Experts Show What Would Happen if a Nuke Hit St. Louis, Missouri

Of all the worst-case scenarios you can imagine for St. Louis, Missouri, this would be at the top. Experts have now estimated what would happen if a nuclear attack happened in the Gateway City. As you might imagine, it's not a pretty sight.

Get our free mobile app

This grave (literally) study of the hypothetical situation of a nuclear attack hitting Saint Louis, Missouri comes from 24/7 Wall St. They estimated the damage and loss of life for the top 25 populated cities. The numbers for St. Louis are devastating. They dropped (virtually) a 100 kt detonation in the middle of the metro area. Here's the result:

63,050 deaths, 124,530 injuries

But what if the nuke is bigger like Tsar Bomba?

They did some number crunching for what a much larger 800 kt detonation would look like, too. Here's the body count for that blast:

159,820 deaths, 320,680 injuries

What's interesting is that 24/7 Wall St also shared survey results showing that 77% of respondents think that a nuclear attack somewhere in the world is likely. Is it 1983 all over again?

Come to think of it, the made-for-TV movie The Day After was filmed largely in Missouri for a reason. We also know that numerous targets in both Missouri and Illinois would likely be hit according to FEMA estimates of a first-strike scenario if Russia decided to try and take us out.

I file this kind of data under the "I can't do anything about it, so I won't worry about it" area. If it happens, we'll see a bright flash and, well...

Check out the 24/7 Wall St study for more details of what The Day After might really look like.