The Post-Apocalyptic Roadmap/New York State
New York City
Manhattan was ground zero again, this time for a major nuclear attack that devastated the entire island, a lot of Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, along with Staten Island and much of Eastern Central New Jersey right across the Hudson River. Long Island wasn't as affected by the blast itself, but fallout moving across the island made many want to leave. However, as all of the overland routes off the island were through the irradiated ruins formerly known as Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, and New Jersey. Most of the residents that wished to get out of the area tried to get to the north coast of the island, attempting to get on one of the ferries across Long Island Sound to Connecticut and points north. MacArthur and Republic airports, the biggest airports in the area after LaGuardia and JFK were rendering inoperable by the nuke, also served as evacuation points. Those that stayed behind were left to eek out whatever meager existence they could, as the fallout killed most of the sea life that fishermen could have used to support themselves and killed off many of the crops they attempted to grow. The grand houses and shops of the Hamptons lay abandoned, as the rich and upper middle class that formerly summered there now found that they had more important matters to deal with.
In the Hudson Valley, a second nuke meant to take out the United States Military Academy at West Point left many in Westchester County in dire straits, caught between the two blasts. Much of the Hudson Valley was contaminated by the dual attacks, more coming when Indian Point melted down soon afterwards. The NYANG base at Camp Smith was another casualty of the West Point blast, due to their proximity. Stewart Airport in Newburgh would have made a good evac point, but it, too, was ruined by the West Point bomb. Needless to say, the fallout from the explosions contaminated the reservoirs that supply New York with water. Survivors in this region either attempted to move north to Albany and points north or Connecticut. Although according to >>2745727 Albany is full of fallout due to a nuclear meltdown...
Another missile hit Fort Drum near Watertown a little east of Lake Ontario, presumably to take out the base of the 10th Mountain Division. The fallout contaminated the lake, along with the surrounding area (not too familiar with the area, not too sure what's around there).
Many of the suburbs on the New Jersey side of the Hudson were wiped out by the New York bomb. Northern New Jersey had to deal with the fallout of it as well. Mid New Jersey was the only part of the state to merit an actual strike, hitting Fort Dix/McGuire AFB/NAES Lakehurst (not to familiar with this area either, so someone else should handle the result of this strike). Southern Jersey's suburbs took some of the force of the attack on Philadelphia, fallout scattering the rest of the area (again, not too familiar with this area, someone else elaborate).
Upstate Bandit Kingdoms
We had high-tailed it out of Troy in the first few weeks following the incident. Albany wasn't hit, but things were falling apart there. The new president had called away the national guard, basically triaged the capital regardless of whether or not it could still function. We heard there might even be a civil war. Or maybe it was the Russians. Or the Chinese. All we knew is that there was hate and fear.
So a good bunch of us headed upstate. Smith and Nash, the ones who knew about the spot on Champlain belonged to the country club back then. Funny, I'd always thought that it would be the wealthy ones who stayed behind, locking themselves behind rod-iron fences and manicured lawns, waiting for someone to kill them and loot it.
But I guess when it really comes down to it, they had the most perspective. They knew that it was our lives which mattered, not our property or "survivability of government" that the militias around Albany were forming. In the end it was the people with the least to lose that wanted to die for it. Why, I'll never know. Right now I'm thinking waiting tables at that Club was the best decision I ever made; that's how I got into the group that headed up 87 towards Montreal.
We don't know how soon the bandits started operating along route 87, but they must have heard before even we did, 'cos they were there on our way up. Hell, maybe they were even operating BEFORE the attacks, but I doubt that. Anyway, the first time we came up they came at us with lights and sirens like a highway patrol. They stopped us and searched our 'convoy,' a dozen and a handful cars, pickups and vans, most pulling trailers. But back then we were still able to buy our way with money. A lot of money, but at least that's all they took. I dunno, maybe they still thought it would blow over at that point. We still counted ourselves lucky; we saw them setting up spike-strips behind us.
