2009 WCRB report on the southern United States (1983: Doomsday)

This is the October 30, 2009 WCRB report on the current status of the southern United States.

Introduction
The Doomsday event of September 25-26, 1983 forever changed the face of the planet in every way imaginable. Every country was affected, but few more than the United States of America. It is estimated that the U.S. lost at least 90 percent of its population as a result of the devastation caused by the Soviet Union's missiles.

Fortunately, people have survived in the former United States. Small, independent nations have arisen in the northeastern, midwestern and western U.S., all showing great potential for positive contributions of all kinds to the world.

Even with news of these nations having recently become known to the world at large, there are nevertheless several areas of the former United States that very little is known about. The most prominent of these areas is the southeastern U.S.

In 2008, the WCRB accepted a joint proposal by Mexican and Cuban officials to investigate the region. The expedition began in February, 2008, with Cuba turning over its findings on the states of Florida and Georgia over to the WCRB. Missions deeper into the region began in April, 2008, with teams exploring portions of former Alabama and South Carolina. The League of Nations took over oversight of the project in March, 2009, assigning its headquarters to Cuba, but headed by officials from Mexico, Cuba, the ANZC, the United Republic of South America and the East Caribbean Federation.

Over the next 17 months, portions of 15 states were explored. Three functioning nations (Kentucky, Virginia and West Texas), all on the "periphery" of the region, were discovered, as well as 19 "survivor communities" found in all of the states except for Texas and Virginia.

"Positive" contact with 12 of the communities was made. Two communities, in the Everglades of Florida and in southern Georgia, have previously established contact and relations with Cuba and Mexico. The other five communities - in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina - were rendered unsafe for first contact but have been noted for future visits. The LoN has assured those 12 communities of its intention to render to them all possible aid.

An additional group of communities very recently discovered in eastern Texas, centered around Nacogdoches, was not included in this report.

The WCRB spent months interviewing local residents, historians and government officials and investigating written records dating back to Doomsday itself, both from surviving nations and records left over in abandoned cities and towns by those who have long since died.

What follows is a brief report on the WCRB's findings in the region. A more detailed report will be made publicly available by the WCRB in January, 2010.

States list
For the purposes of the expedition, the following states, having been considered part of the "southern" United States, were chosen for exploration:
 * Alabama
 * Arkansas
 * Florida
 * Georgia
 * Kentucky
 * Louisiana
 * Mississippi
 * Missouri
 * North Carolina
 * Oklahoma
 * South Carolina
 * Tennessee
 * Texas
 * Virginia
 * West Virginia

Pre-Doomsday
More to come

Doomsday
hit areas

Post-Doomsday
It is now widely known that three governments arose in Kentucky, Texas and West Virginia and grew into viable nation states. Kentucky, West Texas and the Virginian Republic are the only such known nation-states to arise in the southern U.S., and they exist to this day.

It has been known for some time that Cuba sent expeditions of its own into the states of Florida and Georgia beginning in the late 1990s. Despite not having explored the entirety of either states, Cuba has managed to establish 67 camps of varying sizes throughout Florida and southern Georgia.

Perhaps the most famous story involving Cuban scouts was the discovery of the "secret formula" to the Coca-Cola soft drink, discovered in an abandoned car in the former town of Americus (it was handwritten on a piece of paper found in a lock box in the car's trunk; the formula was determined to be legitimate by Cuban officials, after the drink created from it was said by Cuban residents to taste like the Coca-Cola they remembered from before Doomsday).

The other famous story, within the Mexican/Caribbean region, is Cuban scouts coming across survivor communities in the Florida Everglades and in Darien, Georgia. In both cases the locals took up guns, thinking the Cubans to represent the continuation of the Soviet Union's attack on the U.S.; one Cuban diplomat, traveling with the military on both occasions, was able to calm the locals down, and help negotiate an agreement between both sides. (Mexican officials, some of whom are former Americans themselves, help oversee Cuban influence in the two communities.)

Other known surviving societies are considered micronations or city-states, areas in which political and military influence extends only to a town or city's borders or immediate environs. The WCRB found at least one such state in each state except for Virginia (any such city-states are considered to have come under the control of the Virginian Republic).

