What Would Happen to NORAD In A Zombie Apoc?

[JDFP]

NORAD is one of the most secure facilities in the world and I believe it's also the headquarters (correct me if I'm wrong) of USNORTHCOM (U.S. Northern Command) which controls all military operations in this specific sphere. The military facility would not be penetrated by ghouls from the outside, but an internal outbreak could be fairly devestating. I'd wager that the president and his cabinet would probably be flown to either NORAD or Omaha if the zombie apoc were to happen. There's probably enough supplies as far as food and medical supplies to last for a couple of generations in Cheyenne Mountain (where NORAD is located); so none of the folks there would be in need.

I'm curious as to what you think would happen to this military facility in the case of a Zombie Apoc, and honestly surprised more hasn't been discussed about NORAD in any stories I can recall reading about in zombie fiction. I'd probably say it's one of the safest places in the world just because of the security and ability to completely shut the mountain down from any outside interference.

Anyway, just some food for thought...

j.p.

[sandrock74]

I've always thought that something like NORAD would be too impervious, so it wouldn't make for an interesting story. If everyone was sitting safely inside, sipping tea, going over reports and floowing a chain-of-command, where is the tension and drama?

[BillyRay]

If everyone was sitting safely inside, sipping tea, going over reports and floowing a chain-of-command, where is the tension and drama?

About 6 months later, after Major Cooper buys it...

But seriously, Assuming the facility stays locked down, and the infection/Living Dead are kept outside - what would be the reaction once NORAD realises that the Dead have devoured, and now outnumber, the Living?

Would they start nuking the major cities?

[Philly_SWAT]

About 6 months later, after Major Cooper buys it...

But seriously, Assuming the facility stays locked down, and the infection/Living Dead are kept outside - what would be the reaction once NORAD realises that the Dead have devoured, and now outnumber, the Living?

Would they start nuking the major cities?

Good point. I think NORAD has not been shown in many zombie stories is that against such an unconventional enemy, the conventional tactics that NORAD would employ would not be useful. Yes people inside would be very safe, but that would not make a compelling story. They could not do much of anything to help people outside, so again, not compelling. Then again, I have seen a fair share of movies that were not compelling, so someone may yet make a zombie NORAD movie!

[SRP76]

The military facility would not be penetrated by ghouls from the outside

...which means it definitely will be. Just like what always happens when man thinks he's built something perfect: it's not.

[Debbieangel]

Compelling? Here is something you might want to chew on?
OK, so, you have the prezzie and vice prezzie and all the upper crust in govt., plus you have military folk.
I am thinking trickle down here, this story would depend on who all would be allowed to go to NORAD when it all would go down.
You are gonna have your Generals on down to your Private first class (gruntsw).
Here is my point:
If I were part of this group I would want all of my family and friends in this safe environment. So, there would be their conflict...be safe or go out to find their family with the various helio's etc... bring familes back then go out for more.
You know he chain of command is gonna hit the fan when it all goes down.
There is your story, lots of conflict...who gets in NORAD? who gets left out? Does someone bring the zombie plague back to NORAD out of love for a loved one?
Sound like a plausible story to you?

[krakenslayer]

Compelling? Here is something you might want to chew on?
OK, so, you have the prezzie and vice prezzie and all the upper crust in govt., plus you have military folk.
I am thinking trickle down here, this story would depend on who all would be allowed to go to NORAD when it all would go down.
You are gonna have your Generals on down to your Private first class (gruntsw).
Here is my point:
If I were part of this group I would want all of my family and friends in this safe environment. So, there would be their conflict...be safe or go out to find their family with the various helio's etc... bring familes back then go out for more.
You know he chain of command is gonna hit the fan when it all goes down.
There is your story, lots of conflict...who gets in NORAD? who gets left out? Does someone bring the zombie plague back to NORAD out of love for a loved one?
Sound like a plausible story to you?

It does actually! Sounds like someone could spin a major novel out of that one.

[Mike70]

hate to rain on anyone's parade but if by "NORAD" what you really mean is the cheyenne mountain facility, it is no longer used in the way it once was. most of NORAD's functions were switched over to peterson air force base in 2006. the cheyenne mountain facility is on its way to mothballs.


sure it would make an interesting site for a zombie story, if you want to be locked inside a mountain with limited food sources and hordes of undead at the door.

