“He took only his white suit and his radio”: How the people who escaped Chernobyl first reacted to news of nuclear disaster
Andrey Lomakin was 12 years old when he, his family, and all his neighbors were forced to leave home. Some left in a hurry, their dinners cooling on the table, while others took days, or even weeks to grasp their new reality. Today, all of Pripyat (former pop. 50,000) is a ghost town. Thirty-one years…