How To Take Shelter

If possible you should provide your family and yourself with some sort of shelter capability. Consider your shelter requirements. Decide upon the degree of protection you want for your family and yourself.

Shelter is your insurance against something you hope will not happen, but if it does, it will give you protection. Shelters of the type commonly used in Europe during the Second World War would not provide protection against the blast of a nuclear explosion. They were designed to withstand short shock pressures lasting something like 1/100th of a second. Shelters designed to withstand the pressures created by a nuclear explosion must be able to stand up to pressures lasting as long as 6 seconds.

In addition, they must be capable of giving the occupants protection against fires outside the shelter as well as against radiation. A fallout shelter is designed to give protection against radioactive fallout only.

The type of shelter for good protection depends upon the distance it will be from the explosion. Unfortunately, it is not possible to know this in advance. That is why each individual must make his own decision when selecting the type of shelter he wishes to have.

Improvised Protection

One of the simplest ways to improvise some anti-blast protection is to build a lean-to (bed springs or boards) against a workbench or heavy table, preferably in the basement, and pile mattresses on it and at the ends. If the material is readily available it could be built in a matter of minutes.

If you are in the open and there is a ditch or culvert within easy, quick reach, lie face down in it and cover your face with your arms. Make sure this shelter is not too close to buildings which could collapse into it. After the blast and heat of the explosion, you would have to find other protection against fallout that will come down later. None of these improvisations is as good as a properly equipped blast shelter, but any one of them could mean the difference between life and death.

Improvised Protection against Fallout

You may not have a fallout shelter when warning of approaching fallout is broadcast. Here are some tips on how to increase your protection in a basement. The amount of protection you can build will depend on how much

• You can improvise a small emergency shelter by using furniture, doors, dressers, workbench and other materials.
• Select a corner of your basement away from windows, in which to build your shelter. Remove inside house doors from hinges to use as a shelter roof over supports.
  
  Supports for the improvised roof can be cabinets, chests of drawers, workbench, or anything that will bear a heavy load. Use house doors as a roof surface to provide a base for the heavy material you will have to place on it. Bricks, concrete blocks, sand-filled drawers or boxes, books or other dense items on the roof will help reduce radiation penetration. Around the sides and front of your shelter build walls of dense materials to provide vertical shielding. A small cabinet or dirt-filled box as may be used as a crawl-in entrance that can be closed behind you.

• The heavier or more dense the material around you — the greater the protection.
• Block basement windows with earth, bricks, concrete blocks, books or even bundles of newspaper. In winter, use packed snow.
• On the floor above — the area you select as your shelter, pile any heavy objects you may have available, such as furniture, trunks filled with clothes, dirt-filled boxes, books, newspapers, or earth from outside.
• Outside — Against above ground walls of the basement around your shelter area heap earth, sand, bricks, concrete blocks or packed snow.
• If your home has no basement or crawl space, build your emergency shelter in that part of the house (center hall or clothes closet) farthest away from outside walls and the roof. Follow the same procedures as for a basement shelter (above).
  
  On the floor immediately above your shelter area, and against surrounding walls, pile up furniture, trunks, dressers, dirt filled boxes or other heavy material that will reduce radioactive penetration into your emergency shelter.