Anyone here build a fallout shelter?

[Lassen Forge]

We had friends who were sheep ranchers who built one into the side of a hill back in the last cold war era... between then and now, however, that scrub grass producing sheep and cattle land turned into what they now call "Wine Country™ and it's all planted in grapes... so guess what they use as their "aging cellar", especially since it's always cold and damp...

I always figured if you're so close to a major population or target area that you have to worry about fallout from a thermonuclear attack, you're living in the wrong place. Be that as it may - our home has 2 meter thick stone walls, and we still read radiation from Chernobyl when it went ****...

(edited width of walls from 3 to 2m - let the record reflect I can't type sometimes!)

 

[slowtwitch73]

Yeah fallout shelters are wishful thinking.

 

[FredWanaker]

the best way is to try not to think about it. Just go about your daily business and enjoy what life you have. The folks who live in battle areas already have it bad because many modern high velocity tank and tank killer rounds are made from depleted uranium. It is an extremely dense, heavy radioactive metal. Anyplace it is used there is radioactivity left over from the spent rounds.

Not to mention that when some of us were children all the clocks that we kept on the headboard, and watches with glowing dials were painted with radium. That continued until the 1970's although the trend away started in the 1950's. Radon gas that is so dangerous comes from uranium, radium, thorium etc underground off gassing. Hence your bunker could be as dangerous as being above the ground if there is radon gas in it.

A friend of mine was a physicist and safety manager of one of the major US nuclear plants. He once went over a list of radioactive substances in a conversation with me. Even the potassium we use in the gardens and lawns is radioactive.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Storm shelters (against tornadoes) are more common.

 

[jagboy69]

Storm shelters (against tornadoes) are more common.

Yup.. more likely to get whacked by a twister than an ICBM that's for sure! I wish I had one, but I'm on the western edge of tornado alley.

 

[carbleaks]

our home has 3 meter thick stone walls

3 meters?

 

[jmarkwolf]

best place to be, under the warhead of the first missle...

My wife agrees, she says she is a "take-me-nowist" not a survivalist!

 

[1967ChevyRagtop]

Ayuh,.... I too, remember the '60s, when we had drills in school, 'n were told to hide under our desks,.....

Yeah, my '60s ROTC instructor said there was two types of 'nuclare fire (sic): friendly and enemy. Said you could hide in a ditch if it was just friendly.
bg

 

[kelpaso1]

3 meters?

I wondered that too. 9 foot thick walls?

 

[WordMan]

the best way is to try not to think about it. Just go about your daily business and enjoy what life you have. The folks who live in battle areas already have it bad because many modern high velocity tank and tank killer rounds are made from depleted uranium. It is an extremely dense, heavy radioactive metal. Anyplace it is used there is radioactivity left over from the spent rounds.

Not to mention that when some of us were children all the clocks that we kept on the headboard, and watches with glowing dials were painted with radium. That continued until the 1970's although the trend away started in the 1950's. Radon gas that is so dangerous comes from uranium, radium, thorium etc underground off gassing. Hence your bunker could be as dangerous as being above the ground if there is radon gas in it.

A friend of mine was a physicist and safety manager of one of the major US nuclear plants. He once went over a list of radioactive substances in a conversation with me. Even the potassium we use in the gardens and lawns is radioactive.

A container full of bananas will set off the radiation detectors at a port.

The most radioactive food you can buy are Brazil Nuts.

Anything with potassium in it, including potassium supplements, will contain small amounts of the radioactive isotope of potassium.

Granite countertops are radioactive (they contain trace amounts of uranium).

I could go on for quite a while with this...

Depleted uranium is 40% less radioactive than unprocessed natural uranium. More importantly, it's an Alpha emitter, meaning the dead skin cells covering your body are enough to block it.

 

[Lassen Forge]

3 meters?

Aw ****, sorry, I fat fingered it - they're 6 feet (2 meters) at the base, not 3. The "building" is a 4 story 12th century stone "dove tower", the bottom floor (piano terra) is stout as hell to support the weight on the side of a hill. Pretty common back then, one thing is it IS earthquake-proof... real PITA to wash windows, tho... Even up at the top they're atill over a meter thick... LOTS of rock there.

 

[CTyankee]

Probably be a mute point these days. I'd assume the nukes of today would pack a much bigger punch than were dropped on Japan. But at the time there were still lots of people that survived even without bomb shelters. Chances are back then unless you were at ground zero you'd probably have a very good chance of surviving smaller limited attacks with a bomb shelter.

 

[FredWanaker]

the bombs on Japan were basic plutonium bombs. The ones now are Hydrogen bombs. A plutonium bomb is used to set off hydrogen atoms which fuse into Helium. (Fission vs Fusion). Their yield is like comparing a firecracker to 20 sticks of dynamite. There are also battlefield size weapons and fleet sized weapons - which are designed to take down whole battle areas. There are also EMF ones that are set off in the atmosphere to cook everything electronic. You may remember Fiona Hill. She was in the congressional testimonies on Ukraine a couple years go. She is considered the most knowledgeable state dept person in matters of Ukraine and Russia. She made a statement to Politico this week that the EU and NATO know that Putin is planning nuclear strikes. He will use every weapon he has at some point. She also said that this war against Ukraine is really WW III and it began some time ago. What we are seeing in Ukraine is not a war but rather individual battles in a World War. Putin wants to be the greatest military leader the world has ever seen. He has isolated himself from advice and is listening to no one now. Just giving orders. What puzzles everyone is the unwillingness of the US Government to use Alaskan oil, other oil to cut off Putin's cash flow from the West.

 

[bmw57isetta]

Here's what each of us were handed after a presentation by a Civil Defense worker when I was in the fifth grade. Instructions for building bomb shelters were included. Hiding under our school desks was part of the drill. Bergstrom AFB was here with plenty of B-52's ready to go as well as at least three Nike Hercules missile sites around town.



And here's a bizarre special that ran on KTBC-TV here in Austin for your viewing pleasure:

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Not to wander too far afield, but it seems to me that what we need way more of is general preparedness for any type of emergency. For 5% the cost of a fallout shelter, you could position yourself quite well for a more survivable emergency.

I would bet that 50% of people today do not have even 3 days food in their house and even less potable water than that.

My inlaws got caught in the freeze ups in Texas last year where their power went down. They lost their well, their septic pump, and 100% of their heat in one stroke. They had no supplemental heat source. No backup generator. Very little food and almost no water.

I'm not saying everyone needs to be buying MRE's in buckets, but a pantry packed with food items THAT YOU WILL USE ANYWAY, like peanut butter, beans, rice, canned veggis, etc. along with a bulk tank of 100 gallons of water, a gasoline generator, some gasoline for that generator, first aid supplies, a way to cook, fire extinguishers, a radio, flashlights, a couple of good ways to charge your cell phone (I've got a Makita accessory that lets me charge mine from any of my 18 V Makita batteries for instance), a backup heating source like ventless heaters or a wood burner, and maybe a firearm or two to hold off the riff raff and you should be set for 99% of what could happen to you tomorrow.

Good luck out there!

 

[Metal-Marc]

3 meters?

He's known as Bunker Bob in town.

 

[brownbagg]

i got 17 cases of mre in my closet, from hurricane katrina days, might not taste good but it make a turd

 

[four.cycle]

anybody who is suffering from the delusion that they might be able to survive a thermonuclear exchange with another country should take a look at this

 

[carbleaks]

Aw ****, sorry, I fat fingered it - they're 6 feet (2 meters) at the base, not 3. The "building" is a 4 story 12th century stone "dove tower", the bottom floor (piano terra) is stout as hell to support the weight on the side of a hill. Pretty common back then, one thing is it IS earthquake-proof... real PITA to wash windows, tho... Even up at the top they're atill over a meter thick... LOTS of rock there.

Sounds like a very interesting home. Any pictures of it here on GJ?

 

[kbeefy]

hope.. they sold hope and preyed upon fears.
if you put all of the facts on the table. then they don't make sense.
other than to those who sold them and those who installed them.

Yeah fallout shelters are wishful thinking.

Fallout was really new back then, noone really knew what kind of precautions would be beneficial, but lots of people were really scared.
People did lots of useless things because they didn't know better but wanted to do something.

Seems similar to other more recent events....

