"A town where one can ride with no stoplights"

Incredible.

I can recall this disaster like it was yesterday but what an amazing story to what it is like today.

ncw164x

I remember being 6 or 7 and really being scared that a radioactive cloud would envelop my country and kill everything (I was living in Norway at the time). I also remember how news reports of the day would show pictures of the fire and the progress of the cloud. Scary stuff.

It is haunting:

This is new feeling. Villages, roads, woods here might look the same as beyond zone, but they are not the same. It feels like you steped inside of the picture. Everthing is not real, like painted.

And it is poetic:

...here is thing that turned whole region into a desert. It is closed now.

Stunning.

You know, I'm practically immune to anything I see on the net these days... but that was just.. emotional.

Absolutely tragic yet Astonishing account.

The most exciting thing about rides in Ghosttown is to hit a red line on my bike's tacho and break this silence with roar of a wounded dinosaur and then to close throttle and listen how all those ghosts cursing 1100cc kawasaki engin.

She has a very sympathetic method of writing. Actual and emotional experiences combined - very moving.

It gave me goosebumps and bought tears to my eyes
thanks for providing the link
steve

I just came from reading this ( thanks.. snowman for telling us ) ....
While I was reading I was listening to the BBC radio interview people from the atomic agency authorities ( Industry spokespeople and PR ) in the UK and France ...

I am in Brittany which outside of Finland is the most "nuclear" part of the world ...
I think we have 14 reactors in an area the size of Devon and Cornwall....
I used to live in the Cannes / Nice area ...
You still shouldn't eat the mushrooms there ....
Our government told every one at the time that the fallout cloud stopped at the French border...
Most people in France beleive them ....

You can't buy a "dosimeter" or gieger counter easily in France .....

This girls article is like getting gutshot ...

Like Steve says ...makes your skin crawl and your eyes blurry .....and so sad and angry and scared ..

Maybe some of us that have some space on servers could write her and offer Mirrors and or translations if she agrees ..,
...this is what the net should be used for ...

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 1:53 pm (utc) on Mar. 31, 2004]

God, it never ceases to amaze me how the internet can make the world so much smaller and real.

I don't remember Chernobyl. In my mind, it's kind of like an urban legend. Something you hear about but you don't really know how real it is or understand how big it was. Those pictures made it real. It had never occured to me that such a disaster would leave such a swath of desolution behind it, even so many years later.

Thanks for the link snowman!

One of the most interesting sites I have seen.

from the first look ghosttown seems like a normal town, someone put their washing hungs on a balcony, some windows open, other clothed, here is taxi stop, there is grocery store... then, you read this slogan on building- "party of Lenin lead us to the triumph of a communism"- that helps to realise that clothes hung on balcony for 18 years and that town is empty..

I'm speechless.

Wow, like hannamyluv, this brought it back to me. I kinda remember when it happened, but now. Wow.

I'm surprised that among people I've shared this with, there are folks who do not know about this. As for me (age 37) I remember it as if it were yesterday. I spent alot of time living in rural Hungary/Transylvania, not so very far from there by comparison to where I live now. It's heartbreaking to think of what those people went through.

It's good these things are documented, so they will be remembered. 3 mile island ( [pbs.org...] ) is also such a thing which should be remembered - it hit close to home, me living just outside of Toronto.

If you do a Google search on "Chernobyl disaster" there are mirrors to this same site.

Here's a couple of mirrors I've found with a few different pictures from the same author.

[xpda.com...]

[vincent.vanscherpenseel.nl...]

This is from another survivor:

[wsu.edu...]

[wsu.edu...]

[wsu.edu...]

Here's a current photo of the control room where it all went wrong:

[theglobalist.com...]

If you do a Google image search on this, well.....be prepared.

...it hit close to home, me living just outside of Toronto.

I lived about 30 minutes east of the plant - the NRC claims there was no real damage from the release of the irradiated steam, yet a statistically improbable portion of the folks on the West Shore across from the plant have since died of various cancers and rare gland disorders...

If you do a Google image search on this, well.....be prepared.

Chernobyl? - I love when the Image searches return naked ladies even w/SafeSearch on!

A friend posted that link to my mailing list... and now here it is in Foo.

Incredible stuff. I'd be terrified to take that ride, dosimeter or not. Just the idea of travelling somewhere where I would need one scares me...

Funny though. I remember when it happened, and I'm sure none of the press coverage I saw actually explained how devastating it really was. Apparently, even the people in the area didn't know at the time.

The fire truck photo sticks with me. The idea that firemen who responded to the scene thought it was just a regular fire... nobody told them, nobody gave them radiation gear to wear. *shiver*

And the kindergarten classroom at the end.

Press coverage on the UK news in 1986 showed people running into the core area picking up one piece of debris and running out again, this was the start of the cleanup operation, they could only be in this area for 2 minutes and all they wore was a thin white suit and a mask over their mouth....dreadful way to die.

I did not know that it was started by pressing a wrong button though!

People press the wrong buttons all of the time. The entire process was sloppy and flawed.

Thanks for the link. One of the most compelling things I've ever seen on the web. I like it that her voice come straight from her--no publisher, no editors.

People press the wrong buttons all of the time. The entire process was sloppy and flawed.

Exactly:

"The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel and without proper regard for safety. "

- [uic.com.au...]

The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel and without proper regard for safety.

But most of us still use Windows... sheesh!

[uic.com.au...]

Interesting link...readers may want to take note of what U.I.C. stands for: Uranium Information Centre Ltd.

I notice that, although the sources it cites seem reliable, the claims it makes about death-toll and health effects of the disaster are dramatically different from other claims I've seen on the net.

As for the site that's the subject of the thread...chilling.

-B

[edited by: lawman at 12:00 pm (utc) on April 1, 2004]

claims it makes about death-toll and health effects of the disaster are dramatically different from other claims I've seen on the net.

I think that the number affected will never be truly known. If I remember correctly, the USSR did not tell anyone that the accident occured and Europe only discovered it due to the cloud that was formed and floated their way. There are many conspirocy theories that say the USSR hid the death toll as well, but I doubt there will ever be a real answer to the question.

But one does have to wonder... The A-Bomb in Hiroshima killed something like 140,000 by the end of the year and affected the health of over 350,000. That was nearly the entire population of the city. While some was from the initial blast, quite a bit of that was from the radiation, and I think you can still live in Hiroshima.

Thanks for the link..
I remember it as if it were yesterday, too.
In a way, the best site I've ever seen.

The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel and without proper regard for safety.

But most of us still use Windows... sheesh!

Two points 'bout that comment:
1.- A Windows crash does not kill anybody
2.- Maybe the reactor was operated using MS software

Herenvardö

Holy doodle. I remember it. I could not believe that they would try and cover it up. The picture at the end with the poster showing the little girl sitting down smiling and pulling on her stocking makes me want to cry. There were kids like her there that day.

And the whole shift was charged. A lot of good that did. The ones who should have been held responsible got nothing.

Anyone seen "the widow maker". Similar story but only Russian army boys affected. Still a tragedy.

a reflective Shane

one of the best sites I've visited since weeks. These are the sites that earn a high PR, not some spammy ones like mine. I'm really fascinated by this site ...

That was the most incredible, powerful thing I've ever seen on the Internet.

I'm stilled stunned by it, in a great many ways.

"in a matter of hours this world fall in pieces and everything goes to dogs and after few hours trip with some army vehicle one stands under some shower, washing away radiation and then step in a new life, naked with no home, no friends, no money, no past and with very doubtful future."

Thanks, snowman, that link was incredible. Thank you for sharing.