Has anyone prepared his shelter for FALL-Out ?

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I would like to take to anyone who is preparing for fall-out or nuclear war ? not y2k but more seriously like shelter,food,light, water and so on. with thanks Ajan

-- Ajan (ibmcc2000@hotmail.com), April 10, 2001

Answers

Hi, what good would a shelter be if we were attacked,and they us atom bombs. If you were in one, the air would all be sucked out. If you were far enough away from the blast, how long could you stay cooped up before you went totally bonkers, especially if you had kids, also I under stand there probably wouldn"t be any sun for a year, so every thing green would die, I think I will take my chance"s and just go quickly, and meet my heavenly father in heaven.love Irene

-- Irene orsborn (tkorsborn@cs.com), April 10, 2001.

I'm not preparing, but I have read some about it. My understanding is that you could survive if you had the supplies on hand to carry you through untill it was safe to grow things again. My literature said you can come out after about 48 hrs. At that point the fallout (a dusty type of substance) would have mostly fallen as much as it will by then. It said that even a door thrown over a whole in the ground would be enough to protect you for that amt. of time. Another suggestion was to go into the crawl space if you dont have basement. But I suppose these things would only work if you were far enough from the blast. I'd be curious to hear more from other posters. I've often wondered if the thing I read was correct.

-- Denise (jphammock@msn.com), April 10, 2001.

Hey. we're all terminal.....don't worry ..be happy!

-- jz (oz49us@yahoo.com), April 10, 2001.

I'm very prepared-to the tune of 4 bottles of the best wine money can buy! Understand, that I can see the lights of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant from my front door (approx. 4 miles) and while I am not in the least concerned of the proverbal 'meltdown', it could be a target of a 'so called' attack on US resources, not to mention the miles and miles of watershed nearby(thru my faucet), major highways, etc. If I can bend over, I'll just kiss my butt goodbye!

-- Kathy (catfish201@hotmail.com), April 10, 2001.

Guess that I'll be alone in the US, but I fully intend to survive a nuclear war if one should occur. After all, didn't the Japanese survive after the "BOMB" was dropped over there? I realize that their lives weren't grand, but they did survive. Remember, they had no knowledge and protection at all.

I suggest those of you interested obtain and read the book "Nuclear War Survival Skills" by Cresson H. Kearny. The ISBN #0-939002-02-7.

The book give maps that show likely targets, and shows the drift pattern for fallout from blasts. It speaks of expedient shelters, overpressures, and,,,,, well just about everything to consider including psychological preparations.

If you have interest at all it is a good book in my opinion.

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), April 10, 2001.



Hello Ajan, The blast from a nuclear bomb can be survived with an underground shelter if you are further that 1/2 mile from ground zero, (where the bomb actually hits). Your shelter must be below the surface of the ground. It does not have to be much more than a hole below the surface of the earth. However, surviving radiation is a completely different thing. You must have very thick walls around your shelter and on top as well. A twelve inch wall will not keep all the radiation out. Radiation Air vents will not keep all the radiation out. And doors and windows will not keep all the radation out. Radiation, once a person has come into contact with it will began damaging the pituary glands. Once they are damaged you will soon die. This is only prevented if you take huge amounts of iodine. Not tinture of iodine but, iodine the mineral. Radiation is invisible and unless you have equipment to check around your doors, windows and vents of your shelter you have no way of knowing how much leakage you are receiving. Radiation is long duration and takes many years to reach what is called the half-life stage. In other words, if radiation is very dense in your area it may take ten years for it to reach half-life. Half-life would allow you partial or temporary exposure to it. If you build a fallout shelter you will have to take all of this into consideration. Your walls should be several feet thick. You should have a filtering system in your air venting system. You must have and outer door to your entrance and another door to get inside your shelter. You will need this to keep most of the radiation from coming all the way into your shelter. You also will need hand operated air pumps attached to your vent's that will keep a constant supply of fresh air coming into the shelter. Not, to mention a large supply of water, medical and food supplies. The best material for the walls is solid concrete. Pour your walls as thick as you can afford. The thicker the better. Four foot walls would withstand most of the radiation. The filtering system must be able to filter the finest microns of particles of dust, as radiative dust will be one of your biggest challenges to keep out of your shelter. I suggested a hand operated air pump because you will most likely have not electrical or battery power over the time you will have to stay in the shelter. The pump works on hand cranking power and would have to be turned several times a day to keep a fresh air supply. You would not want to circulate the air immediately after a blast as the dust usually takes days/weeks to settle. Your water supply will have to be replaced at least once a year, providing you keep it fresh in air tight containers. Some people put about six drops of household bleach per gallon to keep bacteria from growing in the water during its storage period. Food would be up to you but, must have a long shelf life and be of a type that does not require cooking or even water to eat. It must contain a minimum of 1200 calories a day to provide you with enough nutrition. 1200 is not very much if you are active but, being in a fallout shelter sitting and sleeping most of the time you will only have to consume about 1200 calories a day to remain healthly. I would recommend MREs, as they are complete meals and since they are high calorie meals one could feed several people at a time. They have a shelf life of over 10 years as well. Having all this, still does not guarantee that you will survive the nuclear fallout but, it will probably give you a better chance than most. Sincerely, Ernest http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks

