Nuclear - Biological - Chemical Plan (NBC)
Unless you are at ground zero, you will survive an NBC event

The first rule is don't panic.  The second rule is to initially stay put and calm down others.  Contrary to Hollywood depictions, even a nuclear explosion blast area covers a relatively small area.  Downwind areas are exposed to the effects of fallout or windborne chemicals.  Biological agents will generally be spread by the same mechanisms as normal bacterial and viruses - person to person and will take longer to develop.

There are similar short and long term protective actions that work well for a nuclear, biological or chemical attacks.  Develop actions for these 4 areas:

• Personal Protection
• Retreat Protection 
• Long Term Protection

Common Challenges
Whether nuclear, biological or chemical, there are common challenges you face.  These are:

• Protection from Airborne Contamination
• Protecting Food & Water from Contamination
• Decontamination
• Medical Treatment for Exposure

After 911, the FEMA Director was derided for telling people to stock up on duct tape and plastic sheeting to provide protection from NBC events.  The a large section of the media  and other taking heads chastised this approach because they simply could not comprehend that simple actions can have a tremendous protective effect.  In their minds, a protective response must be so complicated that only a government program and  action could protect them.  People with these attitudes are small-thinkers and put their reliance on the government so they don't have to take action.  This attitude is deadly and counter to a self-reliant survival mindset.

Current and Projected Threats
Global thermonuclear war is a very remote possibility today. However, if you follow the news, you know that there are countries that are developing limited NBC warfare capabilities that will increase the chances of rogue state or terrorist use of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons on a few, selected targets of prime opportunity for an economic and political effect.  These targets include larger cities, dams, electrical generation facilities and chemical plants.  They will select targets that will have the largest emotional impact on the largest group of people. Consider this scenario:

While constructing a nuclear warhead, an accidental detonation occurs in a middle-eastern country.  The surviving members of that country's government and many Arab leaders immediately blame the U.S. for an unprovoked attack.  The populations in surrounding countries swallow this line and immediately call for retaliation. A huge surge in terrorist recruitment occurs.  Absent the capability of intercontinental ballistic missiles and the ability of the U.S. to substantially deflect and respond massively to such an attack, the "retaliation" would take the form of smuggled NBC elements into the U.S. for local detonation and release in a few selected areas by terrorist organizations that have links to Islamic State Governments.  Not being able to tie these terrorist strikes to a specific government, the U.S. has no justifiable retaliatory response.  This lack of massive response further emboldens and strengthens terrorist organizations and promotes similar future operations.

Evaluate Your Risk
If you live in a high-probability strike area or directly downwind from one, you need to have an NBC Plan to protect yourself, your group and your retreat.  In the event of an infectious biological attack - which is not as easy to accomplish as Hollywood depicts in action films - quarantine areas would be quickly established.  For this reason alone, you should either establish your retreat in or near where you live or move so you can live and work in a less susceptible target area.

Personal Protection
What you normally wear can provide some minor degree of protection from contamination after an NBC event.  Unless you plan to stock several very expensive Class A Contamination suits at home, in your car and where you work, the best option is to keep 2 sets of hooded disposable coveralls, a set of rubber gloves and a respirator with a HEPA & Organic-Vapor Filter close by for each person, in your personal Bug-Out-Bags and in your vehicle kit.  By donning both sets of coveralls, respirator and gloves over your street clothes, you can provide yourself a very good containment suit.  Donning procedures include using tape to seal the joints at sleeve-glove, hood-respirator and leg-footwear. This will provide a large amount of protection while you travel to your home-retreat. Remember that when your get to your home-retreat, you must consider the outside of the coveralls, respirator, gloves and footwear as contaminated.  They should be removed in a controlled manner in a vestibule area isolated from the rest of the living area.

