Wait, what?
New Yorkers are puzzled and some more than a little frightened after NYC Emergency Management released a public service announcement explaining what to do in the event of a nuclear attack.
“So there’s been a nuclear attack,” the woman in the video says, then immediately tries to cut off all questions: “Don’t ask me how or why, just know that the big one has hit.”
As if to drive home the “don’t ask why” element, comments for the video have been disabled, something the agency hasn’t done for most of its other videos.
And after dishing out some advice, the person in the video ends incongruously with: “You’ve got this.”
NYC Emergency Management was even more cryptic when asked about the video by The Associated Press, saying it’s not in response to any specific threat or incident.
“There’s no overarching reason why this is the time we sent this out,” a spokesperson said. “It’s just one tool in the toolbox to be prepared in the 21st century.”
However, Mayor Eric Adams indicated the war in Ukraine had at least something to do with it.
“This was right after the attacks in the Ukraine, and OEM took a very proactive step to say let’s be prepared,” he said when asked about the video at a news conference. “And it doesn’t mean just a nuclear attack, it’s any natural disaster.”
That didn’t calm any nerves on social media: