Backyard Nuclear Shelters

[Benny]

Many that grew up during the cold war probably remember or had a nuclear shelter, built on their backyard or basement, ready to use in case of emergency.

In my case, when I lived with my parents, all we could do was to hide under the staircase (thank God we're still here).

Some neighbours had a strong cellar, reasonably prepared or safe. They would probably survive for some time more.

But what about real, purpose built, nuclear shelters?

I would like to hear from someone who had or knew someone who had one of those shelters, maybe in their family, friends or neighbors.

What precautions, drills and storages were cautiosly prepared (if any)?

And what would you do, if there was really a need to use one?

What about some photos?

This issue is not as old as it looks - many still fear a nuclear or biological terrorism act.

Benny

[JoaMei]

I once worked for some days in a former nuclear Bunker during my training as an electrician. It was comoflaged under a normal building near the Highway, I think that thing was a secret asset during the cold war. There were many rests of data cables but whatever Equipment was in there was removed long before.
The big diesel Generators and the nuclear protected air condition were still there. It had a heavy airtight door. No windows(what a surprise), really thick walls.

[XTC]

In Switzerland the national requirement meant that every new house, apartment building, school, hospital, office block include a bomb shelter.
This system has the great advantage of requiring only minutes, since the shelter is located very close to the people

my modest NBC shelter:
http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/7640/fenster2zh.jpg

The half-ton armored door:
http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/5686/door1so.jpg

Walls are +40 cm thick and the air-filtration system is manual

http://www.lunor.ch/englisch/products.html

[Aerosoul]

The parents ofa girl in my grade just built the sixth-largest house in Nashville. About 30K sq. ft. Complete with a fully-stocked shelter with beds, kitchen, all that. The father is the president of HCA (Bill Frist started it). The mother is paranoid and still sprays the mail with lysol and waits one day to open it, in fear of the anthrax scare we had what was it...two yers ago? :|

[Abolith]

The parents ofa girl in my grade just built the sixth-largest house in Nashville. About 30K sq. ft. Complete with a fully-stocked shelter with beds, kitchen, all that. The father is the president of HCA (Bill Frist started it). The mother is paranoid and still sprays the mail with lysol and waits one day to open it, in fear of the anthrax scare we had what was it...two yers ago? :|



rofl rofl rofl rofl

[Herrmannek]

As a self called atomic shelter expert i tell you home or back yardshelters are ****...
What should concern you most is a firestorm and humongous amounts of co2 and co in the air for many hours maybe even days after explosion and nearby fires that will suck air from your shelter fast...If you want to avoid that your shelter must be first class installation,

Also your shelters must be enough equiped to not come out of it for at least 3 months, with dust filters, proper amount of water... remember if you want survive NEVER ALLOW WOUNDED INTO SHELTER.... Prepare games , secure radio from EMP, have backup power, food and any idea where to run after those 3 months + because ground still will be radioactive enough to kill after too long exposition...And don't forget about iodine, eating only MRE's or things that aere in closed jars washed before opening with clean water, and heluva lots more to consider.... Althoug in places like Europe your chances of survival are minimal

http://www.radshelters4u.com/ and many more very interesting reads, just use google

[JoaMei]

That CO2 Story is Bull****, even when you are near a giant forest or Bush fire there is still enough O2 for everyone. This could only become a Problem when the House directly above your Bunker is burning.

[Herrmannek]

That CO2 Story is Bull****, even when you are near a giant forest or Bush fire there is still enough O2 for everyone. This could only become a Problem when the House directly above your Bunker is burning.
Its not bull****, being near doesn't mean being below, It happened in Japan when US of A droped incendentary bombs....and also in other places at wwII, staying below in a hole is dangerus thing when everything around&above is burning...

[Benny]

I'm not an expert but I think that Herrmannek may be correct.

Sounds like the same thing that happened in Dresden, due to a firestorm caused by repeated Allied bombings (there's a recent good book on that subject, by a british author).

JoaMei - I think that forest fires and such don't reach high enough temperature to generate the firestorm effect.

