymotion
Survivor in WTC 1 stairwell during WTC 2 collapse: “…and all of a sudden this huge cloud of dark grey smoke comes shooting up the stairway … and it was hot – very, very hot.”
Video – dust cloud and white plume
VIDEO: Wtc2_smoke Dailymotion
White smoke emerging from the dust cloud of the collapsing WTC 2.
Video – glass, rumbling, wind
VIDEO: 911.wtc.glass.blew.out Dailymotion
“I was standing next to 1 World Trade Center and then all of a sudden I heard rumbling and we all started running away from it. The glass like blew out and threw me onto the sidewalk … and I couldn’t see for like twenty seconds…”
Video: White smoke at the base of WTC1 seconds before its collapse
Video with zoom:
VIDEO: Wtc1_street_level_smoke Dailymotion
Still from the video: white smoke seen at the base of the North Tower before it exploded
Video without zoom:
VIDEO: 911.wtc.1.demolition.nj.1 Dailymotion
Video: smoke rising from the World Trade Center wreckage
VIDEO: Wtc_smoke Dailymotion
Video of smoke rising from the World Trade Center wreckage. The smoke rising from the wreckage should have been black, not white.
ROAR
People farther from the point of detonation experienced first the flash and heat, followed seconds later by a deafening boom and the blast wave.
http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.htm
As the streetcar arrived in Hatchobori, Yohko continued to watch the pedestrians hurry along on their way to work. The next moment, “I was blinded for a moment by a piercing flash of bright light, and the air filled with yellow smoke like poison gas. Momentarily, it got so dark I couldn’t see anything. There was a loud, dull, thunderous noise. [Hiroshima]
http://users.dickinson.edu/~history/product/steele/seniorthesis.htm
Yukiharu did not realize at first that a bomb had exploded. He thought there had been an electrical accident at the plant building he was working in. Then it suddenly became dark and “I heard a huge explosion. The roof of the building had collapsed, and we were under the broken roof. I felt a pain in my head. I managed to escape from the building. I did not know what was happening to us, because we had not experienced any serious bombing. . . . I was not badly hurt. . . . A piece of broken glass was sticking into my head.” [Hiroshima]
http://users.dickinson.edu/~history/product/steele/seniorthesis.htm
After finishing his shift at the factory, Akio Sakita returned home and went to his backyard to do the washing. He heard the drone of airplanes above, but since the air raid alarm had been called off, he assumed that the planes he saw were Japanese planes out on surveillance runs. At that moment, he heard a loud roar in the sky, and as he looked up, “wondering if it had in fact been the enemy, a blinding flash of light filled the sky and my body was showered in a wave of intense heat. I felt a searing pain in my face and threw myself on to the ground with my eyes firmly shut. The rush of heat continued for several seconds. It was like a glimpse into the horror of hell. . . . I had suffered terrible burns all over the upper half of my body. [Hiroshima]
http://users.dickinson.edu/~history/product/steele/seniorthesis.htm
“A huge fireball formed in the sky. Directly beneath it is Matsuyama township. Together with the flash came the heat rays and blast, which instantly destroyed everything on earth” [Nagasaki]
http://www.gensuikin.org/english/photo.html
Trinity Test – Explosion
At 05:29:45 local time (Mountain War Time), (11:29:45 GMT) the device exploded with an energy equivalent to around 20 kilotons of TNT (87.5 TJ). It left a crater of radioactive glass in the desert 10 feet (3 meters) deep and 1,100 ft (330 meters) wide. At the time of detonation, the surrounding mountains were illuminated brighter than daytime for one to two seconds, and the heat was reported as being as hot as an oven at the base camp. The observed colors of the illumination ranged from purple to green and eventually to white. The roar of the shock wave took 40 seconds to reach the observers.[4] The shock wave was felt over 100 miles (160 km) away, and the mushroom cloud reached 7.5 miles (12 km) in height [..]