As in the rest of the United States, the southern states were affected by impacts and the subsequent effects of fallout from those impacts, as well as the loss of the vast majority of the region's largest cities and towns and economic and military centres.

The early weeks and months post-Doomsday were chaotic. Nine of the states formed provisional governments, recognized to varying degrees, but all fell apart by the following spring.

One of the provisional governments, in Joplin, Missouri, was formalized as the Free Republic of Joplin after it became clear that the provisional Missouri state government could not govern beyond the Joplin area. Remnants of the Mississippi state government fled to Hattiesburg and helped form a stable micronation there. Conversely, the provisional Alabama government in Auburn fell apart in 1986 after an apparent war over food and involving race was fought in the city.

The WCRB has found that at least five black nationalist micronations, two which survive in Selma, Alabama and Anderson, South Carolina, arose between Doomsday and 1990.

Also, no less than eight micronations calling themselves the successors to the Confederate States of America arose in the first decade post-Doomsday; two are known to have survived, one a tent city near the Alabama-Mississippi border called "New Montgomery", inside the Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge, the other in Toccoa Falls, Georgia. All four communities fought over scare resources, with each other and other now-dead communities in their respective regions, and resorted not only to extreme violence in their various wars, but also to policies of ethnic cleansing and slavery of the opposite race.

The situation between the Toccoa and Anderson communities, and the Selma and "New Montgomery" communities, can best be described as a micro cold-war, with both sides knowing that if they ever went to all-out war, it would effectively result in the destruction of their societies. It remains to be seen how any knowledge of other surviving nation-states in the former United States would affect that mindset.

The other microstates encountered by this expedition were considerably more peaceful, and more tolerant. They found a way out of the struggles in the first decade post-Doomsday without resorting to violence, ethnic cleansing or racist policies. The communities in Hattiesburg; the Cave City region of Kentucky; Morristown, Tennessee; and Asheville, North Carolina can be considered to be the equivalent of advanced, educated late-19th-century societies. They took advantage of resources from universities in their cities or their immediate regions and used them to help build their societies and cultures and to give the highest-available degree of education to their children.

The WCRB considers these four microstates to be the best candidates to join the community of nations in North America.

Interestingly enough, all of the communities other than Anderson, New Montgomery, Selma or Toccoa consider themselves to still be part of the United States. When WCRB scouts let it be known to Asheville, Cave City, Hattiesburg and Portland officials that the American Provisional Administration had dissolved in 1995, the locals still considered themselves to be American citizens first and foremost.

Current known situation
This is what is currently known regarding the southern United States.

Three fully-functioning nations were discovered by the WCRB in the past year:
 * The Commonwealth of Kentucky, with its capital in the town of Elizabethtown and his military headquarters in nearby Fort Knox
 * The Republic of West Texas, with its capital in Midland
 * The Virginian Republic, its capital in Charleston (which also was the capital of former West Virginia)

The two groups of survivor towns previously encountered by Cuban forces are:
 * Darien, Georgia, along the Atlantic seaboard: town of approximately 1,700 that negotiated trade terms with Cuba. Has built a small seaport that could be expanded and used as an entry point for trade in and out of the region. Cuba and the LoN are in the process of reestablishing electricity to the town.
 * The Everglades in Florida: area where refugees from major cities fled after Doomsday. An estimated 3,000 live in the region in somewhat primitive conditions. Electricity and other modern amenities have been restored by Cuba, with oversight from Mexico and the LoN.