 

[TitusLloydPullo]

Bomb Shelters & Fallout Shelter Plans & Nuclear Civil Defense FAQ - Part 3

FEMA bomb shelter plans & Civil Defense fallout shelters. FREE RADSticker dosimeter w/orders today! Survive nukes & radiation FAQ!

www.radshelters4u.com

 

[mepstein]

Our current house has a fallout shelter built in 1959 under the garage.
The blueprints spec out 'Lead Curtains' for the under grade window, but they're not around.
It also shows a 500g fresh water tank, thats gone as well.
It's 2 bedrooms, a storage room and a full bathroom. About 500 square feet.

The orange paint and flourescent light came out really weird in the phone pics....

There’s a lot of cool things you could do with that space.

 

[Bessy]

Remember there was a Twilight Zone episode where a family built one and when a "scare" came all the neighbors basically fought to get in.

I'm pretty sure rule number one of building a proper bunker is kindof like rule number one of Fight Club. Do not talk about the bunker.

Neighbor of my parents allegedly has a bunker under the cottage that the PO had put in when the cottage was built. I've never seen it personally, but I know people that have. The guy was a kook.

Glad someone mentioned the Diefenbunker, I toured it about 12 years ago on a school trip... I think I'd rather just hit the open water and take my chances of being boiled alive.

 

[Firebrick43]

I don't think you guys really understand a nuke bomb. Two have been dropped on civilian epicenters in japan, and both are occupied today. The initial burst of radiation is obviously dangerous (no one in those two cities had protection in form of a bunker) and killed a lot of people in the very narrow area of the surrounding bomb blast area within 6 months of the blast.

The cancer risk of leukemia was 46 percent higher for children 2-6 years after the blast, and 10 percent for adults.

Other than the initial blast the long term radiation contamination is "relatively low" in a nuclear blast. Now obviously newer bombs have higher energy so instead of 1 mile blast effects it might be in the 4 mile range, but a large portion of the population wouldn't be affected even by relatively "close" targets.

The insidious scenario isn't nuclear bombs, but dirty bombs that spread large term high radiation contamination. I have to wonder if this is the reason that the Russians made the Chernobyl hulk a major target.

Anyway, Most use concrete walls in the basements of their house. Use a composite steel slab instead of wood for a ceiling for basement/floor for first floor. I did this with my ICF house and everyone that understands calls my 28x50 addition "the bunker" Bad part is nearly all my neighbors joke that they would show up in a dooms day scenario. I joke that they better show up with food and guns, as well as prepared to work as I am not sharing mine.

 

[Jawn]

Not to wander too far afield, but it seems to me that what we need way more of is general preparedness for any type of emergency. For 5% the cost of a fallout shelter, you could position yourself quite well for a more survivable emergency.

This was my thoughts in the matter. Food, water, shelter, and security are what I think people should focus on. A (dry) bunker might be useful for storage of said supplies and use as a "safe room". But that's about it, as far as I figure.

 

[Snapped-off]

the best way is to try not to think about it. Just go about your daily business and enjoy what life you have. The folks who live in battle areas already have it bad because many modern high velocity tank and tank killer rounds are made from depleted uranium. It is an extremely dense, heavy radioactive metal. Anyplace it is used there is radioactivity left over from the spent rounds.

Not to mention that when some of us were children all the clocks that we kept on the headboard, and watches with glowing dials were painted with radium. That continued until the 1970's although the trend away started in the 1950's. Radon gas that is so dangerous comes from uranium, radium, thorium etc underground off gassing. Hence your bunker could be as dangerous as being above the ground if there is radon gas in it.

A friend of mine was a physicist and safety manager of one of the major US nuclear plants. He once went over a list of radioactive substances in a conversation with me. Even the potassium we use in the gardens and lawns is radioactive.

Wait until you hear about bananas

 

[Hopey]

This guy has a bunker in his back yard and is busy excavating a connecting tunnel to it from a closet in his house….

 

[kbeefy]

There’s a lot of cool things you could do with that space.

Aside from an anchor and shackles I haven't come up with any.

I did put some gym equipment down there since it stays pretty cool in the summer. Also theres a shelf full of old paint, and a case of MRE's.

Maybe I can rent it out as an apocalypse themed AirBnB....

 

[kbeefy]

I have contemplated putting a metal vault door on it and making it a walk in gun room(s). That would be cool.