In the official report on the test, General Farrell wrote, “The lighting effects beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun. It was golden, purple, violet, gray, and blue. It lighted every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described but must be seen to be imagined…”[7]
News reports quoted a forest ranger 150 miles (240 km) west of the site as saying he saw “a flash of fire followed by an explosion and black smoke.” A New Mexican 150 miles (240 km) north said, “The explosion lighted up the sky like the sun.” Other reports remarked that windows were rattled and the sound of the explosion could be heard up to 200 miles (320 km) away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_test
Audio of roar from “9/11 Eyewitness” video
VIDEO: Rick Siegel 9-11 Eyewitness-Booming sounds Dailymotion
This is a segment from Rick Siegel’s video “9/11 Eyewitness”. Audio that showed booming sounds before the collapse of the North Tower. The booming sounds accord with the seismic record of the North Tower’s destruction. Segment starts at 1:36:30 in complete video.
Still from the video: it shows booming sounds that occur before the North Tower starts to fall.
Interview with Patricia Ondrovic
KT: What did you do when the South Tower started coming down?
PO: I didn’t know what was happening, but there was a loud “roar” — lots of crashing sounds. I was attempting to put my stretcher back into the vehicle. The ground was shaking and I saw a sea of people, mostly the various agencies on scene, Fire, Police, EMS, all running towards me. I had no idea what they were running from, but I decided I’d be ahead of them and just started running west towards the river. As I was running, parked cars were blowing up and some were on fire, the street was cracking a bit as well. Very shortly after I started running, everything became one big black cloud. I was near the West Side Highway and I couldn’t see around me anymore.
http://killtown.blogspot.com/2006/02/911-rescuer-saw-explosions-inside-wtc.html
Ondrovic Interiew – Buildings WTC 5 and 6 blowing up at the same time as WTC 2 (South Tower)
KT: Can you describe more about how the building blew up on you? Did you feel the shock wave from the explosion and/or debris falling down near you?
PO: Well, one second I was trying to put my stretcher into the ambulance, the next thing I know I am thrown to the ground as the ground was shaking. Debris was flying at me from where the building I was parked in front of. There was a continual loud rumbling, there was just debris flying from every direction and then everything being covered in the black and gray smoke.
KT: Let’s recap real quickly; your ambulance was parked backed up against the WTC 6, near the 6′s corner by the alleyway between the WTC 5 and 6 …
http://killtown.blogspot.com/2006/02/911-rescuer-saw-explosions-inside-wtc.html
WRH – Comment
When the rescue team reached an area directly in front of Tower Two, Antonio said he’d take over the equipment cart Will had pushed from Building 5. … The team moved ahead. … Suddenly the hallway began to shudder as a terrible deafening roar swept over them. That’s when Will saw the giant fireball explode in the street. [bowhunter.com]
http://www.bowhunter.com/feature_articles/BN_FromTheRubble/
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/thermite.html
Video – fireball and roar
VIDEO: 911.wtc.carol.marin Dailymotion
“All of a sudden I heard a roar and I saw one of the towers blow … I saw from street level as though it exploded up, a giant rolling ball of flame…”
Same reporter:
“I hear simultaneously this roar and see what appears to be a gigantic fireball rising up at ground level . . . I remember seeing this giant ball of fire come out of the earth as I heard this roar” [Running Toward Danger: Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11 – P 239]
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0742523160/102-6566811-8060134?v=glance&n=283155
Video: glass, rumbling, wind
VIDEO:911.wtc.glass.blew.out Dailymotion
“I was standing next to 1 World Trade Center and then all of a sudden I heard rumbling and we all started running away from it. The glass like blew out and threw me onto the sidewalk … and I couldn’t see for like twenty seconds…”
Oral histories of rumbling and roar and ground shaking
Brian Becker — Lieutenant (F.D.N.Y.) [Engine 28] We felt — our whole building that we were in, when World Trade Center 2 collapsed, that was the first one to collapse. We were in World Trade Center 1. It was a tremendous explosion and tremendous shaking of our building. We thought it was our building maybe collapsed, there was a collapse above us occurring. It was tremendous shaking and like everybody dove into this stairwell and waited for, I guess, 20, 30 seconds until it settled, and that was our experience of the other building collapsing.
Interview, 10/09/01, New York Times
Michael Beehler — Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 110] I was by I guess the outer part of the building and I just remember feeling the building starting to shake and this tremendous tremendous like roar and I just — I kind of didn’t even notice it, but like out of the corner of my eye, I saw out of the building, I saw a shadow coming down. At that point I thought it was the upper part of the north tower that had just basically like toppled over, fell off. I didn’t actually see the building part go by me, because I think I was on the opposite side. But I just remember feeling this tremendous tremendous shake and hearing this, like, noise. Again I can’t describe. What I did was I ended up running out.
