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December 2007
December 04, 2007
What Ever Happened to Storm and Defense Shelters?
When I was a kid, growing up at times in the Southland country particularly, virtually every home-place had a stand-alone below-the-ground concrete storm shelter. These often doubled as root-cellars to preserve fruits, vegetables, and root crops well into the spring.
During the 1960S, driven by the fears of nuclear holocaust, a surge of fall-out Shelters was a way of life. You were nothing if you had no well-stocked shelter. Though just a kid, it seemed to me that it was a given that if we had such a shelter that we and a few fortunate others might emerge to repopulate the barren, but brave new world. It didn't happen soon enough, and like 9/11, people have a tendency to forget such nonsense. But during the Cuban Missile Crisis I think even Khrushchev was of the same inkling. But a defensive emergency shelter makes more sense now than ever.
If I were doing it, and I might be, I would obtain one of those large steel storage pods, rent a backhoe, and bury it a away from the house. I'd be careful of cables and underground utilities, and I would do my best to provide longevity to the container by reinforcing it with fiberglass or some of the new almost magic polymers and sealants both inside and out, taking care to use one that is non-toxic--maybe made from soybeans (am I green enough?) Of course, due to my propensity for adventure and intrigue, I'd have a hidden trap-door to access the tunnel leading to the shelter, which would be accessible from both upstairs and downstairs. I always wanted a trapdoor as well as a fireman's sliding pole (well -hidden of course.)
To conceal it and aid in the passive heating and cooling as well as other obvious benefits, I would plant a vineyard on and/or around the surface of my shelter. They would leaf out broadly during the warm seasons, providing shade and fruit, and shed leaves for maximum sunlight in the cooler seasons. Maybe less enticing a target for marauders would be a thicket of briered but domesticated berries.
An underground cellar stays an even temperature-range year around and is comfortable if not a bit on the chilly side. This promotes the proper and long-life storage of MRE's and other steerable rations properly prepared. Heating and cooling is unnecessary. Of course there would be a turbine ventilator and an alternate escape tunnel/hatch to the outside--invisible above-ground; perhaps secured in a stump or decorative structure or maybe in the middle or beyond the vineyard are Brier thicket. A ventilated bird bath would be a though too, Plus you could use the collected rainwater in many scenarios. Of course a NBC filter (Nuclear,Biological,Chemical [although blocking out NBC stations would be a good thought too) would be available if needed,or permanently installed in the vents and openings.
It would be prudent to store proper foods, medical aids, utensils, bedding, and make cooking arrangements. A solar panel or two would provide light almost indefinitely. Maybe they could be made to look like, and maybe actually function partially as, an alternative energy source to
There are more than ten items here. It is from another of my blogs a couple of years back, but it came Home again to my attention due to the Earthquake in Haiti, and the Ice-Sorm that left so many without power where I live. I decided to repost it here.