Retreat Protection
If your retreat has not sustained structural damage from a blast, encapsulating your retreat is a very simple procedure if you have stocked some simple material and equipment.  Prepare by having precut sheets of plastic stored and marked in each room with openings to the outside.  The Pre-cut these sheets to provide an overlap when placed over windows.  Tape the plastic all the way around to make an air tight seal over windows doors and other openings such as vent fans in bathrooms, kitchen fans and fireplace or woodstoves.  Installing a pre-constructed, sealed squirrel-cage-fan-HEPA filter unit in a window to vent air into your home will provide a slight over-pressure. This will ensure a supply of filtered air and will move air out of your home through any holes around areas you might have missed sealing, such as around plumbing and electrical fixtures.  Your construction should allow for filter replacement if the filter gets clogged with dust and dirt.

Another point regarding your retreat protection from contamination is to establish a controlled entry area to prevent contamination spread when entering or leaving your retreat.  In the Northeast they call these entry vestibules "mud rooms", where people take off coats and muddy boots before entering the living areas. This setup creates an "airlock" area for removal of contaminated outerwear.  You need to have pre-staged trash cans with liners so outerwear can be placed sequentially in them as you move from one removal station to the next.

While you may not think that plastic is an effective barrier, consider that nuclear power plants use the exact same method of containment for working in potentially contaminated areas, and hospitals use this procedure for isolating highly infectious patients.

Long Term Protection
Using the above procedures will provide excellent short-term protection from the residual effects of an NBC attack.  Long term protection is largely an extension of these actions coupled with a disciple of preventing outside contamination into your living areas.  Using plastic sheeting and duct tape, create a more permanent transfer vestibule for exiting and entering your living areas.  Establish decontamination and cleaning areas for non-disposable respirators, boots and outer rubber gloves.  Suspect everything outside as contaminated.  For this reason, only eat food that is in sealed metal or plastic containers that have been decontaminated.  Radioactive decay of fallout will occur rather quickly.  A week after a fallout event, should provide an adequate amount of time for sources to decay to a level the body can easily tolerate.

Decontamination
Decontamination after an NBC event takes soap and water. Don't rely on utility provided water sources unless you know they are unaffected.  Set up a wet decontamination station using a 5 gallon garden sprayer, disposable wipes and plastic lined disposal containers.  Sunlight can be counted on to kill most biological contaminants out side in a few days.  Rain will wash contaminants out of the air an into low lying areas and urban sewer systems. Stay away from permanently shaded areas.  Biological decontamination can be accomplished by using a high intensity ultra-violet light and /or a solution of bleach and water.  Most chemical warfare agents will also breakdown after a few days of exposure to the environment.

Medical Treatment
Injuries from an NBC event can include thermal burns, blast injuries, radiation effects, internal somatic effects and infectious conditions.  Decontaminate open wounds and burns by flushing with clean water.  Radiation sickness will not occur unless you were in the effected blast area or injected a large amount of airborne particles.  Treatment for NBC related injuries and illnesses is the same as for similar non-NBC illnesses and injuries.  If an infectious biological agent is suspected, protection yourself from cross-infection from persons you suspect have been exposed.  Establish a medical quarantine area in your home-retreat for these purposes.

Radiation Detection
While you can purchase Geiger counter radiation detectors, a better, low tech solution is to buy some much cheaper radiation detector cards you can carry with you at all time.  Unlike Geiger Counters, they don't require batteries, calibration or in-depth knowledge to operate.  See the NBC Products Link  for information and where you can purchase these cards.

Chemical Detection
Currently the best chemical detection kit is the M256 which consists of a carrying case, a booklet of M8 paper, 12 disposable sampler-detectors individually sealed in a plastic laminated foil envelop, and a set of instruction cards attached by a lanyard to the plastic carrying case. By following the directions on the foil packets or in the instruction booklet, you can conduct a complete test in approximately 20 minutes.

Monitor Your Radio & Television
There will be extensive announcements and news coverage of the extent and severity of the NBC event.  Gather facts and don't over-react to the hype and presumptions of the news media.  Listen to see if your area is safe or for the actual levels of contamination.  Don't call 911... they will be jammed and will not have the resource to assist you.