top of page

  • Writer's pictureMorgan Fagg

Lockdown Voices Number 11 ATHLONE

Ghost Towns

I've been to a radioactive ghost town before and have lived in Madrid on Lockdown but this video is simply beautiful even if it is tragic to see a large town like my hometown empty.


It is Athlone like you have never seen it before. As an insomniac amateur photographer, I've seen the quiet streets of Athlone but this reminds me more of a town I travelled to in Belarus in the purple zone of Gomel.


I was part of a fact-finding mission to Belarussian orphanages while I was in college and my group got to meet with the mayor of an un-inhabited town.


Standing in the townhall of an abandoned small town with a dignitary is a very strange thing to do.

We were able to visit the town but I believe some roads in and out were closed off with armed checkpoints.


Pockets of radiation meant that some areas were safe and others dangerous and staying in the area for a short time was permissible even if not considered advisable.


We got to visit a little museum dedicated to all the Liquidators that were lost in Chernobyl.


After the April 26th meltdown which was 34 years ago today, thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of liquidators were sent in to clean up the radiation and we have no idea how many thousands died in the days, weeks, months, and decades that followed.


Sometimes you will see images of the piles of gas masks dropped on the floor in Chernobyl and I wish I had pictures from that ghost town and that I wasn't looking at a video of home town on Lockdown.


 

Just like Chernobyl 34 years ago, we again see masks and gloves dropped on the ground as we fight an invisible enemy once again. Once again these frontline forces are ill-equipped for their mission.


Never forget those brave liquidators who lost their lives cleaning up after a terrible mess as we lose doctors and nurses and hospital staff exposed to a deadly threat we have wrongfully compared to, "The Common Cold."


Lockdown Voice Number 11 is dedicated to all those who fought to save Europe from Chernobyl and all those thousands who lost their lives in that pursuit.


This incredible video was uploaded by Shamie Gawronki.


This incredible video was uploaded by Shamie Gawronski. n Athlone and if you would like to see more of his fantastic videos and drone work then subscribe to his YouTube Channel and follow him on: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU9GBiA-zbJ9c9eTJCXLByA s

136 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page