Toddler shoes

Yes, indeed, a sad situation that affected millions of people in Soviet Union at the time!

Dear Susan: Thanks for commenting. My visit to Chernobyl was spooky. I was on a tour with 8 others, we passed through tight security with a knowledgeable guide to learn history of the event. If you are on Facebook, I have many more photographs from the exclusion zone, address is Facebook.com/Larry.Welch.100. The Soviets practices lies and deceit. People living in nearly 100 villages in the area of the explosion were told they would evacuate for a few weeks, but the truth is they never returned. The largest city was 50,000 people. About 850,000 people did the risky work of cleaning up the fallout and containing the damage. The costs have been about $245 billion, about 30 people lost their lives in the immediate aftermath and 7,000 more from thyroid disease. More have been affected, there have been birth defects, but not counted. This incident led to a greater openness in Soviet Union and the ultimate break-up of the Soviet Union five years later.

Dear Sandor: Thanks for your uplifting message. I felt lucky to see the site of such a horrific nuclear disaster. It's one thing to read about it, but seeing it for yourself makes a huge difference in understanding the impact. Wishing you the best day! :) :)

Dear Brian: Hopefully, the worst that happened was a little girl lost a good pair of shoes. Considering the high population, there were relatively few direct casualties. I think 30 people who were fighting the nuclear explosion were killed in the first few weeks, later there was an estimate of 7,000 people who died of thyroid cancer attributed to fallout. People near the blast were evacuated in 48 hours, most radiation fallout was blown in an opposite direction of the nearby higher populations. Of interest, the wind blew over Belarus, leaving a trail of radition that poisoned 23% of their landmass, I am not sure that they can even use that land today. It is a sad story!