A little more than a year ago, Trey Ratcliff visited Chernobyl despite warnings from his close friends and relatives. If you don’t remember, Chernobyl was home to one of the largest nuclear disasters in history. In 1986, the town of approximately 55,000 residents was urgently evacuated when one of the nuclear reactors at the power station exploded.

In Trey’s post, Nuclear Winter in Chernobyl, his writing and photography take us on a tour of the abandoned city. He also visits Prypiat, a neighboring town that was home to many of the plant workers. Here’s a sampling of his trip, “First, we stopped in Prypiat, a fascinating place right out of the Day After. Prypiat was built as the ultimate Soviet communist panacea, a place for Chernobyl plant workers and their families to live, go to school, play, and live their lives in master-planned bliss. Prypiat was immediately deserted after the accident – kids left schools with their books still on the desks, families rushed out without getting everything, just complete and instant desertion. While I was there, it was completely quiet, and it was extra surreal with the early 80’s styling of the Soviet buildings, windows ajar and stuff still sitting in all the windows.”

View a few photos from Trey’s trip below. But also be sure to read the full story with photos [Here]

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Read more about Trey’s trip to Chernobyl

BBC reports on Chernobyl

Time Magazine’s Time Line of Coverage on Chernobyl