Found a good "Emergency Shelters &
Boltholes" link?
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SHELTER CONSTRUCTION NOTES: [author unknown] Main idea is for the
shelter to last for several years rather than several months. This requires
more work and materials. Also contains short note on building a tent sauna.
Civil Defense H-14: In Time Of
Emergency ~ A Citizen's Handbook on Nuclear Attack & Natural Disasters:
A major emergency affecting a large number of people may occur anytime and
anywhere. It may be a peacetime disaster such as a flood, tornado, fire,
hurricane, blizzard or earthquake. It could be an enemy nuclear attack on
the United States.
Protection from extreme wind by the Wind Science & Engineering
Research Center at Texas Tech.
NWS Norman, Oklahoma - Highway Passes as Tornado Shelters
During the late afternoon and evening hours of 3 May 1999, tornadic
supercell thunderstorms produced several long-tracked violent tornadoes that
struck parts of central Oklahoma and southern Kansas. During the course of
this event, many people sought shelter from approaching tornadoes under
highway overpasses. Over the past 20 years, public perception that highway
overpasses offer sound shelter from tornado winds has increased
substantially, mainly due to the events of 10 April 1979 in Wichita Falls,
TX and, especially, a video from 26 April 1991 in southern Kansas that
gained widespread distribution. However, it appears that highway overpasses
offer, at best, questionable shelter not only from tornadoes, but severe
storms in general: three people in Oklahoma lost their lives while seeking
shelter near or under overpass bridges.
Storm Shelters Do you think you
need a tornado shelter? This page will help you decide. It tells you what
you need to consider in a manufactured shelter, and provides links to
shelter plans.
Selecting Tornado Shelters [PDF] Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Fact
Sheets. Storm shelters don’t have to be damp holes in the ground. With
planning, shelters can be livable and stocked with necessities for long
periods of stay. A better hole may have lights, electric outlets for a TV or
radio, games for children, food, beverages, and a place for youngsters to
sleep while waiting out the storm.
You're on your own--again Civil defense? It's the same old story.
Citizens will have to pay for their own protection against possible attack.
CDC Floods | Key Facts About Flood Readiness from The Center for
Disease Control. Kind of brief, but expanded by the links on the right side
of the CDC page.
Protecting Buildings Against Flood Risk: Demountable BAUER-IBS Barriers
Better than sandbags? Who knows? But these guys think so.
Financial Planning: A Guide for Disaster Preparedness The most
effective way to protect your home and belongings is to take steps to
safeguard them before a disaster strikes. Referred to as “mitigation,” these
measures may help you avoid damage altogether in some situations, or at the
very least, reduce the damage and economic impact a disaster may bring.
FEMA Community Wind Shelters (Background and Research) August 2002:
What is a Wind Shelter? A wind shelter is an interior room or other space
within a building, or even an entire separate structure, that is designed
and constructed to protect its occupants from high winds, usually those
associated with tornadoes or hurricanes. Wind shelters are intended to
provide protection against both wind forces and the impact of windborne
debris. See also
[PDF]
FEMA -- Design and Construction for Community Shelters and Its Application
to Domes; February 5, 2004; by Arnold Wilson, Phd, SE: The Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has made available to communities
literature which provides guidance and technical information educating
communities on how to become disaster resistant in the face of natural
disasters.(FEMA 2000).
FEMA 320- Taking Shelter From the Storm [PDF] Building a
Safe Room inside your house - includes construction plans and cost
estimates. See also:
Taking Shelter From the Storm:
Building a Better Shelter
As a frame of reference, winds from a blast wave of 3 psi overpressure are
sufficient to kill a person caught out in the open. A typical residence will
collapse by an overpressure of 5 psi. A blast wave of 10-12 psi will convert
most large office buildings into rubble. At 20 psi, reinforced concrete
structures are leveled. This shelter is designed for a 50-psi blast and to
house and shelter 40 persons.
Family Foxhole
Not all that much info on this page
but the link to the "Virtual Atomic Museum" is kind of neat.
Nuclear War Survival Skills
Updated and Expanded 1987 Edition.