Interview, 12/17/01, New York Times
Jody Bell — E.M.T. (E.M.S.) I lost track of time. You start to hear this rumble. You hear this rumble. Everything is shaking. Now I’m like, what the hell could that be. I’m thinking we’re going to get bombed. This is an air raid. You hear this thunder, this rumbling. Then you see the building start to come down. Everybody’s like, “Run for your lives! The building is coming down!” At that moment when that building was coming down, I was strapping a patient onto a stair chair.
Interview, 12/15/01, New York Times
David Blacksberg — E.M.T. (E.M.S.) I lost track of time of when the second building was coming down. It sounded like one big rumble, and then it just sounded like it just continued, and I was — I wasn’t really paying attention. I was looking at the sound.
Interview, 11/23/01, New York Times
Nicholas Borrillo — Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) on 23rd floor of North Tower:
Then we heard a rumble. We heard it and we felt the whole building shake. It was like being on a train, being in an earthquake. A train is more like it, because with the train you hear the rumbling, and it kind of like moved you around in the hall. Then it just stopped after eight or ten seconds, about the time it took for the building to come down.
Interview, 01/09/02, New York Times
Peter Cachia — (E.M.S.) [Battalion 4] I was like a little too close to the tower when it started coming down, because when I started running, I knew I was too close and I really didn’t think I was going to get out of there. So about halfway up Liberty Street I saw a truck, I guess an SUV. It wasn’t a police or a fire vehicle. It was just a car that was parked there. I went under the truck while the tower came down and the ground was shaking and the truck was shaking and I thought that was it for me. I thought I was done. I stayed under there until I guess everything was over.
Interview, 10/15/01, New York Times
Paul Curran — Fire Patrolman (F.D.N.Y.) North Tower:
I went back and stood right in front of Eight World Trade Center right by the customs house, and the north tower was set right next to it. Not that much time went by, and all of a sudden the ground just started shaking. It felt like a train was running under my feet.
…
The next thing we know, we look up and the tower is collapsing.
Interview, 12/18/01, New York Times
Timothy Julian — Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) [Ladder 118] You know, and I just heard like an explosion and then cracking type of noise, and then it sounded like a freight train, rumbling and picking up speed, and I remember I looked up, and I saw it coming down.
I made it right to the corner, and there’s a column right there, and I was with my guys. We all made it to like the column, and I remember it was plate glass behind me, and I’m thinking I’m going to get hit by this glass and like a porcupine. I’m going to get it, you know, but nonetheless, it rumbled.
It was the loudest rumbling I ever heard. The ground shook, and I got thrown down, and I remember it just got black, and I got knocked down. I remember geing buried.
Interview, 12/26/01, New York Times
Comment: He experienced overpressure of at least 5 psi to be knocked down.
Bradley Mann — Lieutenant (E.M.S.) Shortly before the first tower came down, I remember feeling the ground shaking. I heard a terrible noise, and then debris just started flying everywhere. People started running.
Interview, 11/07/01, New York Times
Keith Murphy — (F.D.N.Y.) [Engine 47] At the time, I would have said they sounded like bombs, but it was boom boom boom and then the lights all go out. I hear someone say oh, s___, that was just for the lights out. I would say about 3, 4 seconds, all of a sudden this tremendous roar. It sounded like being in a tunnel with the train coming at you. It sounded like nothing I had ever heard in my life, but it didn’t sound good. All of a sudden I could feel the floor started to shake and sway. We were being thrown like literally off our feet, side to side, getting banged around and then a tremendous wind starting to happen. It probably lasted maybe 15 seconds, 10 to 15 seconds. It seemed like a hurricane force wind. It would blow you off your feet and smoke and debris and more things started falling.
