Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-36393004-20181007040949/@comment-35711173-20181007173531

Let's look back to the last time something like this happened, about 65 million years ago. There was one known major point of impact. The impacting rock was about six miles in diameter. It caused a major extinction event.

So, if something is going to hit the Earth then you have to be careful with the size of it.

If North America were knocked out and devastated and the rest of the planet was in relatively solid shape, you can bet that any surviving organized power in South America would march North and take North America. They would do it for revenge if nothing else.

So, I suggest modifying things slightly from one giant hit on North America to a protracted meteor swarm of smaller objects more like the meteors that hit Chelyabinsk and Tunguska.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event

Re: the moon. Such objects might give the moon's face acne but it wouldn't destroy the moon. That takes a LOT of power. If we were hit by anything near that size, forget life on Earth.

So, let's assume that the world got oh three day's notice that it was about to get hit by buckshot. While many would flee major urban areas, the government would probably tell people to shelter in place. Prepare for the initial wave of impacts and then survive after.

The kid's mother would have him inside and in anything akin to a bomb shelter that they could improvise, lying down in the bathtub if nothing else.

I don't think meteor impacts cause EMP. If so, cars and radios would still run after.

If the moon's gravity were eliminated, tides would be greatly reduced. That would whack out the weather. Also, I don't know how long it would take for the Earth to start to change its axial tilt. It wouldn't because of the impact, not and have us survive on it, unless possibly a major impact hit Antarctica.

That's on your back story, which you haven't really gone into yet. But knowing the science on your back story does change what is and isn't possible with your main story.