Those old bomb shelters
When I was a kid, there were "bomb shelter" signs all over, and we had civil defense drills like hiding under the desk or moving to inside hallways, and alert siren tests. That's all faded away.
But those shelters were mostly in general-purpose buildings, like libraries? Wouldn't they still be useful?
Here are the problems as I understand them:
Those shelters had no air-cleaning capability (the theory was that radioactive dust would settle quickly, so not much would be drawn in). Most did not even have ventilation systems that could provide enough air to do more than keep the stated number of people barely alive. And in a power outage, even that would go.
The shelters did generally stock water, but nowhere near enough, nor enough food.
Since the program is not maintained, many shelters are no longer usable, and even if they all were, there wouldn't be nearly enough for the current population. Also, people move around, and the shelters that are left probably aren't in the ideal places for where the population now is.
The little equipment shelters had, such as radiotion survey meters, have mostly been sold for surplus. Much of the rest has not been maintained, and may not work after this many years.
These shelters would be great for protecting you against individual bombing runs with conventional "dumb" exposive bombs -- the bomb hits the building next door, and you're fine. afterwards you come back out. That's not a likely scenario anymore.
You can find some shelter plans on the net if you want to build your own. But remember to consider the wide range of things you may want protection against, and the fact that such a shelter is a wager. Like buying insurance, you only "win" the bet if you lose. Building a life around that principle seems like a horrible waste.
Jesus said it well:
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Matthew 16:25).
Getting to the end of life and being able to look back and say "I was the best prepared for a nuclear attack" doesn't seem like much to look back at. Life is better spent on other things. Thus my philosphy of preparedness.
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