-- Ernest in the Ozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), April 11, 2001.

We, also, FULLY intend to survive a nuclear war. With just a little research, you can learn what you need to know. (A correction, it is your thyroid that you must protect from radiation. -done with iodine pills that are made for that purpose and sold on the internet - affordable, too.)

Don't let anyone tell you that you cannot survive a nuclear war.

If EVERYONE dies, - we'll die, too. (Remember, in this life, no body gets out alive.)

But, if some common sense preparation makes the difference, why not be open to that idea?

When we built our home, we made our fruit cupboard in the basement to double as our fallout shelter. Seemed logical - it's where all the food and potatoe and apple bins were.

If God has called us to prepare our family to survive, - I want to have been obedient. If not, I like to think we will die with grace and our assurance of eternity with Jesus.

"By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in Holy fear, built an ark to save his family." Hebrews 11:7

-- homestead2 (homestead@localnetplus.com), April 11, 2001.


Concerning the book "Nuclear War Survival Skills" by Cresson H. Kearny. You can download all or part of the book at www.oism.org .

Look down the left side of the webpage and you'll see a link.

It's a good book. Even useful for those non-nuclear surprises...

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), April 11, 2001.


Not for print, come back on the bullitin board and give us the sites that are in the book for a atom bomb attack in the u.s.a. please, I couldn"t afford the book even if I could find it, and I have always wondered what citys were most likely to be hit. thanks Irene ,

-- Irene orsborn (tkorsborn@cs.com), April 11, 2001.

Kearny's book was updated and expanded in a 1987 issue. Mine is even authgraphed as I would send him information I came across on the Nuclear Winter. He didn't agree with the theories of the Cosmos series host(Sagan?).

Anyway, a couple others you might try to get your library to locate: Survival Primer by Robert Fields; Life After Doomsday by Bruce Clayton and Pulling Through (fiction) by Dean Ing. In the latter, his survivors use the information from Kearney.

Now, what are the chances of an all-out nuclear war? Very remote in my opinion. Only other big player was the Soviet Union, and when they dissolved, the risk went down greatly. I'm more concerned about a terrorist attack. How to make a nuclear weapon is fairly well known. A fairly well equipped machine shop can make the assembly. Getting the enriched uranium or plutomium is more complicated.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), April 11, 2001.



I'm saddened to hear that some people think that a nuclear war is easily survivable. It trivializes such an event, in my opinion.

Sure, the Japanese survived a nuclear attack. Some of them. But consider that there were only two bombs dropped, and the two bombs were TINY, by current standards.

Nulcear war. We don't want to go there.

By the way, the half life of Plutonium is something like 250,000 years. I don't have any more accurate number than that. However, according to the New Standard Encyclopedia, here are the half lives of various radioactive materials:

Uranium 238--4.5 billion years. Thorium 234--24.1 days. Protactinium 234--1.18 minutes.

Uranium 234--250,000 years. Thorium 230--80,000 years. Radium 236--1,620 years. Radon 222--3.8 days. Polonium 218--3.05 minutes. Lead 214--26.8 minutes. Bismuth 210--5 days. Polonium 214--.00016 seconds. Lead 210--20 years. Bismuth 210--5 days. Polonium 210--138 days. Lead 206--Stable.

Remember; half life is the amount of time when only one half of the radioactive isotope has decayed into another radioactive element or "daughter". Two half lives results in one fourth of the original isotope still being present, three half lives results in one eighth being present, and so forth. It's never totally gone. It can last longer than you want to wait.

Good bye.

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@ecoweb.net), April 11, 2001.


Hi -

I haven't got, nor do I really intend at the moment to build a fallout shelter. But, the idea isn't as bad as one might think. After all... tornadoes and hurricanes cause a need for that type of shelter - just built a little better in case of nukes...

