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92 there it caused not destruction but a silent annihilation, bring- ing death by nuclear poisoned air to all that lives. It is evident from all the relevant texts that, with the pos- sible exception of Enki, who had protested and warned against the use of the Awesome Weapons, none of the gods involved expected the eventual outcome. Most of them were Earthborn, and to them the tales of the nuclear wars on Nib- iru were Tales of the Elders. Did Anu, who should have known better, think perhaps that the weapons, hidden so long ago, would hardly work or not work at all? Did Enlil and Ninurta (who had come from Nibiru) assume that the winds, if at all, would blow the nuclear cloud toward the desolate deserts that are now Arabia? There is no satisfactory answer; the texts only state that “the great gods paled at the storm’s immensity.” But it is clear that as soon as the direction of the winds and the intensity of the nuclear venom were realized, an alarm was sounded for those in the wind’s path—gods and people alike—to run for their lives. The panic, fear, and confusion that overtook Sumer and its cities as the alarm was sounded are vividly described in a series of lamentation texts, such as the Ur Lamentation, the Lamentation over the Desolation of Ur and Sumer, The Nippur Lamentation, The Uruk Lamentation, and others. As far as the gods were concerned, it appears that it was by and large “each man for himself”; using their varied craft, they took off by air and by water to get out of the wind’s path. As for the people, the gods did sound the alarm before they fled. As described in The Uruk Lamentation, “Rise up! Run away! Hide in the steppe!” the people were told in the middle of the night. “Seized with terror, the loyal citizens of Uruk” ran for their lives, but they were felled by the Evil Wind anyway. The picture, though, was not identical everywhere. In Ur, the capital, Nannar/Sin was so incredulous that he refused to believe that Ur’s fate has been sealed. His long and emo- tional appeal to his father Enlil to avert the calamity is re- corded in the Ur Lamentation (which was composed by Ningal, Nannar’s spouse); so is Enlil’s blunt admission of inevitability: THE END OF DAYS