Benny

[Herrmannek]

But you live in Portugal, you have lots of desert/rocky places... so just find elevated area without foliage and make your castle there.. and don't forget about HMG nests :)

[Thor]

In Switzerland the national requirement meant that every new house, apartment building, school, hospital, office block include a bomb shelter.
This system has the great advantage of requiring only minutes, since the shelter is located very close to the people
We still have similar laws where I live.

There must be a number of shelters in each area (number depending on how many that live/work there). Some private house owners get payed by the government to include shelters in their houses. It's all very modern and up2date.

[Herrmannek]

thats cool, but large shelters aren't good for nuclear attacks...

[Thor]

I have no idea what consitutes a good nuclear shelter.

I'd say these are in first hand built to be bomb/chemical shelters.

[Benny]

XTC - And do people in Switzerland still keep their shelters ready, or are they regarded as some kind of relic nowadays?

PS: If I had one, I would probably use it as a wine cellar (very smart, hey? :lol: )

Benny

[JoaMei]

I have no idea what consitutes a good nuclear shelter.

I'd say these are in first hand built to be bomb/chemical shelters.

Well, all a good shelter has to do is keeping nuclear Particles out.

[Herrmannek]

Big shelters are bad because of large amount of totaly random people not because they technicaly inferior.

[Satellite Weapon]

Nervous Japanese build N-bunkers
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1060419
Japanese citizens, who are barely a missile strike away from Pyongyang. In response, home owners and businesses in Japan are increasingly preparing for a doomsday scenario by building underground bunkers that can withstand atomic force explosions.
Japanese companies that manufacture nuclear fallout shelters have reported a sharp spike in orders following North Korea’s underground nuclear test.

A missile-rattling regime in Iran, ongoing weapons-testing in North Korea, the menace of bio-terrorism ...
From his bomb shelter about an hour northwest of Toronto, Bruce Beach can feel the approaching Armageddon.
"We're in greater danger than we were at the Cuban Missile Crisis," the retired computer science professor declares. "And the parallels are just absolutely amazing between the two times."
In 1970, when Beach moved from rural Kansas to the hamlet of Horning's Mills, outside of Georgetown, Ont., with his Canadian wife, he brought a keen sense of doomsday with him.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1161428791040&call_pageid=968350130169&col=969483202845
His labyrinthine, 10,000-square-foot shelter, Ark Two, has drawn more than curiosity over the years. Beach says it's been raided four times by police units with automatic weapons searching for ammunition and explosives — the last time in December 2005.
"I call it Waco North, a gentler, kinder Canadian type of raid," he says, "because I didn't have any weapons — and they didn't shoot me."
A self-styled consultant on nuclear survival, he uses his website (http://www.webpal.org) along with several self-published books to describe nuclear catastrophe in excruciating detail — and, of course, how to dodge it.
On Sept. 11, 2001, shortly after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, Beach's site received 85,000 visits within a three-hour span.
Today it boasts 300 web pages, and Beach has a network of team leaders in 50 U.S. states. Just last week, he received a request from a professor in South Korea to reprint some of his voluminous writings. "I receive more inquiries in a day than I used to receive in a year," Beach says.
The United States may have closed down its mammoth Cold War bunker in Cheyenne Mountain, Colo., last week, but the threat of an Asian arms race, along with the fact that loose-cannon leaders are trying to build atomic arsenals, is stoking fears of nuclear apocalypse.
"I think it's a back-to-the-bomb shelter reality," says Stanley Kurtz, a policy analyst at the New York-based Ethics and Public Policy Center. "The reality is going to be that there will be an actual threat, and the prudent thing to do will be to make preparation in case the threat becomes a reality.

[Jabroni]

In Switzerland the national requirement meant that every new house, apartment building, school, hospital, office block include a bomb shelter.

Becouse Switzerland is an important country, They have all the World Banks and they make laws like the Geneva Convention.

They havent fought for 500+ years, I heard they had skirmishes at the Swiss/German border during WW2.

After WW2, The Allies found German Documents about plans to invade Switzerland.