 

[ybnormal]

Here's what each of us were handed after a presentation by a Civil Defense worker when I was in the fifth grade. Instructions for building bomb shelters were included. Hiding under our school desks was part of the drill. Bergstrom AFB was here with plenty of B-52's ready to go as well as at least three Nike Hercules missile sites around town.



And here's a bizarre special that ran on KTBC-TV here in Austin for your viewing pleasure:

yeah, I drove past one of those Nike sites a few years ago. still out there in the sticks. but the bombing wings went away in the 60s IIRC

Bergstrom Air Force Base

For the civil use of this facility and airport information, see Austin-Bergstrom International Airport Bergstrom Air Force Base (1942–1993) was a United States Air Force base located seven miles (11 km) southeast of downtown Austin, Texas. It was activated during World War II as a troop carrier...

military-history.fandom.com

To provide air defense of the base, United States Army Nike-Hercules Surface-to-air missile sites were constructed during 1959. Sites were located near Austin (BG-80) 30°18′53″N 097°52′00″W and Elroy (BG-40) 30°05′50″N 097°35′16″W, Texas and were active between November 1960 and June 1966.

I remember living on a DEW-line base in the mid70's. lots of snow, great to be a kid!

Loring Air Force Base

Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters". Loring Air Force Base (AFB) (IATA: LIZ, ICAO: KLIZ) was a United States Air Force base in Limestone, Aroostook County, Maine. Loring AFB was the largest base of the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command during its...

military-history.fandom.com

 

[ZRX61]

No need to start throwing multiple nukes about. Just an EMP will do enough damage to knock out the US satellites, internet & powergrid etc. Then the conspiracy nutters will just start killing everyone they meet & the streets will be running with blood.

 

[f150skidoo]

This guy has a bunker in his back yard and is busy excavating a connecting tunnel to it from a closet in his house….

Just spent a few hours going down that worm hole. that's a pretty cool project.

 

[Firebrick43]

No need to start throwing multiple nukes about. Just an EMP will do enough damage to knock out the US satellites, internet & powergrid etc. Then the conspiracy nutters will just start killing everyone they meet & the streets will be running with blood.

It wont be the conspiracy nutters, it will be your average American killing each other. The nutters will be holed up with food and supplies, not out looking for it.

Its the average american you have to worry about. They only have 5 days worth of food in the house. By day 7 or 8 gangs of roving karens will be ramming their minivans into buildings to steel food, toilet paper, and ranting at the doors of the closed down supermarket demanding to speak to the supervisor. It will devolve in to homicide when they cant get their double latte from starbucks.

 

[WordMan]

the bombs on Japan were basic plutonium bombs. The ones now are Hydrogen bombs. A plutonium bomb is used to set off hydrogen atoms which fuse into Helium. (Fission vs Fusion). Their yield is like comparing a firecracker to 20 sticks of dynamite. There are also battlefield size weapons and fleet sized weapons - which are designed to take down whole battle areas. There are also EMF ones that are set off in the atmosphere to cook everything electronic. You may remember Fiona Hill. She was in the congressional testimonies on Ukraine a couple years go. She is considered the most knowledgeable state dept person in matters of Ukraine and Russia. She made a statement to Politico this week that the EU and NATO know that Putin is planning nuclear strikes. He will use every weapon he has at some point. She also said that this war against Ukraine is really WW III and it began some time ago. What we are seeing in Ukraine is not a war but rather individual battles in a World War. Putin wants to be the greatest military leader the world has ever seen. He has isolated himself from advice and is listening to no one now. Just giving orders. What puzzles everyone is the unwillingness of the US Government to use Alaskan oil, other oil to cut off Putin's cash flow from the West.

Not to nitpick.

The first atomic bomb, also known as "Little Boy" was a uranium bomb. It was a "gun type" of bomb. Essentially, a really big shotgun launched a slug of enriched uranium into a cylinder of uranium (with what might be called 'one hell of an interference fit'). When dropped on Japan, Little Boy had never been tested.

The second atomic bomb, known as "Fat Man" was a plutonium bomb. This was an implosion bomb, where a hollow sphere of plutonium was collapsed with the symmetrical detonation of high explosives surrounding the sphere (or core).

At this point, we're well past hydrogen bombs (a two stage device which uses a fission detonation to perpetuate a fusion detonation), with three and four stage bombs.

