News Articles for 2060 AD

explosions rock the united states

multiple bombs explode in cities around the country

October 19, 2048 – vegas national online

8:03 AM PT – Internet sources are reporting multiple explosions from at least twenty cities around the country.  They appear to be coordinated attacks.  Stay tuned for more details.

8:30 AM PT – The Vegasian has confirmed that targeted cities include New York City, Washington DC, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Raleigh, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver, San Francisco, Portland and New Orleans.

8:45 AM PT – Reports are coming in on explosions at various critical military bases around the US.  These are the confirmed locations: San Diego Naval Base, Marine Corp. Camp Pendleton, Fort Hood, Wright Patterson AFB, Vandenberg AFB, Norfolk Naval Base, Nellis AFB, China Lake Testing Ground, and Fort Lowell. Preliminary reports indicate there are few, if any, causalities.

12:00 PM PT – No group has claimed responsibility for these coordinated attacks on US cities and military installations.

6:00 PM PT – The explosions appear to target heavy traffic or locations with large crowds.  Fragmented reports from various governors place the initial estimate of casualties at more than 500,000 and an estimated fatality count at more than 100,000.

9:30 PM PT – More details are emerging about the locations damaged or destroyed by this morning’s explosions. Among the casualties are some national treasures such as the Liberty Island, Lincoln Memorial, Smithsonian Aeronautical Museum, the Coca Cola Museum, Disneyland, Houston’s Hobby International Airport, Boston’s Logan Airport, New York’s  Grand Central Station, Chicago’s O’Hare Terminal 1, and the 4000 block of 18th Street in San Francisco’s Castro District.

national security emergency powers act restructures government

congress and president pass bill two hours after terrorist bombs

October 20, 2048 – DC reporter online

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the National Security Emergency Powers Act legislation two hours after reports of simultaneous explosions at multiple locations in various major cities around the country.  All federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies, Department of Homeland Security, and all branches of the US military have been merged into the Department of National Security. The Congress also repealed the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, allowing this new federal division to operate domestically. Additional provisions also closes the borders to all but those with valid visas or residency permits. 

The new Department of National Security’s primary mission is to protect the United States from foreign and domestic terrorist attacks by whatever means necessary.  During the national emergency crisis, a suspect’s constitutional right to due process is suspended until the President officially ends the state of emergency.

President signs RFID Law

All Legal US residents to receive permanent ID

October 25, 2048 – dc reporter online

The Department of National Security will start implanting RFID tags in all legal residents and visitors. All newborns must have RFID chips implanted within 24-hours of birth. The RFID law also grants the DNS authority to immediately arrest and deport anyone without a chip  and authorization to use lethal force if the illegal aliens resist or flee.

The government also released the technical specifications for commercial use of the additional storage on the RFID chips. The ten largest banks already announced plans to use RFID scanners to verify clients and store personal information on the chips. Within three years, all federally  subsidized public schools must use RFID chips for admissions, classroom attendance, and all student services.

A Taste of Nuclear Winter

scientists confirm decade of fallout

October 31, 2052 – New York Science news online

The special panel of elite biology, weather and climate scientists have released their report on the impact and duration of the nuclear winter from the Middle East Holocaust (MEH), and the news is grim.  Theoretical climate models for nuclear war used volcanic eruptions and assumed geographies in North America, northern Europe and possibly the Far East. No nuclear model accounted for Middle Eastern regional conditions.

The new nuclear winter climate model using equatorial winds and silica only debris shows a significantly greater impact to weather changes than the original northern latitude and 80% organic debris models. The revised model shows that the debris cloud cover will reach well into the southern hemisphere, affecting South America, equatorial Asian islands and southern African regions that were previously not affected.

The biologists on the panel added their conclusions based on the global weather impact. They expect many endangered species will go extinct within two years.  In the affected regions, many herbivores will also die over the next few months as plants die.  However, once the debris settles out of the upper atmosphere, past studies of hurricane and wild fire damaged eco-systems show plants will gradually recover and animals will follow. 

The scientists concluded with a prediction based on volcanic debris dispersal from Filipino and Indonesian large scale eruptions. The estimated MEH debris volume is three times larger than the largest equatorial volcano in the past century.  This means the world should expect at least ten years or more before half falls out of the stratosphere. This may be long enough to revert global warming conditions by a decade.

The Big One Finally strikes

7.9 Earthquake hits california

October 29, 2050 – Global Press

Southern California is devastated by a massive earthquake along the infamous San Andreas Fault. We have sporadic reports via short wave radio operators of massive infrastructure damage to roads, utilities and telecommunications.  Satellite images also show massive rolling fires that cover whole communities in San Bernadine, Riverside, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.

Both the President and the Governor have declared martial law in these counties. The Governor has activated the National Guard to enforce curfews throughout Southern California.  The President has authorized the several nearby  Army, Navy and Air Force divisions to enter and assist local governments. Fire departments from across the US are flying crews and equipment into the region to help with containment, search and rescue.

Slow Recovery

Financial Impact disparate

November 21, 2053 – SoCal news online

Three years after “The Big One” the rebuilding situation has divided the region along socio-economic lines.  Many home owners in municipalities such as Bel Air, Pasadena, Newport Beach, Pacific Palisades, and La Jolla were able to start rebuilding their homes and estates with minimal insurance claim delays.

In stark contrast, most lower income  Southern California residents have yet to start rebuilding, Many have run out of money and left the area. Several property developers have purchased whole blocks of  devastated single house properties, and completely remade residential communities in Pomona, Chatsworth, and Huntington Beach, to mention a few.

Currently, millions of displaced Southern California residents with inadequate or no earthquake insurance continue to live in the overcrowded camps of temporary FEMA tents or trailers.  They are waiting for Congress to provide more emergency funding to FEMA, so it can resume processing claims.

Survivors riot

want homes rebuilt

May 11, 2054 – Tent City Newsletter

Residents of Tent City Compton #10 marched peacefully in protest of the sixth notice that FEMA home reconstruction loans ran out of money.  Within minutes, four DNS National Guard armored units surrounded the protestors and used rubber bullets, bean bag guns, and tear gas to disperse the crowd.  A few protestors threw rocks back at the soldiers behind ballistic shields.  The military responded with lethal force. Several hundreds were wounded.

The authorities have not released the number of fatalities. But the Newsletter has received reports of more than one hundred residents missing or seen killed.