| In a national crisis of imminent
nuclear weapon attacks, read all the way through this guide first,
THEN TAKE EFFECTIVE PROTECTIVE ACTION WITH CONFIDENCE... FAST!
#1 - STAY OR GO?
You must decide FIRST if you need to prepare where you are, or
attempt evacuation. The nature of the threat, your prior preparations,
and your confidence in your sources of information should direct
your decision. If you know already you will be preparing to stay
at your own home or, at least, the immediate local area, go now
to #2 below.
If you are considering evacuation, your decision requires a very
high confidence that it is worth the risk. You do not want to get
stuck between your current location and your hoped for destination,
as there will probably be no easy getting back. If you fail to get
to your destination, you may be exposed without shelter, in a dangerous
situation with little effective law enforcement, perhaps among panicked
hordes of refugees. Whatever supplies you have may be limited then
to what you can carry on foot. IF you are in a big city or near
a military target, AND you have relatives or friends in the country
that you know are awaiting you, AND the roads between you and them
are clear, AND the authorities are not yet restricting traffic,
AND you have the means and fuel, evacuation may be a viable option
for a limited time. DO NOT attempt evacuation if all of the above
is not clearly known, or if the situation is deteriorating too quickly
to make the complete trip. You do not want to get stuck and/or become
a refugee being herded along with panicked masses. If evacuation
is truly a viable option, do not wait - GO NOW! Do so with as many
of the supplies listed on the last page as possible. Better to be
two days too early in arriving than two hours too late and getting
snagged mid-way, potentially exposing your family to a worse fate
than having stayed where you were. Because of the very real danger
of getting caught in an evacuation stampede that stalls, almost
all families will be better off making the best of it wherever they
currently are.
#2 - WHAT YOU NEED TO DO FIRST
Because time is of the essence, you need to first delegate and
assign to different adult family members specific tasks so they
can all be accomplished at the same time. Your first priorities
to assure your family survival are Shelter, Water, and Food/Supplies.
While some are working on the water storage and shelter at home,
others need to be acquiring, as much as possible, the food and supplies.
#3 - FOOD/SUPPLIES
Because much of the food and supplies listed on the last page of
this guide may quickly become unavailable, quantities restricted,
and/or the streets and stores may become un-safe soon, you need
to assign someone NOW to immediately go to the stores with that
list! Get cash from the bank and ATM's first, but try and use credit
cards at the stores, if at all possible, to preserve your cash.
#4 - WATER
With one or more adults now heading to the stores with the list
on the last page, those remaining need to begin storing water IMMEDIATELY!
Lack of clean water will devastate your family much more quickly
and more severely than any lack of food. Without water for both
drinking and continued good sanitary practices in food preparation
and for bathroom excursions (which will inevitably be much less
sanitary than normal), debilitating sickness could rampage through
your household with little hope of prompt medical attention. That
is a highly likely but, avoidable, disaster, ONLY IF you have enough
water.
Every possible container needs to be filled with water RIGHT NOW!
It will be very hard to have stored too much water. When the electricity/pumps
go down or everybody in your community is doing the same thing,
thus dropping the water pressure, that's it, what you've got is
all you might be getting for a very long time. Empty pop bottles
(1-3 liter) are ideal for water storage, also filling up the bathtub
and washing machine. (Remember, later you'll have some in your hot
water tank.) If you have any kiddie pools or old water beds, pull
them out and fill them up, too. (Water from a water bed should be
used only for bathing or cleaning, not for drinking as it may contain
traces of algicide and/or fungicides.) Anything and everything that'll
hold water needs to be filled up quickly RIGHT NOW!!
One of the shopping items listed on the last page is new garbage
cans and liner bags which you'll also use for storing water. If
you can't get any more new cans, you could clean out an existing
garbage can and scrub it throughout with bleach, then put in a new
garbage bag liner and fill it with water. (Use two liners if they
are very thin/flimsy.) Choose well where you fill up garbage cans
with water because they won't easily be moved once full and many
of them together could be too heavy for some upper floor locations.
Ideally, they need to be very near where your shelter will be constructed
and can actually add to its shielding properties, as you'll see
below. BE ASSURED, YOU CANNOT STORE AND HAVE TOO MUCH WATER! Do
not hesitate, fill up every possible container, RIGHT NOW!
#5 - SHELTER
The principles of radiation protection are simple - with many options
and resources families can use to prepare or improvise a very effective
shelter. You must throw off the self-defeating myths of nuclear
un-survivability that may needlessly seal the fate of less informed
families.
Radioactive fallout is the particulate matter (dust) produced by
a nuclear explosion and carried high up into the air by the mushroom
cloud. It drifts on the wind and most of it settles back to earth
downwind of the explosion. The heaviest, most dangerous, and most
noticeable fallout, will 'fall out' first close to ground zero.