Cresson H. Kearny. With Foreword by Dr. Edward Teller
Fallout shelter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. A fallout shelter is a civil
defense measure intended to reduce casualties in a nuclear war. Nuclear
fallout is radioactive dust created when a nuclear weapon explodes or some
other event causes a thermonuclear explosion. Surprisingly detailed
and enlightening articles. LOTS of internal links.
Domestic Nuclear Shelters
Advice on domestic shelters providing
protection against nuclear explosions. Excellent presentation with a whole
slew of expedient shelter designs.
Protect and Survive Web Site,
an archive of UK civil defense material dating from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Move the mouse over the icons at right to see descriptions. Click an icon to
view the relevant document. Cool stuff!
Radiation Exposure
This information is taken from an article by Dr. Kathy S. Grant in the
August 1987 copy of Journal of Civil Defense.
Radiation Detectors
THE RIGHT RADIATION DETECTION EQUIPMENT By Duncan Long. There are a number
of good civil defense surplus meters on the market- place. But they are
nearly all designed for nuclear war; they're not so ideal for nuclear
accident use since most are high-range meters and they don't detect beta
or alpha radiation. Many of these meters also require batteries that are
becoming frustratingly hard to fine (though many large photography stores
are often a good place to look).
Nuclear Emergency - How to Protect Your Family from Radiation.
Excerpted from December, 1961 Department of Defense booklet Fallout
Protection - What to Know and Do About Nuclear Attacks: WHAT YOU SHOULD
KNOW AND WHAT YOU SHOULD DO. How to survive attack and live for your
country's recovery.
Homebuilt Buried Tank Shelters:
Two proven designs from the
Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine that built five full-scale
civil defense shelter displays for FEMA and for the states of Pennsylvania,
Utah, Arizona, and Idaho and also carried out other educational activities
in cooperation with FEMA. Their plans have been utilized by many and OISM
has been in the forefront of Civil Defense research and education since the
mid-eighties.
How to Survive a Nuclear Attack
Millions of Americans will die if a
nuclear attack occurs, but studies show that tens of millions will survive
the initial effects of blast and heat. Many more will survive these initial
effects if they have blast and heat resistant shelters.
Richard Fleetwood at
Survivalring.org has compiled an ENORMOUS amount of info that I believe
he makes available on a low-cost CD as well as off his site.
A
Homemade Fallout Meter: The KFM (Kearny Fallout Meter) [Adobe
PDF, 1.19MB] This booklet shows make and use a Kearny Fallout Meter from
simple materials around the home. It is automatically calibrated by the
geometry of its components. See also:
Kearny Fallout Meter (1970s)
and [PDF,
1.19MB]
A Homemade Fallout Meter: The KFM (Kearny
Fallout Meter)
[Adobe PDF, 1.19MB] This booklet shows make and
use a Kearny Fallout Meter from simple materials around the home. It is
automatically calibrated by the geometry of its components. Yet another
location.
Shelter Information
Nuclear Conflict Shelters - Theory, purpose and construction. There are
three basic types of shelters, fallout, blast, and chemical/biological
shelters. Shelters can be made to protect from any one of these hazards, or
can be protected from any in combination.
Increasing Blast Resistance in Buildings Increasing Blast and
Fire Resistance in Buildings: Design Techniques for Combined Nuclear Weapon
Effects. Department of Defense, Defense Civil Preparedness Agency. TR-62,
May 1976.
Probably the same as above - alternate
locations.
Duck and Cover with "Bert the Turtle" [Quicktime Movie] The movie Duck
and Cover was produced in 1950, during the first big Civil Defense push of
the Cold War. When the Soviet Union exploded its first nuclear device in
1949, the U.S. monopoly on nuclear weapons was broken. At least in theory,
the United States was more vulnerable than it ever had been in its history.
Philadelphia
subway tunnel bomb shelter located on a forgotten branch of the Broad
St. subway concourse. From a WHYY special.
Twilight Zone (1/2 hr) - The Shelter Why is this here? OK, it concerns
aliens, but more importantly, it concerns human behavior. The human
actions/reactions displayed in this episode are insightful and a warning to
those who prepare, regarding those who belittle us for it. Sometimes I
wonder if it's not better to just keep shut about what we do... "When a UFO
invasion appears imminent, several suburban friends and neighbors a...re
reduced to selfish, conniving animals and they fight over one family's bomb
shelter."
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