Cold War Fallout Shelters

[ramonmercado]

7 OF THE CREEPIEST COLD WAR FALLOUT SHELTERS
STEUART PITTMAN, HEAD OF THE U.S. FALLOUT SHELTER PROGRAM, DIED EARLIER THIS MONTH AT AGE 93. AS A REMINDER OF JUST HOW FRIGHTENING THE COLD WAR WAS, CHECK OUT THESE OLD FAMILY-STYLE BUNKERS FROM THE PAGES OF POPULAR SCIENCE.

• 
  
  Popular Science archives
  
  How To Shelter In Place: December, 1961
  
  "Any cover is better than none when the fallout rains down. Where the fallout falls depends on where the bomb hits and which way high-altitude winds blow." Read the rest of the story in the December 1961 issue of Popular Science.
  
  
• 
  
  Popular Science archives
  
  Fallout Shelter Basics: September, 1959
  
  "Planners figure a family of four could be housed in a room with a seven-by-seven foot floor area. That allows a little more than the 10 square feet per person considered a minimum for comfort. 'Basics' will include beds, food, water, sanitation facilities, lighting and a radio. To alleviate boredom, the designers experimented with variations in lighting. Both incandescents and fluorescents were used. Switching different ones off and on at intervals helped convey a feeling of the passage of time." Read the rest of the story in the September 1959 issue of Popular Science. ...

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-02/7-creepiest-cold-war-fallout-shelters?image=3?src=SOC&dom=tw

 

[GerdaWordyer]

7 OF THE CREEPIEST COLD WAR FALLOUT SHELTERS
STEUART PITTMAN, HEAD OF THE U.S. FALLOUT SHELTER PROGRAM, DIED EARLIER THIS MONTH AT AGE 93. AS A REMINDER OF JUST HOW FRIGHTENING THE COLD WAR WAS, CHECK OUT THESE OLD FAMILY-STYLE BUNKERS FROM THE PAGES OF POPULAR SCIENCE.

• 
  
  Popular Science archives
  
  How To Shelter In Place: December, 1961
  
  "Any cover is better than none when the fallout rains down. Where the fallout falls depends on where the bomb hits and which way high-altitude winds blow." Read the rest of the story in the December 1961 issue of Popular Science.
  
  
• 
  
  Popular Science archives
  
  Fallout Shelter Basics: September, 1959
  
  "Planners figure a family of four could be housed in a room with a seven-by-seven foot floor area. That allows a little more than the 10 square feet per person considered a minimum for comfort. 'Basics' will include beds, food, water, sanitation facilities, lighting and a radio. To alleviate boredom, the designers experimented with variations in lighting. Both incandescents and fluorescents were used. Switching different ones off and on at intervals helped convey a feeling of the passage of time." Read the rest of the story in the September 1959 issue of Popular Science. ...

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-02/7-creepiest-cold-war-fallout-shelters?image=3?src=SOC&dom=tw

 

[EnolaGaia]

For larger / public shelters see also:

Nuclear Bunkers
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/nuclear-bunkers.23688/

 

[Patrick30]

My wife tells a story about taking a group of teens overnight camping in a fallout shelter deep inside a Kentucky cave back when she was a young teacher. From her account it was a really creepy night.

 

[Yithian]

I have an interesting ebook about subterranean structures of the Cold War. It's a gazetteer of sorts.

Not my subject at all, but subject-wise it presses all of my buttons.

Will dig out details when I am at home. PM me if interested.

 

[AlchoPwn]

There is a new anti-Radiation drug in the works:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex-Rad

 

[SkepticalX]

When I lived in North Carolina back in the 1980s, I noticed my neighbor had a odd looking concrete slab in his backyard. It didn't take me long to figure out it was the roof of a Cold-War bomb shelter, just like the one they fought over in that episode of the Twilight Zone. Apparently the man had it built in the 1960s in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis. By the 80s, it was crumbling, moss covered, and half-filled with 20+ years of dank rainwater.

Even when new, I doubt the shelter would have worked. The contractors who built them for homeowners probably had no reliable guidelines from which to work. I wasn't home the day a crew came in, jackhammered it, and carted the pieces away. I always regret I never explored it a little more closely.

 

[Krepostnoi]

Even when new, I doubt the shelter would have worked.

Reminds me of the "badgers" in Bob Swindells' Brother in the Land (which describes the aftermath of a nuclear war from the point of view of a young lad living in Shipley. I grew up in Bradford, so there is a certain piquancy to reading about the impact on locations I know very well. The only surprise is that it took me so long to learn of the book's existence.) Swindells assumes that the shelters will work as intended, only to become the focus for survivors still on the surface. So if the outcome is a choice is between that or the council bunker depicted in Threads, you'd have to think the taxi fare to Ground Zero would be a much better investment, all things considered.

 

[FunkyTT]

Having grown up in the same area , I must read that book !!