It may begin arriving minutes after an explosion. While the smaller
and lighter dust-like particles will typically be arriving hours
later, as they drift much farther downwind, often for hundreds of
miles. As it settles, whether you can see it or not, fallout will
accumulate and blow around everywhere just like dust or light snow
does on the ground and roofs. Wind and rain can concentrate the
fallout into localized 'hot spots' of much more intense radiation
with no visible indication of its presence.
This radioactive fallout 'dust' is dangerous because it is emitting
penetrating radiation energy (similar to x-ray's). This radiation
(not the fallout dust) can go right through walls, roofs and protective
clothing. Even if you manage not to inhale or ingest the dust, and
keep it off your skin, hair, and clothes, and even if none gets
inside your house, the radiation penetrating your home is still
extremely dangerous, and can injure or kill you inside.
Radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion, though very dangerous
initially, loses its intensity quickly because it is giving off
so much energy. For example, fallout emitting gamma ray radiation
at a rate of 500 R/hr (fatal with one hour of exposure) shortly
after an explosion, weakens to only 1/10th as strong 7 hours later.
Three days later, it's only 1/100th as strong, or as deadly, as
it was initially.
That is really very good news, because our families can readily
survive it IF we get them into a proper shelter to safely wait it
out as it becomes less dangerous with every passing hour.
What stops radiation, and thus shields your family, is simply putting
mass between them and the radiation source. Like police body armor
stopping bullets, mass stops (absorbs) radiation. The thicker the
mass, the more radiation it stops. Also, the denser (heavier) the
mass used, the more effective it is with every inch more you add
to your fallout shelter. The thickness in inches needed to cut the
radiation down to only 1/10th of its initial intensity for different
common materials is: Steel 3.3", concrete 11", earth 16",
water 24", wood 38", etc. The thickness required to stop
99% of the radiation is: 5" of steel, 16" of solid brick
or hollow concrete blocks filled with mortar or sand, 2 feet of
packed earth or 3 feet if loose, 3 feet of water. You may not have
enough steel available, but anything you do have will have mass
and can be used to add to your shielding - it just takes more thickness
of lighter wood, for example, than heavier earth, to absorb and
stop the same amount of radiation. Increasing the distance between
your family and the radiation outside also reduces the radiation
intensity.
The goals of your family fallout shelter are:
To maximize the distance away from the fallout 'dusting' outside
on the ground and roof
To place sufficient mass between your family and the fallout to
absorb the deadly radiation
To make the shelter tolerable to stay in while the radiation subsides
with every passing hour
While a fallout shelter can be built anywhere, you should see what
your best options are at home or nearby. Some structures already
provide significant shielding or partial shielding that can be enhanced
for adequate protection. If you do not have a basement available,
you can still use the techniques shown below in any above ground
structure, but you'll need to use more mass to achieve the same
level of shielding. You may consider using other solid structures
nearby, especially those with below ground spaces, such as commercial
buildings, schools, churches, below ground parking garages, large
and long culverts, tunnels, etc.. Some of these may require permissions
and/or the acquiring of additional materials to minimize any fallout
drifting or blowing into them, if open ended. Buildings with a half-dozen
or more floors, where there is not a concern of blast damage, may
provide good radiation protection in the center of the middle floors.
This is because of both the distance and the shielding the multiple
floors provide from the fallout on the ground and roof.
Bottom Line: choose a structure nearby with both the greatest mass
and distance already in place between the outside, where the fallout
would settle, and the shelter inside.
 If
you have a basement in your home, or at a nearby relatives' or friends'
house that you can use, your best option is probably to fortify
and use it, unless you have ready access to a better/deeper structure
nearby.
For an expedient last-minute basement shelter, push a heavy table
that you can get under into the corner that has the soil highest
on the outside. The ground level outside ideally needs to be above
the top of the inside shelter. If no heavy table is available, you
can take internal doors off their hinges and lay them on supports
to create your 'table'. Then pile any available mass on and around
it such as books, wood, cordwood, bricks, sandbags, heavy furniture,
full file cabinets, full water containers, your food stocks, and
boxes and pillow cases full of anything heavy, like earth. Everything
you could pile up and around it has mass that will help absorb and
stop more radiation from penetrating inside - the heavier the better.
However, be sure to reinforce your table and supports so you do
not overload it and risk collapse.
|
Leave
a small crawl-through entrance and more mass there that can be easily
pulled in after you to seal it up. Have at least two gaps or 4-6"
square air spaces, one high at one end and one low at the other. Use more
if crowded and/or hotter climate. A small piece of cardboard can help
fan fresh air in if the natural rising warmer air convection current needs
an assist moving the air along. This incoming air won't need to be filtered
if the basement has been reasonably sealed up, however any windows or
other openings will require some solid mass coverage to assure they stay
sealed and to provide additional shielding protection for the basement.
More details on this in the next (#6) section. 
Adding
mass on the floor above your chosen basement corner, and outside against
the walls opposite your shelter, can dramatically increase your shielding
protection. Every inch thicker adds up to more effective life-saving radiation
shielding.