What to do during bomb explosion?

Answer 1

Most bomb types (including mortars, hand grenades and air-dropped bombs) are designed to explode in a "flower bouquet" shape. They are also often engineered to spread the most amount of shrapnel horizontally between two feet and five feet above the ground (this maximizes the chance of hitting standing humans). Thus the best place to be in the event of an explosion is flat on the ground. Ifus you have a good idea of where the blast will happen, then lie flat on your chest on the ground, with the soles of your feet facing the area of the blast. Spread your legs moderately apart: if you tighten your legs together, you increase the chances of losing both legs, whereas when the legs are spread apart, you have a greater chance of saving one leg from the blast; spreading the legs too far apart, however, leaves the groin exposed. In addition to the obvious reasons for protecting the groin area, you also want to avoid shrapnel injury to that area because of the major arteries in that part of the body can lead to rapid blood loss if injured.

The majority of deaths from explosions in warfare come not from shrapnel or the explosion itself, but from the pulse of air created by the blast. This air travels outward in all directions as a shockwave. The most dangerous aspect of this shockwave is what it does to a human's lungs. It's natural in the event of a crisis moment for a human being to take a deep breath and hold it. This turns one's lungs into a pressurized balloon. When the shockwave hits the body, that balloon bursts, causing massive internal injury to the inner surface of the lungs. Thus most bomb victims die from internal bleeding in the lungs. They literally drown in their own blood. It takes from two to ten minutes and it is a horrific way to go.

The best way to avoid that fate is to keep your mouth open and your air passages open. Do not breathe deeply. Instead, while laying on the ground during a bombardment, breathe in and out in rapid little pulses, all the while taking care to never fully close your air passages. You still might get hit by a shockwave, but the damage to your lungs will be significantly smaller than if you hold your breath.

Finally, you must choose what to do with your hands. Some people instinctively cover their ears at the sound of a blast. If you're close to a large explosion, you will probably have both eardrums burst, even if you cover them with your hands (due to the aforementioned shockwave). While laying flat on the ground, the idea is to reduce your lateral profile as much as possible, which means laying with one cheek on the ground. Place one hand tightly over your exposed eye. Place the other arm against your body.

If you have time to prepare for an expected explosion, the best thing to do is to dig into the ground. The goal should be to dig deep enough so that your body, when laying flat, is below the plane of the ground. This will essentially safeguard you against the entire explosion (even the bulk of the shockwave), unless a shell scores a direct hit (in which case you're dead no matter what).

All of the above advice is for conventional explosions. If you are above ground within a few kilometers of a nuclear explosion, you are dead. If not from the blast itself, then you will soon die from the released gamma radiation. If you have a few hours warning, the best thing to do is to dig a hole deep enough for you and whoever else you wish to save and then cover the hole with thick boards and then cover the boards with at the very least one and a half feet of earth. The thicker the layering of earth, the better. The thicker the material that you use on top of the boards, the better (stones are good, solid lead is best). The idea is to allow the thick layer of material to absorb both the shockwave of the blast and the gamma radiation. The good news about gamma rays is that they have very short half lives. Thus you can emerge from your hole within two days and most of the radiation will be gone. Keep in mind though, that any organic matter (vegetation and animal carcasses) that absorbed gamma rays will still be extremely radioactive and should not be eaten. Thus it's a good idea to store a lot of water and canned food with you in your hole.

See Surviving Disaster on Spike.com for more info on how to increase your chances of survival during a nuclear explosion. Please Note: Anything within a quarter mile of a nuclear explosion is vaporized. Laying on the ground facing the opposite direction from the blast with your legs crossed and arms covering your neck/head area can help increase your chances of surviving the shock wave. Getting behind an object such as thick concrete can offer protection from any shock wave.

Answer 2

run