Chernobyl Revisited

       More Letters From Paradise
         Chernobyl Revisited

The firemen were the first ones to die. Many others would soon follow. All they knew was that there was a fire at the reactor. What they did not know, was the danger of radiation. They soon found out, when in the hospital their bodies were swollen up like balloons. Sores covered their bodies. The wife of one fireman said that her husband's mouth became filled with bits of his liver and lungs. Most of these men died within fourteen days.

Some soldiers were ordered to fight the fire, and they didn't know about radiation either. Busses were called to evacuate children in the area. People in the affected area were forced to leave their homes.
Those leaving boarded up windows and doors. The names of the owner of the houses were painted on the outside of the buildings.

Some of the fields around villages were frosted with a white powder. There were tiny holes in the leaves of trees, and tiny holes too in cucumbers and tomatoes. But they were eaten anyway.

No information was forthcoming. Some thought that radiation was colored white, while others said that it was black. And all the while, the papers and radio claimed that the situation was under control.

And what about the animals grazing in the fields? They ate and died. The now silent houses in the surrounding villages saw dogs awaiting their masters return.

The authorities believed that dog and cat fur carried radiation, and enlisted twenty hunters to kill all the dogs and cats. The dogs greeted the hunters, only to be shot dead. Later on the dogs began to hide from the hunters. Cats were much harder to find and kill. One such hunter said that he was haunted by the memory of one black poodle which had to be buried alive because all the hunters were out of ammunition. Strangely, none of the pigs were killed.

The passing years saw the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some people returned to their homes, only to find them looted of everything.They did not seem to care very much, as they rejoiced in the freedom to go and do what they pleased, on their own land.

The schools in Chernobyl had sand covering the surrounding area. The children had to remain indoors all day. The government issued one suit of clothes to each student, which was supposed to be washed daily.

Teachers found that their students were tired, and failed to play games. And it was almost impossible for them to repeat sentences when given them.

What I have written above is my attempt to summarize what happened at Chernobyl. All of my information is from a book "Voices From Chernobyl," by Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize For Literature 2015. Her book is a series of interviews she had with people who survived the disaster. She points out that those who survived were shunned by members of society, in the same way the survivors of Hiroshima were treated.

This book caused me to remember that my family and I once lived in what was called the "Danger Zone." We were told what to do in case of the failure of the nuclear power plant. We were advised to drive North on the single main highway. What then? We lived seven miles from the Fermi II power plant, and at one time I rented a dock for my sailboat directly across from one of the cooling towers.

        Aloha
        Grant