I would be much more worried about loss of convenience. IE: groceries priced too high for most to afford, gasoline to expensive, no power... I have heard a lot about this so-called energy crisis stuff. Everyone says that the economy is great because the stock market rebounds once in a while, and the unemployment is low.

Take a couple things into account:

Unemployment is based on the folks who draw money for unemployment. It has NOTHING to do with those who don't work, have used all their unemployment funds or are on public aid. Nor does it count people who lose their jobs and are not entitled to unemployment benefits. Nor the homeless - who still need to eat, go to doctors, etc.

This country is about 10 years behind, on the whole, in keeping up with utility demand. When was the last time you saw a developer who built homes using hand tools instead of power tools? When the housing market collapses - so does the economy.

So far, as much of an environmentalist as I can be, I think Bush has taken things into account and done the best in the worst possible situation... If we don't manage the energy problem in this country we won't be able to afford food or housing. Then we will be in trouble.

I AM prepared for that..... almost.....

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), April 11, 2001.


As I read each news release relating to the presidents leanings concerning the environment, I'm afraid we may not need a nuclear war in order for things to look like we had one, given enough time.

-- jz (oz49us@yahoo.com), April 13, 2001.

Get the SAS survival handbook. It covers this topic pretty well. It is probably available from your library.

-- debra in ks (solid-dkn@msn.com), April 13, 2001.

Well. Living in Western Washington with Boeing, Microsoft, Bangor Submarine Base, Everett Navy Base, Whidbey Island Naval Air Station (where all the China "detainees" are based), Bremerton Naval Shipyard, Fort Lewis, McChord AFB, Boeing Field, and SeaTac Airport, I just really have learned to not worry about it. We have the same bottle of Everclear (unopened for 25 years) as the "last party drink of all time" in case we do have time for a last toast....speaking of toast.....

-- sheepish (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), April 13, 2001.


thanks Not for Print and J for the book and access to it on the web. This looks really interesting and I will read it for sure. I love the fact that we can access stuff from the web instead of having to go to the library or order the book.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), April 14, 2001.

I really think that when it comes right down to it, most people are survivors and will do whatever they can to get through a nuclear attack. Even though the odds might be stacked against us, my husband and I would try to survive and do our best to help our family and friends. Hopefully, we'll never have to test this theory!!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), April 15, 2001.

When the big one falls, I want to be right under it -- zap me into my next incarnation, please. Preferably in a solar system where the inhabitants don't drop such bombs on themselves.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), April 15, 2001.

Well, Jesus L. Christ! Do you think you were the first under threat of a bombing, a nuclear threat? We lived it in the 50's and 60's. Relatives shoveled out bomb shelters where frogs loved it and multiplied. And made such nice croking noises. I don't know who the Hell you are, But we Americans are Much strong. We have food, and we are not worried. We also have an arsenal. Your Choice.

-- My Story (andI@sticking.com), April 16, 2001.

You can't compare the type of bombs previously dropped to what there is out there today. No one really knows if they will be survivalable by anyone. Unless you can afford to build a shelter out of concrete and lead and unless you have a air filter system (costing $100,000's), it is unlikely anyone could survive.

I think we have a much worst scenario brooding, however, and that being germ/viral warfare. We have no cure for many of the viruses that will be used. Death will be much more wide spread in a shorter amount of time and you can wipe out an entire nation in a matter of a week with the right stuff. Think about how people travel all over now and with an airborne virus..it is all over folks.

Just look how flu/colds spreads. We were near epademic stages this past year and that was only the flu virus!

All we can do is what we can do. I for one believe we need to prepare for any disaster to the best of our ability. Wasn't Y2K enough to put "some" fear into us??? Didn't happen...but could have! Any type of severe economic loss will have devistating impact. Frugal or not...we are all use to living the good life for way too long. We all live better today than Kings & Queens did 100 years ago.

I am no survialist, dooms dayer, etc...but people, something bad is coming, and I think it is coming sooner than we think and without very much warning. I am trying to just get our family in a position of being self-suffiecient, stocked up, and using common sense. If nothing happens, well...we have had a happy life and learned to live as one with nature.

How many people in America any more even know that eggs don't come in cartons, milk in plastic containers, and bull-shit is not a swear word but is a REAL THING...let alone know how to grow a tomatoe???

This forum helps us all to do that! Thanks all!!!

-- KBall (db0421@yahoo.com), April 17, 2001.


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