[Mr.G]

I've heard of NORAD but what's in Omaha? TIA

[FoodFight]

SAC headquarters. Another hardened site.

[Mike70]

don't you think that these sorts of places would be deathtraps in the long run? sure they'd be safe in the beginning but what about sources of food? sooner or later what you have on hand is going to run out.

i'll stick to a boat on the river or a spot in the hills.

[darth los]

Would they start nuking the major cities?

Well, they would have to do a "cost bebefit analysis."

How long would it take the radiation from the nuclear fallout to subside to tolerable levels? Compare that to how long it would take zombie before they decayed to the point to where they weren't a threat anymore.

Even if the the letting the zombies rot option takes a little longer isn't that prefereble to having to rebuild everything the warheads destroyed?

:cool:

[Mike70]

How long would it take the radiation from the nuclear fallout to subside to tolerable levels? Compare that to how long it would take zombie before they decayed to the point to where they weren't a threat anymore.


a lot longer than it would take for zombies to rot, there's no doubt about that.

nukes would not be a good option for a variety of reasons. they could very well do more harm to the living population than damage to the dead. i mean, things would already be fucked. there's no need to turn the countryside into a nuclear wasteland on top of everything else.

[Eyebiter]

Recall driving into Omaha about 25 years ago. Spray painted underneath the OMAHA city limits sign was

welcome to ground zero

[JDFP]

Recall driving into Omaha about 25 years ago. Spray painted underneath the OMAHA city limits sign was

welcome to ground zero

Oh yeah, Omaha would definitey be in the Top 5 places along with D.C., NYC, and Colorado Springs.

Don't feel bad, I live about 15 miles from Oak Ridge (Lockheed-Martin, Y-12 Uranium Enrichment Plant, Watts-Barr Nuclear Power Plant, etc.), our "nuclear war" scenerio in Knoxville pretty much consists of "Take head, tuck between legs, and kiss ass goodbye!".

On the bright side, I think if the worst case scenerio ever happened with nukes I'd much rather go very fast with the flash than die from radiation a few days, if merciful, or greater period of time later.

j.p.

[deadpunk]

Compelling? Here is something you might want to chew on?
OK, so, you have the prezzie and vice prezzie and all the upper crust in govt., plus you have military folk.
I am thinking trickle down here, this story would depend on who all would be allowed to go to NORAD when it all would go down.
You are gonna have your Generals on down to your Private first class (gruntsw).
Here is my point:
If I were part of this group I would want all of my family and friends in this safe environment. So, there would be their conflict...be safe or go out to find their family with the various helio's etc... bring familes back then go out for more.
You know he chain of command is gonna hit the fan when it all goes down.
There is your story, lots of conflict...who gets in NORAD? who gets left out? Does someone bring the zombie plague back to NORAD out of love for a loved one?
Sound like a plausible story to you?

I agree. That chain of command would quickly shift from a democracy into a dictatorship. Paranoia would run rampant and open revolt wouldn't take very long at all.

[wayzim]

About 6 months later, after Major Cooper buys it...

But seriously, Assuming the facility stays locked down, and the infection/Living Dead are kept outside - what would be the reaction once NORAD realises that the Dead have devoured, and now outnumber, the Living?

Would they start nuking the major cities?

This was tried in my zombie short story 'The Nuked & The Dead. ' where Kansas City was incinerated ( just to test a theory ) with interesting results.

Wayne Z

The world was currently these flat ass plains which even Dorothy Gale found boring enough that she ran off to Oz on the first available tornado. Of course after the fifteen kiloton device, as the tech-geeks called it, was exploded only five hundred feet above the mid-western city, those plains were flatter still, and radioactive as Hell!
Twenty days underground with this idiot, hopefully only a few more to go before the outside conditions were deemed safe enough for the soldiers to leave. But Lieutenant Asshole had made sure that the equipment which could tell them this, as well as all communications with Omaha, was rendered inoperative after he left a system interface panel active during the detonation of the bomb.

(The Nuked and The Dead; or How I Learned To Stop Living and Love The Bomb. )

[JDFP]

hate to rain on anyone's parade but if by "NORAD" what you really mean is the cheyenne mountain facility, it is no longer used in the way it once was. most of NORAD's functions were switched over to peterson air force base in 2006. the cheyenne mountain facility is on its way to mothballs.


sure it would make an interesting site for a zombie story, if you want to be locked inside a mountain with limited food sources and hordes of undead at the door.

