New York City (1983: Doomsday)

New York City, the largest city in the United States and one of the largest in the world on September 26, 1983, was one of the hardest hit areas on the entire planet on Doomsday.

NYC had a population of 7,071,639 according to 1980 U.S. Census figures, and an estimated 16.4 million people lived in the New York City Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area.

NYC was a global centre of culture, arts, entertainment, media, fashion, research, education, business and sports. It was the home to the United Nations (the pre-Doomsday counterpart to the League of Nations). It was extremely influential in almost all aspects of American life other than politics.

Attacked areas
The following regions, according to exploration performed by the League of Nations, the Outer Banks military and individual explorers and survivalists, are believed to have been directly hit by Soviet missiles. They are broken down by the political divisions (counties), and U.S. Census Bureau designations, which existed on Doomsday: The so-called "Five Boroughs" of New York City are believed to have been hit the hardest.
 * New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ Metropolitan Division
 * Kings County (Brooklyn), NY
 * Queens County, NY
 * New York County (Manhattan), NY
 * Bronx County, NY
 * Richmond County (Staten Island), NY
 * Westchester County, NY
 * Bergen County, NJ
 * Hudson County, NJ
 * Passaic County, NJ
 * Rockland County, NY
 * Putnam County, NY
 * Nassau-Suffolk, NY Metropolitan Division (2,875,904)
 * Suffolk County
 * Nassau County
 * Edison-New Brunswick, NJ Metropolitan Division (2,335,390)
 * Middlesex County
 * Monmouth County
 * Ocean County
 * Somerset County
 * Newark-Union, NJ-PA Metropolitan Division (2,126,269)
 * Essex County, NJ
 * Union County, NJ
 * Morris County, NJ
 * Sussex County, NJ
 * Hunterdon County, NJ
 * Pike County, PA

Explorers as far back as the 1980s reported seeing "nothing but the ocean" where Manhattan Island, and Kings and Queens counties, should have been. Those explorers were also in the advanced stages of various cancer prognoses due to heavy exposure to radiation, so Outer Banks officials put an official moratorium on exploration of the NYC area for years.

Subsequent official expeditions by the Outer Banks military in 2005 and 2009 confirmed that much of Manhattan Island itself no longer existed. Land area belonging to old Brooklyn also was covered up by the ocean. No recognizable landmarks were noted.

Much of adjacent New Jersey, Staten Island, the Bronx, New York state and Long Island had only irradiated, scarred, destroyed land to speak for its current condition. The closest active towns with recognizable landmarks, forests, trees and signs of active human life are to be found in Torrington, Vermont (located in the former U.S. state of Connecticut); southeastern New York state; and the former town of Vineland in southern New Jersey, where survivalists have taken over.

The League of Nations estimates that repopulation of the area could occur no earlier than 2060.

Popular culture
Many books, movies and television shows in the post-Doomsday world have turned New York City either into a setting for post-apocalyptic adventures, or a romantic nirvana of pre-Doomsday America.

A series of survivalist novels published in the ANZC includes the assumption that the nuclear strikes severely damaged, but not totally destroyed, America's largest cities. The hero protects NYC residents who survived the nuclear attacks against a host of mutants, Soviet soldiers, monsters and zombies in the ruins of such recognized NYC landmarks as the Empire State Building; Times Square; Radio City Music Hall; Yankee Stadium; and Central Park.

The movie Escape from New York: Doomsday was filmed in south Australia in 1999 and featured a young New Zealand actor who was made up to resemble American actor Kurt Russell, the hero of the 1981 American apocalyptic movie, Escape From New York. The plot featured the lead character fighting in the ruins of Manhattan to rescue the "U.S. President" who had been held hostage by prisoners set free by the explosion over Manhattan Island.

Romantic novels published in the Celtic Alliance, the ANZC and South America are set in a romanticized New York City in a number of time periods, stretching from the 1880s up through the early 1980s.

A controversial rewrite of George Orwell's novel 1984 was published anonymously in Mexico. New York, the only area to survive Doomsday, is the new setting for Oceania, a technologically advanced totalitarian state bent on war against Hispania (South America) and Asia.

Episodes of such 1970s American sitcoms as All in the Family, Welcome Back Kotter, Rhoda and Barney Miller continue to be popular worldwide, and are becoming increasingly popular as television service is restored throughout North America.