This ain't nothin' compared to 10:00AM EST Tuesday, October 23rd 1962 when the US naval blockade/quarantine of Cuba began. The clock then was about 3 seconds to midnight.
I sat in a school room looking NE towards the city of Buffalo, NY, waiting for the inevitable flash of light from a nuclear bomb destroying Buffalo's heavy industry; steel mills & chemical plants, manufacturing.
Earlier, a class mate and I decided that we weren't going to wait for the school authorities to take action if it came to blows - the school basement housed a rifle range and the stairwell door was unlocked that morning. We were heading to the basement without further ado if need be.
There was a Nike Ajax surface-to-air antiaircraft launch battery about 3 miles from my house; its mission was to take down Soviet bombers on an over-the-pole flight from the Soviet Union.
The grocery store shelves had already emptied, as were the hunting/fishing sporting goods stores.