Interview, 12/05/01, New York Times
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/oralhistories/shaking.html
VAPORIZATION
FROM: America’s Reaction to the Atomic Bomb
“Any object within a two kilometer distance from the hypocenter suffered significant burn damage, and those located near the hypocenter were instantaneously vaporized. The Shima hospital, the hypocenter of the atomic bomb was vaporized, along with all her patients.” [Hiroshima]
http://users.dickinson.edu/~history/product/steele/seniorthesis.htm
Yukiharu did not realize at first that a bomb had exploded. He thought there had been an electrical accident at the plant building he was working in. Then it suddenly became dark and “I heard a huge explosion. The roof of the building had collapsed, and we were under the broken roof. I felt a pain in my head. I managed to escape from the building. I did not know what was happening to us, because we had not experienced any serious bombing. . . . I was not badly hurt. . . . A piece of broken glass was sticking into my head.” [Nagasaki]
http://users.dickinson.edu/~history/product/steele/seniorthesis.htm
Patricia Ondrovic Interview – Motorola Radio Troubles and Cellphone Problems
KT: After you witnessed the explosions in the lobby of the WTC 6, you started running in which direction and then what happened?
PO: I kept running west on Vesey. I got hit with the cloud shortly after being turned away from 6 WTC. I was probably at the corner of Vesey/West Street at that point running. I ran towards the West Side Highway — there is a park area there. I remember running across grass and there was now lots of grey and black smoke. I was just trying to get to the water because nothing was exploding, or on fire from what I could see. There were lots and lots of people also running that way at this point.
KT: When were you able to escape the dust cloud and what happened after that?
PO: I was now at the water’s edge. There were no boats I could see, so I started to run north along the side of the West Side Highway. I was about 9 or 10 blocks north of Vesey on the West Side Highway. I found the first FDNY EMS vehicle and knew the crew as they were also from my station. I remember not being able to breathe so well — felt like someone was standing on my chest. When I looked back, I could see people coming out of the black cloud and continuing to run and walk north on the West Side Highway as well.
KT: Did you notice any firefighters or other rescuers having technical problems with their Motorola radios or any other equipment?
PO: Oh yeah, at one point there was a loud “buzzing” sound and none of the EMS radios worked for maybe 30 seconds? We all used Motorola radios and I believe our repeaters were on top of the towers, so when the tower came down our radios failed. I tried to use my cellphone, but that too did not work.
KT: Do you know if anybody’s cellphone worked and were able to get through to anybody?
PO: A few of my co workers had Nextel phones. Theirs worked, but they couldn’t talk to anyone who didn’t have a Nextel because all the other services were out at the time.
http://killtown.blogspot.com/2006/02/911-rescuer-saw-explosions-inside-wtc.html
RUSTING and OXIDATION
Anatomy of a fire
Combustion is the self-sustaining process of rapid oxidation of a fuel being reduced by an oxidizing agent along with the evolution of heat and light. Fires are defined by their physical characteristics. They may vary from very slow oxidation, as in rusting, to very fast oxidation, such as detonations and explosions.
Nuclear Heat Energy
Nuclear Fission and Fusion – The heat generated by either the splitting or combining of atoms.
http://www.lbfdtraining.com/RTM/Chapter3%20Fundamentals/Fire%20Behavior%20&%20Chemistry.html
Oxidation–reduction reaction
Also called redox reaction any chemical reaction in which the oxidation number of a participating chemical species changes. The term covers a large and diverse body of processes. Many oxidation–reduction reactions are as common and familiar as fire, the rusting and dissolution of metals, the browning of fruit, and respiration and photosynthesis—basic life functions.
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9110112/oxidation-reduction-reaction
Chemical vs nuclear burning
Question – How does the sun keep burning when there is no
oxygen? My student asked me this. I talked with him about nuclear
reactions. He looked up fire in the World Book. He found that fire
needs oxygen, fuel and heat. Can you explain this? Thank you. Rise
P., teacher, Bloomington, IN
Answer – The definition that you were looking at is, narrowly, chemical burning in
air. Fire, more formally, is the phenomenon of atomic (molecular)
recombination that is manifest by a new product and electromagnetic
radiation. Chemical combustion just rearranges the atoms from parent
material(s) to product material(s). The radiation given off is often light
or infra-red (heat). Note that this does not require oxygen. Oxidation
reactions are remarkably common, but by no means the only way to do this.
In nuclear burning, the atoms themselves are combined to create new and
different atoms. Nuclear burning does not require oxygen. The main
nuclear burning that is happening on the sun is a hydrogen-hydrogen
process, forming helium. There are other processes, too, but this is the
main one.
