USINDOPACOM Statement on DPRK Launch
U.S. Indo-Pacific command: We are aware of the DPRK’s [North Korea] launch using ballistic missile technology, which despite its failure, is a brazen violation of multiple unanimous UN Security Council resolutions, raises tensions, and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond.
This launch involved technologies that are directly related to the DPRK intercontinental ballistic missile program.
We are assessing the situation in close coordination with our allies and partners.
We have assessed that this event did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or that of our allies, but will continue to monitor the situation.
The U.S. commitment to homeland defense and the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan, remains ironclad.
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[Editor Note: If any of you know Biden, tell him to back off North Korea. In the meantime, I’m going to call my buddy, Trump, and tell him to take Kim Jong Un out for a drink and some cigars to sooth his nerves. – Others are starting to speculate Maui was attacked. China is an unlikely culprit. They would NEVER risk their place at the table with BRICS, not with 100 companies waiting in line to take their place. Plus, they, too, have been getting attacked with unconventional warfare in the form of flooding, deaths and damages.]
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Before you consider what I’ve written, you should know that North Korea warned nuclear weapons could be used in response to the deployment of US weapons in South Korea. https://www.theglobeandmail.com
So what did the U.S. do?
We deployed a nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) to South Korea. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/18/us-deploys-nuclear-armed-submarine-to-South-Korea
The article below was adapted from “City on Fire” by Lynn Eden, originally published in the January 2004 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Called, “What would happen if an 800-kiloton nuclear warhead detonated above midtown Manhattan?” https://thebulletin.org/2015/02/what-would-happen-if-an-800-kiloton-nuclear-warhead-detonated-above-midtown-manhattan/
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What Would Happen if a Nuclear Warhead Detonated Above . . . ?
Intercontinental ballistic missiles are believed to carry a total of approximately 1,000 strategic nuclear warheads that can hit the US less than 30 minutes after being launched. Of this total, about 700 warheads are rated at 800 kilotons; that is, each has the explosive power of 800,000 tons of TNT. What follows is a description of the consequences of the detonation of a single such warhead over . . . (Will fill in the blank below.)
The warhead would probably be detonated slightly more than a mile above to maximize the damage created by its blast wave. Within a few tenths of millionths of a second after detonation, the center of the warhead would reach a temperature of roughly 200 million degrees Fahrenheit (about 100 million degrees Celsius), or about four to five times the temperature at the center of the sun.
A ball of superheated air would form, initially expanding outward at millions of miles per hour. It would act like a fast-moving piston on the surrounding air, compressing it at the edge of the fireball and creating a shockwave of vast size and power.
After one second, the fireball would be roughly a mile in diameter. It would have cooled from its initial temperature of many millions of degrees to about 16,000 degrees Fahrenheit, roughly 4,000 degrees hotter than the surface of the sun.
On a clear day with average weather conditions, the enormous heat and light from the fireball would almost instantly ignite fires over a total area of about 100 square miles.
Hurricane of fire: Within seconds after the detonation, fires set within a few miles of the fireball would burn violently. These fires would force gigantic masses of heated air to rise, drawing cooler air from surrounding areas toward the center of the fire zone from all directions.

Single Gigantic Fire (Maui)
As the massive winds drove flames into areas where fires had not yet fully developed, the fires set by the detonation would begin to merge. Within tens of minutes of the detonation, fires from near and far would join to form a single, gigantic fire. The energy released by this mass fire would be 15 to 50 times greater than the energy produced by the nuclear detonation.
The mass fire, or firestorm, would quickly increase in intensity, heating enormous volumes of air that would rise at speeds approaching 300 miles per hour. This chimney effect would pull cool air from outside the fire zone towards the center of the fire at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. These superheated ground winds of more than hurricane force would further intensify the fire. At the edge of the fire zone, the winds would be powerful enough to uproot trees three feet in diameter and suck people from outside the fire into it.

Uprooted Tree (Maui)
The inrushing winds would drive the flames from burning buildings horizontally along the ground, filling city streets with flames and firebrands, breaking in doors and windows, and causing the fire to jump, sometimes hundreds of feet, swallowing anything not already violently combusting.
These above-hurricane-force ground winds would have average air temperatures well above the boiling point of water. The targeted area would be transformed into a huge hurricane of fire, producing a lethal environment throughout the entire fire zone.
Ground zero: The fireball would vaporize the structures directly below it and produce an immense blast wave and high-speed winds, crushing even heavily built concrete structures within a couple miles of ground zero.

Concrete Structure Crushed (Maui)
The blast would tear apart high-rise buildings and expose their contents to the solar temperatures; it would spread fires by exposing ignitable surfaces, releasing flammable materials, and dispersing burning materials.

Building Exploding into Flames (Maui)
About one half to three quarters of a mile from ground zero, light from the fireball would melt asphalt in the streets, burn paint off walls, and melt metal surfaces within a half second of the detonation. Roughly one second later, the blast wave and 750-mile-per-hour winds would arrive, flattening buildings and tossing burning cars into the air like leaves in a windstorm. The interiors of vehicles and buildings in line of sight of the fireball would explode into flames.
For a split second the fireball would shine 10,000 times brighter than a desert sun at noon. All combustible materials illuminated by the fireball would spew fire and black smoke.

