Did you know there’s a community of 100-odd elderly women who live in the radioactive “dead zone” around Chernobyl, site of the catastrophic nuclear explosion that rocked the world 30 years ago? Despite the devastating horrors of this level 7 event (the maximum classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale) and the mandatory evacuation of all residents, these stubborn old women chose to defy the Ukrainian government, radiation scientists and common sense to settle in this toxic wasteland. Why? Because it’s home.
After Reactor No. 4 blew up, the area within an 18-mile radius was evacuated and 16,000 residents became displaced. Rather than be relocated to unfamiliar cities to live in bland government housing assigned to them after the disaster, about 1,200 people defiantly trickled back to their hometown and rolled the radioactive dice.
Alcoholism and Anxiety Are Rife
Not surprisingly, cancer rates are high. Alcoholism and anxiety are rife. Though many of their neighbors and husbands have died off throughout the years, these babushkas (Russian for “grandmothers” or “old countrywomen”) steadfastly stay put. Somehow these tough broads, now in their 70s and 80s, eek out an existence in this abandoned, contaminated, uninhabitable region that most wouldn’t dare to visit without a hazmat suit.
400 Times As Much Radiation As the Hiroshima Bomb
What’s even more perplexing is they’re not only surviving, they’re actually outliving many of their counterparts who relocated to the “safe” cities.
This is not to imply that the area around Chernobyl is actually safe. It isn’t. The explosion released 400 times as much radiation as the Hiroshima bomb. The area’s soil, water and air are one of the most contaminated on the planet. But these badass babushkas said to hell with the health and environmental risks. After all, they’ve already endured Stalin, famine, World War II, Soviet oppression and other hardships. What’s a little atomic meltdown?
