Posted on 07/19/2017 8:11:33 AM PDT by NRx
A very interesting and sober discussion of a subject too often given short shrift by extreme preppers, i.e. those planning on taking up long term residence in a bunker to ride out a civilization ending SHTF/mass casualty scenario, such as large scale nuclear war.
after a few days the smell will kill you anyway...and when your batteries go down, it’ll get plenty dark and dank...
“I know enough about nuclear weapons to grasp that if we start tossing them around in large numbers that what bunkered survivors will find when they eventually come out of their hole in the ground is likely to resemble one of the inner circles of Hell.”
The movies like to make you think that. But really it depends on where you live.
One or two bombs? Who cares? I live in a state that had DOZENS of nukes dropped on it. The rest of the country (to say nothing of the world) did not notice. Hell most of Nevada did not notice. Hell even a massive exchange would leave whole regions barely effected. If you live in the boonies, stock up on air filters and have enough food for a couple bad winters and you are probably going to live (until the cannibals).
Did you have any idea how long a hand full of car batteries will run some LED lights? A long freaking time.
Post-doomsday scenarios have been discussed since the 1950’s and the fallout shelter era, so there exists a body of literature on the subject.
Like the 1958 classic “Alas Babylon”. I reread it recently and it is still not dated.
But I agree, short-term survival yes; but after that it may be like lovable old Nikita Khrushchev observed, “the survivors will envy the dead”.
Books, books, and a guitar. Then don’t neglect hygene. When you emerge, so what if its a mad max wasteland? Call that a bonus round at life! Grab your AK and see what its about.
Make the best of it i say. Ok yeah, its a bummer the old world got hit by the asteroid and all, but what a thing to witness.
The target interval I see repeated over and over for radioactivity to fall to acceptable levels is 7 weeks.
Thus I have based my survival psychology around that.
49 days stuck in my bunker with my wife, kid, toddler, and baby - all girls.
The enormity of that fact mocks and belittles the enormity of a global nuclear war.
It takes all kinds. But odds are that people too fixated on the bunker will lose out.
It is laughably dated in a few details.
Protagonist knows in advance of the impending holocaust and prepares a cache of "iron rations" - incl. a pound of coffee, a couple of cartons of smokes, etc.! Laughable! He later forgets about it until long after the bombs drop, and is then "pleasantly surprised" upon rediscovering it.
He should have purchased three hundred pounds of coffee (i.e., not just for his own consumption, but primarily for use in bartering, as well).
Also, an important storyline is that people are contracting radiation sickness from wearing jewelry (necklaces, diamond rings, etc.) salvaged / scavenged from the bombed-out cities. In actual fact, to be so heavily irradiated, such jewelry would have had to have been exposed to the direct blast, and would hence have been reduced to charred slag. (Placing pieces of jewelry directly into a controlled neutron reactor for a couple of hours would sufficiently contaminate them without damaging them, however - though after a few weeks, they'd be back to normal.) In other words, Mr. Frank grossly overestimates the effects of radiation (and also overestimates the wisdom of burying a small shoebox of "goodies.")
Regards,
“me and an amiable companion.”
I notice in the picture that your companion is a real dog,.....a beautiful German shepherd!
....One or two bombs? Who cares? I live in a state that had DOZENS of nukes dropped on....
I grew up in a city about 1300 miles southeast and downwind of Nevada. I recall news reports on the radio saying,
“The dust cloud of the latest nuclear bomb test will be passing high over town beginning late this afternoon and lasting several hours. There is nothing to be concerned about.’
I just finished reading it last week.
Kept thinking it sounded familiar - then I read it was part of the inspiration for One Second After. Alas Babylon a good end-times template.
Of course before that there was "Day of the Triffids"
Think of it as a Year of Jubilee when all the accounts are wiped clean. The most serious danger is that some continuity of government scheme will of -actually work- and the same SOB’s who got us into the nuclear war will emerge in charge on the other end.
That would be sad. If we get nuked, we should at least get a whole of new government out of it.
Bunker Ping.
And PS: I really do have a 1960s-era fallout shelter under my back yard. It came with the house. This, inside the loop in Houston.
It is held together with both welds and rivets, and possesses a foyer, which I thought was a classy thing.
The ceiling is a full 3 feet under my lawn. Definitley not a tornado shelter.
Bunker vs Ground Zero.
I choose Ground Zero, please.
Hat Tip to TADSLOS
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.