Survivor communities were discovered in the following areas (listed in order by former state) Discovered in fall 2009, after the WCRB concluded its expedition into the region:
 * "New Montgomery, CSA", along the old Alabama-Mississippi border between Selma and Hattiesburg: Racist Caucasian-only city state of 4,000 people built as a "tent city" in a former national forest southwest of Selma, Alabama and east of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In ongoing cold war with black state of Selma. Some citizens who have advocated for better relations with Selma have been exiled and found refuge in Hattiesburg
 * Selma, Alabama: Racist African-American state, of 3,500 people, in cold war with Caucasian state of New Montgomery. Cold war between two nations dates back to Doomsday. Some citizens who advocated better relations with New Montgomery and Hattiesburg found themselves executed or exiled (the survivors also were welcomed in Hattiesburg).
 * Hot Springs, Arkansas: Citystate of 4,000 that survived a civil war over slavery in the 1980s and 1990s. The current government overthrew racist warlords in 1995, and has defeated them three times since with the help of Joplin.
 * "Apalachicola", a survivor community in the former Apalachicola National Forest on the Florida panhandle. Estimated population of 1,000.
 * Toccoa, Georgia: Caucasian citystate in northeast Georgia, considers itself the successor to the Confederate States of America. Approximately 3,200 people live here, including African American slaves (slavery is legal in Toccoa). Ongoing cold war with nearby Anderson, South Carolina.
 * Cave City/Glasgow/Horse Cave, Kentucky: group of survivor communities based in Cave City in southcentral Kentucky. Many of the older survivors took refuge in nearby Mammoth Cave after Doomsday.
 * Lake Cumberland, Kentucky: another survivor community in south central Kentucky, close enough to Cave City to have established relations with it in late 1990s.
 * Lake Arthur, Louisiana: Isolated city state of 2,100. Considers itself part of the United States and also the legitimate successor to the state of Louisiana. Leaders are concerned about long-term flooding from the bayou and the Gulf of Mexico. Has been in contact with other towns and villages, many of which are said to have heavy Creole and French influence.
 * Hattiesburg, Mississippi: Democratic citystate of 33,000 that has kept peace in the region since Doomsday. Considered to be the lone force keeping the "cold war" between New Montgomery and Selma from going hot, and has seen its population rise by 4,000 from people fleeing New Montgomery, Selma and nearby Natchez. People consider themselves Americans first and foremost.
 * Natchez, Mississippi: Once violent micronation of 1,200 that largely keeps to itself. Launched raids on Hattiesburg intermittently over the years, but not in past eight years after decisive Hattiesburg victory in 2001. Caucasians and African-Americans get along well enough with one another here. One unique cultural aspect of Natchez is that professional wrestling - a form of scripted, athletic entertainment, with aspects of amateur wrestling, fighting and entertainment, promoted as sport throughout the old southern U.S. pre-Doomsday - is contested here as a real sport.
 * Cape Girardeau, Missouri: Citystate of 4,000. Leaders used resources at Southeast Missouri State University to keep populace educated, and to help establish an independent, self-sufficient state.
 * Joplin, Missouri: Citystate of 5,000. Officially known as the Free State of Joplin. Became provisional capital of the state of Missouri after the state government in Springfield fell apart in late 1983. Trades with Cape Girardeau and Hot Springs.
 * Asheville, North Carolina: Micronation of 32,000 people. Along with Cape Girardeau, Morristown and Hattiesburg, perhaps the most educated populace of any such state in the world.
 * Elizabeth City, North Carolina: Seaside town of 1,100. Visited in 2002 and 2004 by Brazilian explorers whom (for reasons yet unknown) kept the discovery to themselves and the Brazilian government.
 * Broken Bow, Oklahoma: Only known citystate in Oklahoma, population 2,500. Considers itself the successor to the state of Oklahoma.
 * Anderson, South Carolina: Peaceful, predominantly African American citystate of 5,000. Slavery of Caucasians and Hispanics is practiced. Ongoing cold war with nearby Toccoa.
 * Georgetown, South Carolina: Isolated citystate of 1,000. Population was "overjoyed" to meet WCRB scouts and hear of other surviving communities and nations in the former U.S., while saddened to learn that the American Provisional Administration had disbanded.
 * Morristown, Tennessee: Citystate, with an estimated population of 20,000. Made up of locals and refugees from nearby Knoxville, which was hit by some conventional weapons and torn apart by violence in 1980s. Much material from the University of Tennessee was salvaged and relocated here, resulting in a highly educated populace.
 * Portland, Tennessee: Citystate north of former Nashville. Ally of Cave City and Lake Cumberland. Population estimated to be 8,000.


 * The "Republic of Texas", more popularly known as eastern Texas, a group of 13 citystates with their capital in Nacogdoches.

Conclusions
More to come

Signed,

Gabriel Romero Navarro 

World Census and Reclamation Bureau 

Caribbean Division

Nueva Gerona, '