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen01/gen01159.htm
11 Steps to Survival
Know the Effects of Nuclear Explosions
A nuclear explosion releases vast amounts of energy in three forms:
- Light and heat
- Blast
- Radiation
The amount of energy released depends upon the size and design of the weapon. A wide range of weapons and delivery systems are available to an aggressor and we have no way of knowing what size of explosions might take place in Canada. For illustration purposes, we describe in this pamphlet the effects of a 5-megaton H-bomb equal to the explosive force of five million tons of TNT. Such a bomb could substantially damage the largest city.
The effects depend upon whether the weapon is exploded high in the air, or on, or near the ground. An air burst usually produces more fire and blast-damage than a ground burst which results in a big crater and more radioactive fallout. The effects described below are approximate for a 5-megaton explosion and can only be approximate since effects depend upon a number of conditions such as weather, terrain, etc.
Air burst
Ground burst
Light and Heat
A blaze of light brighter than the sun is produced by a nuclear explosion. It lasts for about 15 seconds. Temporary blindness and eye injury can result from the glare if eyes are not shielded. The heat rays from the explosion travel at the speed of light or about 186,000 miles per second. It can start fires up to 20 miles away. Many fires are caused when the heat pulse comes through a window to set fire to curtains, paper, clothing and furniture. The heat flash also can set fire to the outside of wooden buildings.
The following are some examples of the predictable effects on unprotected skin of the heat flash of a 5-megaton weapon exploded on a clear day:
- Skin is badly burned up to 15 miles from the explosion.
- Skin is blistered up to 18 miles from the explosion.
- Sunburn types of burns up to 23 miles from the explosion.
Nuclear explosions in the air rather than on the ground are more likely to produce a greater number of serious burns through the heat flash. Clothing will give some protection. A shield between you and the light will give protection against burns from the heat flash.
Effects on Buildings
Effects on Exposed People
Blast
The blast wave travels more slowly than the heat flash. Several seconds may pass after you have seen the light or felt the heat before the blast wave reaches you, depending on the distance you are from the explosion. It is like the time between seeing the flash of lightning and hearing the sound of thunder. For example, at ten miles from the centre of an explosion, it would take about 35 seconds for the blast wave to reach you. If caught in the open during a nuclear explosion, this time can be used to find some protection from the blast wave.
You might be injured by being thrown about by the blast; therefore, keep low. The greatest danger is from flying glass, bricks and other debris. The blast from a 5-megaton explosion could injure people as far away as 15 miles.
Blast
The kinds of damage that the blast can do to buildings are:
- Complete destruction of all buildings three miles from the centre of the explosion.
- Damage beyond repair to buildings three to five miles distant. They would have to be torn down.
- Major repairs required to buildings five to 10 miles distant before they could be occupied.
- Light to moderate damage to buildings 10 to 15 miles distant. They could be occupied during repairs.
A 20-megaton bomb increases the approximate ranges of damage described above to five, eight, sixteen and twenty-four miles.
These are approximate distances as the strength of buildings is not uniform. For example, reinforced concrete buildings are more blast resistant than wood frame structures. In some areas four miles away from the explosion, concrete buildings might be repairable, while wood frame buildings would be completely destroyed. Windows, of course, are very vulnerable and are apt to be blown in as far away as 25 miles from the explosion.
Radiation
A nuclear explosion causes both immediate radiation and residual radiation. Immediate radiation is given off at the time of the explosion.
It is dangerous only within two or three miles. If you were near the explosion without adequate protection and managed to survive the effects of blast and fire, you could still be seriously affected by immediate radiation.
Residual radiation is given off by the radioactive particles left as “fallout” after the explosion. The danger from fallout would be so great and widespread that it is discussed separately, in >Step 2.
Protection against Heat, Blast and Immediate Radiation
The illustrations below show some of the most probable situations in which you might find yourself at the time of a nuclear attack, and what you should do:
Protection against Heat, Blast and Immediate Radiation
Step 2: Know the Facts About Radioactive Fallout
If a nuclear weapon is exploded on, or near, the ground, danger from radioactive fallout is greatest. The force of the explosion may make a crater up to a mile wide and to a depth of one hundred feet. Millions of tons of pulverized earth, stones, buildings and other materials are drawn up into the fireball and become radioactive. Some of the heavier particles spill out around the point of explosion. The rest are sucked up into the mushroom cloud.