Nonetheless, it is still quite possible for humans to survive even a full on strike. There won't be many of us left, but in all likelihood, humanity will survive (as will nature). Our lifespans will be significantly shorter, and incredibly more harsh, but we will survive.

One more thing; it would be WWIV. WWIII already happened. We called it "the cold war," but 50-million to 80-million people died in its hotspots.

 

[Bad Habit]

 

[bmw57isetta]

yeah, I drove past one of those Nike sites a few years ago. still out there in the sticks. but the bombing wings went away in the 60s IIRC

Bergstrom Air Force Base

For the civil use of this facility and airport information, see Austin-Bergstrom International Airport Bergstrom Air Force Base (1942–1993) was a United States Air Force base located seven miles (11 km) southeast of downtown Austin, Texas. It was activated during World War II as a troop carrier...

military-history.fandom.com

To provide air defense of the base, United States Army Nike-Hercules Surface-to-air missile sites were constructed during 1959. Sites were located near Austin (BG-80) 30°18′53″N 097°52′00″W and Elroy (BG-40) 30°05′50″N 097°35′16″W, Texas and were active between November 1960 and June 1966.

I remember living on a DEW-line base in the mid70's. lots of snow, great to be a kid!

Loring Air Force Base

Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters". Loring Air Force Base (AFB) (IATA: LIZ, ICAO: KLIZ) was a United States Air Force base in Limestone, Aroostook County, Maine. Loring AFB was the largest base of the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command during its...

military-history.fandom.com

ybnormal:

You are correct. They flew the B-52's out of here in the '60's and deployed them to Nam. The B-47's had been mothballed prior to that.

The day the 52's left Austin they made two passes information over town. They let us out of school to watch them fly over. Once a common site flying over our house was gone forever. Here's a shot I took with my Kodak Brownie camera around 1961 or thereabouts.

Second pic is the Nike site down Bee Cave Road at Cuernavaca. It's all gone now but there's still a communications tower up there. I snuck this one in during a field trip out there in the fifth grade before the guard confiscated everyones' cameras.

Third pic is a Hercules that formerly stood at the entrance to Camp Mabry, the Texas National Guard HQ. There was a whole array of missiles and tanks there at one time. They kept the Nike and moved it up to a former launch site that's a TNG post off of Bee Cave Road.

Fourth pic is of one of the Nike launch sites off of Bee Cave Road. It's now a Texas National Guard site that sits on top of a hill. \The steel rings that held the missiles in place are still there. I doubt the Purple Martin house was there.











My apologies for straying off topic but these are the reasons for all of the bomb shelters in the first place.

 

[dcg9381]

Wondering if anyone built a fallout shelter here. If so, how did it go, and how much did it cost? Pics would be great.

It's not 1970. A fallout shelter ain't gonna save you from the radiation.
I'm in Texas - tornado alley. Lots of people build or buy pre-fabricated shelters. Usually steel or concrete and bury them.

What's the end goal? I assume it's not actually surviving a nuclear attack.

 

[Nick Danger]

A friend of mine bought a house with a bomb shelter. It was under the garage. You lifted a counterbalanced 1/2 inch steel plate on the floor of the garage and then climbed down a ten foot ladder made of rebar loops set in the wall. It was lit by a single light bulb. It was surprisingly damp for being in Albuquerque. My friend bought a chain hoist to lower things into the room, but even then it was too much trouble to put anything down there.

I'm not sure what the previous owner was thinking. Everything else he built in that house was beautifully engineered and finished.

 

[jkeyser14]

90% of all Canadians live within 100 miles of the US. So any mid size nuke will make a HUGE dent in our population! So not a little concern for many of us. I personally live within 1.5 miles of the "Motor City" and we are the "Automotive Capital of Canada" so yes we are a target "Loved" or not. But the reality is unless you live "North of 60" we will be severly affected if the nukes start flying about. Life will be pretty harsh if you do survive, real, real harsh!
Harry

The only people who want to nuke Detroit are Americans who are sick of the crime.

 

[FredWanaker]

Well, news and videos have it that Russia is shelling the working power plant in Ukraine that is larger than Chernobyl was, so maybe that fall out shelter is not a bad idea after all. These people who are supporting them are freaking nuts.