They made a lot of progress in three years. A frightening transformation of the landscape. This was the trip Nash planned for us to make, since not much word reached as far as us. I87 was still there, albeit stained and painted and cracked.
For miles southward the rusty hulks of scrapped cars with blown out tires littered the sides of the highway. I thought I caught a glimpse of bodies in some, but didn't dare stop. But about 20 miles south of Essex was the real shock. The overpasses had been converted into living spaces. Fortresses, even. Mobile homes and trailers and real houses even, piled two stories and covered in brick and sheet metal. Dark ports along the length in which probably lurked men and guns.
The pass underneath was blocked by a similar patchwork gate. Unsure of whether or not it was the right decision, we stopped the car.
A speaker overhead blared and asked our business. We told 'em where we were from and that we were headed towards albany, that we had no guns (which was a lie, and they probably knew it) and that we didn't mean to interfere with whatever they may be doing.
After a painful deliberate silence, we heard the rumbling of and engine, and the center part of the wall blocking our way pulled inwards, revealing that it was actually the reinforced rear end of a tractor trailer, probably filled with something heavy to prevent it from being rammed in. As we drove through, we found that the rest of the wall was similarly made of cargo containers, but they weren't connected to a cab.
Oddly, we weren't searched this time. But we were informed that if we got out of the car at any point before the next "station," we'd be shot. We weren't sure if we were being watched, but for a ten mile stretch we saw the oddest thing; villages, hamlets, whatever you wanna call 'em, dotted along the edges of the highway. Above the looted corpses of eighteen-wheelers (mostly food freighters, probably the end-result of canadian attempts at relief), smoke rose from buildings above the crest. Every so often, a curious soul would rise above that dirt barrier to see who was barreling down their highway, but would eventually drop back down.
Aaand I dunno where I'm goin' with this. Just got mad-max up ins. General idea is the same as "bandit kings" who rob trade lines/borders of other kingdoms (in this case interstate highways) and end up being able to provide a standard of living comparable or better than what most folks have. Robbin' food trucks is good business, you know. At least, until they stop coming.
Maybe I'll write about whatever community my Troy-vellers have set up on the US/canada border on lake Champlain. Though it's probably just some boring self-sufficient community, though I've hinted that the two upper-class guys have taken control of the operation, maybe acting as fiefs and controlling whatever goes on there.
FEUDALISM ABOUNDS!
Western New York
from western NY here. I'll admit alot of this was tl;dr (mostly because I'm too tired to, and not that it's not an intriguing idea) as my post is about to be, but a few Ideas I think I could throw around. Firstly much of western NY is in or next to some of the largest deposits of fresh water in the world (great lakes/finger lakes). I would imagine there would be a fair amount of water trade, or perhaps, in the given time frame, the beginning infrastructure of a fresh water pipeline.
western NY is also pretty much smack dab in the middle of a jet stream during some seasons, which would carry the remnants of the fallout, the causality of probably a few things. There would probably be large migrations of people coming in and out during the heavy fallout seasons (I imagine this would be true for any regions the jet stream passes through), provided there are jobs or resources to return to. One such job might be at the distillation plants being constructed to filter the exposed freshwater into potable water. Many of western NY's cities, Buffalo Rochester and Syracuse, are already fairly industrial. Rochester alone has vast industrial/chemical parks thanks to Kodak being based there. I imagine much of that could be retrofitted to produce things designed towards the current state of the governments affairs.
The Ginna nuclear plant is about 15 miles east of the center of Rochester and about 50 miles west of Syracuse. the plant is pretty far out in the boonies so no huge direct casualties after it having been nuked, but the large brunt of the fallout would head east into Syracuse. There is also another nuclear plant in Oswego, and are pretty much on the same latitude. there would be extremely heavy fallout everywhere east of lake ontario.
tl;dr Buffalo and Rochester NY are a water trading hub, as well as industrial and chemical exports. Syracuse Utica and possibly Albany are fallout zones from the razing of two nuclear power facilities.