This radioactive material is then carried by winds until it settles to earth. This is called “Fallout”. Under some circumstances you may see the fallout; under others you may not.
The radioactivity it gives off cannot be seen. You can’t feel it. You can’t smell it.
But fallout doesn’t come out of the sky like a gas and seep into everything. It can best be described as a fine to coarse sand carried by the winds. Because the wind direction varies at different heights above the ground, it is not possible to judge from the ground where the fallout will settle. It can settle in irregular patterns hundreds of miles from the explosion.
The fallout from a 5-megaton explosion could affect seriously an area of 7,000 square miles. If nothing were done to gain protection during the period of high radioactivity, there would be a grave danger to life in that area.
Because fallout is carried so far and covers such a large area, it could be the greatest danger to the largest number of Canadians in a nuclear war. If Canada was not hit by nuclear bombs, those exploding in the United States close to our border could result in serious fallout in many parts of Canada.
There are four things which determine the amount of radiation reaching your body from fallout:
- The time that has passed since the explosion.
- The length of time you are exposed to fallout.
- The distance you are from the fallout.
- The shielding between you and the fallout.
Direction of Fallout at Various Altitudes
Fallout Spread
Time
The radioactivity in fallout weakens rapidly in the first hours after an explosion. This weakening is called “decay”. After seven hours, fallout has lost about 90% of the strength it had one hour after the explosion. After two days it has lost 99%; in two weeks 99.9% of its strength is gone. Nevertheless, if the radiation at the beginning were high enough, the remaining 0.1% could be dangerous.
Radiation must be measured by special instruments handled by people trained to use them. But, if you stay in a shelter during the first days following an explosion, you escape the strongest radiation. You should stay in the shelter until radiation has been measured and you have been told aver the radio that it is safe to come out.
Radiation Decay Time
Distance
The strength of radiation reaching your body is reduced the farther you are from the fallout. Here are some illustrations of the safest place to be when you are in various kinds of buildings.
Distance Shielding
The most effective protection is to place some heavy material between yourself and the fallout. The heavier the material the better the protection. Many common materials give excellent protection. The materials and design of the fallout shelter recommended in Blueprint for Survival No. 1 will stop penetration of 99% of outside radiation.
These thicknesses of material will stop 99% of radiation:
- 16 inches of solid brick
- 16 inches of hollow concrete blocks filled with mortar or sand
- 2 feet of packed earth Ä 3 feet if loose
- 5 inches of steel
- 3 inches of lead
- 3 feet of water
A fallout shelter is the best way to protect your family and yourself against radiation because:
- It keeps the radiation at a distance.
- It shields you from radiation.
- The time spent there is the period when radiation is most intense.
By providing your family and yourself with a fallout shelter, you are unlikely to suffer serious effects from radioactive fallout.
Shielding
http://autonopedia.org/survival/Eleven_Steps_To_Nuclear_Survival.html
A nuclear explosion releases vast amounts of energy in three forms: 1. Light and heat 2. Blast 3. Radiation The amount of energy released depends upon the size and design of the weapon. A wide range of weapons and delivery systems are available to an aggressor and we have no way of knowing what size of explosions might take place in Canada. For illustration purposes, we describe in this pamphlet the effects of a 5-megaton H-bomb equal to the explosive force of five million tons of TNT. Such a bomb could substantially damage the largest city. The effects depend upon whether the weapon is exploded high in the air, or on, or near the ground. An air burst usually produces more fire and blast-damage than a ground burst which results in a big crater and more radioactive fallout. The effects described below are approximate for a 5-megaton explosion and can only be approximate since effects depend upon a number of conditions such as weather, terrain, etc. Air Burst Ground Burst Light and Heat A blaze of light brighter than the sun is produced by a nuclear explosion. It lasts for about 15 seconds. Temporary blindness and eye injury can result from the glare if eyes are not shielded. The heat rays from the explosion travel at the speed of light or about 186,000 miles per second. It can start fires up to 20 miles away. Many fires are caused when the heat pulse comes through a window to set fire to curtains, paper, clothing and furniture. The heat flash also can set fire to the outside of wooden buildings.
__________________________________________________________
The Day America Was Punked 