Vegetation Exploding into Flames (Maui)
Grass, vegetation, and leaves on trees would explode into flames; the surface of the ground would explode into superheated dust. Any flammable material inside buildings (paper, curtains, upholstery) that was directly exposed to the fireball would burst into flame. The surfaces of statues would melt; marble surfaces exposed to the fireball would crack, pop, and possibly evaporate.

Engulfed Structures Crushed (Maui)
At this distance from the fireball, it would take about four seconds for the blast wave to arrive. As it passed over, the blast wave would engulf all structures and crush them; it would generate ferocious winds of 400 to 500 miles per hour that would persist for a few seconds.
The high winds would tear structural elements from buildings and cause them to disintegrate explosively into smaller pieces. Some of these pieces would become destructive projectiles, causing further damage. The superheated, dust-laden winds would be strong enough to overturn trucks and buses.

Warped Aluminum Surfaces, Melted Asphalt & Melted Tires (Maui)
Two miles from ground zero would be obliterated. Two and half miles from ground zero, the fireball would appear 2,700 times brighter than a desert sun at noon. Thermal radiation would melt and warp aluminum surfaces, ignite the tires of autos, and turn exposed skin to charcoal, before the blast wave arrived and ripped apart the buildings.

Modified by the Water (Maui)
Three to nine miles from ground zero: fires would start simultaneously in large areas on both sides of. . . Although the direction of the fiery winds in regions would be modified by the water, the overall wind pattern from these huge neighboring fire zones would be similar to that of a single mass fire.
Three miles from ground zero, the fireball would be as bright as 1,900 suns and deliver more than five times the thermal energy deposited at the perimeter of the mass fire at Hiroshima. Clothes worn by people in the direct line of sight of the fireball would burst into flames or melt, and uncovered skin would be charred, causing third-degree and fourth-degree burns.
It would take 12 to 14 seconds for the blast wave to travel three miles after the fireball’s initial flash of light. At this distance, the blast wave would last for about three seconds and be accompanied by winds of 200 to 300 miles per hour. Residential structures would be destroyed; high-rises would be at least heavily damaged.
Fires would rage everywhere within five miles of ground zero. At a distance of 5.35 miles from the detonation, the light flash from the fireball would deliver twice the thermal energy experienced at the edge of the mass fire at Hiroshima the light and heat to surfaces would approximate that created by 600 desert suns at noon.

Windows Shattered (Maui)
*Wind speed at this distance would be 70 to 100 miles per hour.
Buildings of heavy construction would suffer little structural damage, but all exterior windows would be shattered, and non-supporting interior walls and doors would be severely damaged or blown down. Black smoke would effuse from wood houses as paint burned off surfaces and furnishings ignited.
Six to seven miles from ground zero, the fireball would appear 300 times brighter than the desert sun at noon. Anyone in the direct light of the fireball would suffer third degree burns to their exposed skin. The firestorm could engulf neighborhoods as far as seven miles away from ground zero, since these outlying areas would receive the same amount of heat as did the areas at the edge of the mass fire at Hiroshima.

Knocked Out Doors, Interior Walls & Windows (Maui)
Nine miles from ground zero, the fireball would be about 100 times brighter than the sun, bright enough to cause first- and second-degree burns to those in line of sight. About 36 seconds after the fireball, the shockwave would arrive and knock out all the windows, along with many interior building walls and some doors.
No survivors. Within tens of minutes, everything within approximately five to seven miles would be engulfed by a gigantic firestorm. The fire zone would cover a total area of 100 square miles (X square kilometers). The firestorm would rage for three to six hours. Air temperatures in the fire zone would likely average 400 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit (200 to 260 Celsius).
After the fire burned out, the street pavement would be so hot that even tracked vehicles could not pass over it for days. Buried, unburned material from collapsed buildings throughout the fire zone could burst into flames when exposed to air—months after the firestorm had ended.
Those who tried to escape through the streets would have been incinerated by the hurricane-force winds filled with firebrands and flames. Even those able to find shelter in the lower-level sub-basements of massive buildings would likely suffocate from fire-generated gases or be cooked alive as their shelters heated to oven-like conditions.
The fire would extinguish all life and destroy almost everything else. Tens of miles downwind of the area of immediate destruction, radioactive fallout would begin to arrive within a few hours of the detonation.
But that is another story.
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I’m wondering if an edited version of the above could be called, “What would happen if a nuclear warhead was detonated above Maui.” Maybe not as big, but a warhead nevertheless.
Is this the “scare event” some have been talking about?
Radiation could be a reason they would have blocked people from certain exits in Maui. *Also gale-force wind gusts did reach 67 miles per hour in Maui County. https://www.reuters.com/graphics/)
If it was just a fire, why they can’t they find more than 100 of the estimated 1000+ unaccounted for bodies? As George, a former diener/pathology tech, will tell you, it takes VERY high temperatures to incinerate bodies into nothing. That they can’t find the physical remains of so many is truly concerning if we’re going keep calling this Maui thing a “fire.”
At this point, the world is too unstable to rule anything out. Even a nuclear attack.