Posted on 05/26/2017 6:27:56 AM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt
“The most important thing is to build underground,” says Cédric Vuilleumier, an engineer for the Federal Office for Civil Protection in Switzerland,
where all citizens are legally guaranteed a spot in a bomb shelter.
Packed earth insulates against radiation and blast waves, but don’t go deeper than 10 feet;
if your exits (make two) become blocked in the blast, you may need to dig yourself out.
Start with what Vuilleumier calls a “protective envelope” of concrete and reinforced steel rebar with walls between one foot and 2-feet-7-inches thick.
Don’t build near anything flammable.
Your budget may allow for more spaciousness, but plan for a minimum of nine square feet per person, which is what Switzerland provides.
Install eight-inch-thick concrete and steel doors that open out.
Add a ventilation and air-filtration system that can be operated with a hand crank in case of a power failure.
(Swiss specifications for bomb-shelter parts are the gold standard internationally;
many shelter-building companies in the United States and elsewhere import Swiss-made components.)
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Tasty!
I remember that episode. I also remember a comic book about nearly the same, except the man with the shelter closed it up, with a time lock and no one could break in or out for several months!
Then he remembered he had forgotten a can opener and had no way to get to his stored food.
Someone needs to go back to math class if this is the gold standard. 9 square feet is a patch 3 feet by 3 feet. I think they mean 9 feet square or 9x9 feet, but this is the NY Times.
That would be called a good catch. Nothing like having to stand up for a month, or even three days.
Cresson Kearney’s seminal book. Excellent reference.
Ahhhh! The VERY FOND memories of my college girlFRiends’ father’s backyard bomb shelter.
We used it for other purposes!
One could say that I learned about fallout FRom those delightful experiences!
PS We never got caught!
bump!
If (when) the SHTF, a lot of us are looking forward to becoming glowing/radioactive zombies. But armed.
Rick, Michonne and Darrell have had it easy for too long. Taking us on won’t be like killing kittens.
(We’ll go to NYC and body slam the journalists first.
grrrrrrrr, squeal, reeeeeeeee!)
Seriously, who’s going to build something like that? I’m bracing myself to go caulk and paint the storage barn doors ....
Indeed. I still have a couple of those home made rad meters around, too.
L
I respectfully partially disagree with this statement, as tornado shelters are built differently that fallout shelters. Some tornado shelters stick out above the ground and even have little windows at the top!
I have an actual fallout shelter under my back yard, circa late 1960s. It is the coolest historical thing I ever ever owned, bar none. Unlike a tornado shelter it has a foyer before the main room so that a person must go around a corner to get to that room, because radiation was believed to be like direct sunlight in that it could not go around corners. Also, The ceiling has 3 feet of dirt above it. That's a lot, and tornado shelters do not go down that far. It also has 3 sets of hooks for hammocks. The entire this is made of plate steel, and is partially riveted in place of welds.
Plasma RIFLE!
SAVE!!!
Hmm...armored blast doors that open out and you're buried inside. I don't think a shovel is going to cut it. Better to have a few sticks of dynamite on hand. Oh, and earplugs.
Thanks for the ping. Interestingly enough, I was just reviewing a few of the publications from the 60s. My opinion is that we have a pretty good set up in our basement to adapt.
Three walls. Two with dirt on the outside. One wall is the base of our fireplace and hearth, so we have a wall 12 feet long of concrete block with mortar inside. That’s two rows of blocks with about 3 feet between them.
That leaves one wall and the ceiling of a 12 x 12 space. There is only one duct running through there that would need additional shielding. Hubby dissed the idea.
He wants to build a storage shed and incorporate a shelter in that - can you say way more expense? So I am now looking at improvised shelters, because we do NOT have the money to build what he is talking about.
According to the estimated fall out map we would have anywhere from 8-24 hrs before the fallout would reach us.
I have read that many people think that an EMP will occur nearly simultaneously, but perhaps just before a nuclear attack.
I also read that Clinton changed our nuclear posture from mutually assured destruction to one that is to absorb a first strike, before retaliation. Since we no longer have a real civil defense program for anyone other than the government and rich dudes with their own bunkers, I’d say our politicians plan on depopulation of the good ole USA.
Cities will be more likely targets than rural areas. It’s also possible that “flyover” country will be more valuable for crops - ie bread basket so maybe there’s a chance for us deplorable out here.
Many are available on line - just do a search.
Government docs from 60s stated that 10 sq. ft was sufficient. One picture shown was someone sitting on the floor with knees pulled in to the chest, and under a table that had been reinforced-improvised shelter.
For a planned renovation, there is a 10x10 concrete block area the basement, and ceiling reinforced with a diagonal (cuts the space in half) with the maximum protection in the corner of 50 sq. ft. and that was for 5 people.
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