I agree that most of NORAD's functions as a "first call" military facility may have been switched to Peterson's AFB, but that doesn't mean that it's not an important military institution to this day. It also doesn't take away from the fact that NORAD is (except, possibly, for a well-documented underground facilitiy in West Va. underneath a hotel, or perhaps Omaha) one of the most secure military facilities in this world.

I have a hard time believing that the U.S. Military doesn't have a shit-pile of food storage (even if they are God-awful MRE's) and other supplies locked within safeguard in Cheyennne Mountain. When NORAD was created, it was the most advanced tactically prepared nuclear facility in the WORLD. That's not opinionated conjecture, that's fact. Granted, this was many, many years ago, but it doesn't take away from the fact that the facility there is incredibly prepared for "worst case scenario's". And as for those of you who say, "Well, if you think it's too prepared for ghoul's getting in, it's not" that's absolute B.S. If NORAD is locked down, nothing can get in there. NORAD with it's doors locked is not going to be breached by zombies or anyone else for that matter unless they happen to carry around a couple of major nuclear devices.

I agree with the other posters that NORAD would not be able to handle a zombie outbreak as it is not conventional war in the way we understand it. That doesn't mean that the many soldiers and possible civilians working in that facility would not have a safe-guard and plenty of food-supplies to see them through WW3 much less a Zombie Apocalypse. The NORAD facility was designated specifically for the absolute worst conditions that humanity could face. It's one of the most secure places in existence.

I still say that it would make a compelling story though. Yes, we have just about the majority of humans wiped out by zombies, but how does it fall to the survivors in NORAD? Do they wait out the Zombie Apocalypse and decide to come out after the corpses have rotted? Does the institution fall into chaos as NCO's fight against officer's? What happens? And what about the thousands of people that think the same way I do that decide that they are going to escape to the safety of Cheyenne Mountain? Does NORAD open the doors to them? Or do they shut-off any outside entry? I think it would honestly make a truly compelling and entertaining story.

I really think that NORAD explored in a Zombie novel/novella/story would be a truly interesting take on things.

j.p.

[deadpunk]

I think you should have posed this question in the Fiction Forum ;):p

[Trin]

Regarding your nuclear wasteland - don't forget all those nuclear power plants without anyone running them. I've seen various articles suggesting that without any human intervention they could run without issue for a couple years. Other articles suggest a couple weeks and they melt down. In either case you've got nuclear accidents all over the country in fairly short order.

It's pretty damned irresponsible for humans to continually build stuff that will trash the world without constant supervision. Think about a rise of the Spanish Flu and the resultant 70% depopulation of the civilized world. Would we end up watching as our own creations took out the other 30% through lack of maintenance?

[Eyebiter]

Actually most of those nuclear power plants would shut down in the event of a major emergency without human intervention.

According to "life after people" tv series the real lurking danger is all the chemical tanks. Most of them require some type of venting or transfer to avoid containment leaks. In the event of an immediate zombie event (like Dawn 04) then after a few days or weeks they would begin to leak. Even in a Land of the Dead type scenario many would eventually burst or corrode, causing airborne pollution, localized chemical spills and water table contamination.

[Trin]

Actually most of those nuclear power plants would shut down in the event of a major emergency without human intervention.

I saw that. And I also read a government study that analyzed previous power plant emergencies (or near emergencies) that directly contradicted that theory.

I tried to get to the straight answer and did a lot of reading. Some theories state that the reactor would shut down safely but the cooling systems for the waste would fail relatively quickly (a week or two). Others say that the plants could not respond well if the demand for electricity dropped sharply while the reactor was still cranking out tons of power.

I'd love to know for sure. I guess we need to ask Homer Simpson. Doh!!


According to "life after people" tv series the real lurking danger is all the chemical tanks. Most of them require some type of venting or transfer to avoid containment leaks. In the event of an immediate zombie event (like Dawn 04) then after a few days or weeks they would begin to leak. Even in a Land of the Dead type scenario many would eventually burst or corrode, causing airborne pollution, localized chemical spills and water table contamination.
Yeah, that was cool. They also mentioned how a lot of those really bad chemicals require refrigeration. And the fridge doesn't run once the power goes out. Huge explosions result, both with fiery consequences and huge clouds of noxious fumes. Yeehaw!!