You Will Survive Doomsday
By Bruce Beach
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Our purpose in publishing this document is to ameliorate
the effects of a nuclear holocaust for as many people
as we can reach, and to locate as many people as we
can who are willing and able to join our nuclear survival
group.
Table of Contents
MYTHS
Here are twenty-three myths that are repeatedly heard
(some much more often than others) that this document
tries to dispel.
- MYTH #01: Almost
everyone will suddenly be killed on doomsday.
- MYTH #02: Most
people would be quickly killed by the bomb blasts,
thermal radiation, or radioactivity.
- MYTH #03: You
can build an adequate shelter in your basement.
- MYTH #04: You
must filter the air coming into a shelter to remove
the fallout.
- MYTH #05: Water
would become radioactive.
- MYTH #06: There
would be no dangerous radioactivity after a couple
of weeks.
- MYTH #07: Radiation
sickness is not contagious so there is no danger in
assisting those affected.
- MYTH #08: Food
exposed to radiation becomes radioactive and is therefore
not edible.
- MYTH #09: If
you have a special radiation suit (like you
see in the movies and on TV) you will be protected
from the radiation.
- MYTH #10: New
crops of food grown in future years will not be radioactive.
- MYTH #11: There
is no such thing as a fallout pill.
- MYTH #12: There
is a fallout pill that will protect you from all radioactivity.
- MYTH #13: There
would be dangerous radioactivity for thousands of
years.
- MYTH #14: There
would be no dangerous radioactivity after a couple
of years.
- MYTH #15: You
are prepared if you have a two weeks emergency supply
of food stored.
- MYTH #16: You
should be prepared to be self-sufficient and be able
to survive on your own.
- MYTH #17: Any
survivors would have to live the rest of their lives
underground.
- MYTH #18: Life
after doomsday won't be worth living.
- MYTH #19: You
need not make any preparation because you are either
going to die in the holocaust or be saved (religious
connotation).
- MYTH #20: The
bombs today are so large and there are so many they
will destroy the world.
- MYTH #21: You
will receive adequate warning from your government.
- MYTH #22: You
will receive no warning, and there is no hope if you
do.
- MYTH #23: One
of the primary targets will be nuclear power plants.
This document is published by a nuclear survival group.
The group is not affiliated with any religious group
or other organization. We welcome inquiries from all
persons interested in joining our survival group. Send
email to survival@webpal.org
(Bruce Beach) for more details.
DOOMSDAY
MYTH #01: Almost everyone will suddenly be killed
on doomsday.
You will survive doomsday. And here you thought
that if it ever happened the bomb would fall right on
you. Probably not. It will more likely go like this.
One day, the inferior Russian computers may make a
mistake and decide that the US has already launched
a pre-emptory attack against Russia. The US warning
system has made that same sort of mistake many times
and a number of times we have gotten just minutes away
from launching our retaliation before the mistake was
discovered. Who is to say the Russians will always be
so smart?
Forty minutes after a missile is launched from Russia
it will be landing on its target in North America. Before
this occurs the US has just minutes within which to
respond or it will be caught with its missiles down.
The hotline to Russia happens to be not working (this
has also happened a number of times before). That is
one of the factors that entered into the Russians decision
to launch.
So, what's his name in the White House reaches for
a jellybean and pushes the button. Interception missiles
of course try to stop the Russian missiles before they
reach their first two primary targets, NORAD (NORthern
Air Defense) headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado
and its backup at North Bay, Ontario.
These are hardened underground computer and communication
sites that may require several bombs to wipe them out.
Given the number of missiles that may be intercepted
the Russians have sent a handful.
A better way to wipe out the communications of North
America is to just explode four thermonuclear devices
at a high altitude over the continent. These will generate
an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) that will knock out
most electric and electronic devices tied into the power
grids. It will also knock out any new devices that contain
IC's (integrated circuits) and that have an antenna
over thirty inches long. That means that your car radio,
portable radio, and television will be inoperable, even
if the power ever does come back on.
All over the continent the power and lights will suddenly
go off. If you happen to be listening to a battery operated
old tube type radio (when did you last see one of those?)
that is tuned into a "hardened" transmitter sight (I
don't know where you will find one) that transmits (fat
chance) the EBS (Emergency Broadcast Signal) then you
will know that doomsday has begun.
Otherwise you will be standing out there with the
rest of us survivors saying, "Nice day, eh? Strange
the power would go off on a nice day like this." Silence.
The sun will continue to shine, and the birds will sing,
and the breezes will blow and you will still not know
that they have a bit of a problem up in North Bay. They
are no longer there. Silence.
Eventually word may drift in. On the chance that there
is something to the rumor you decide to try to call
someone. Your spouse, a friend, a relative. Don't bother.
Silence. The telephone isn't working either. Even if
the EMP hadn't done it in, a mere power outage causes
such an overload of demand on the central exchange that
you couldn't even get a dial tone.
You are a survivor. Doomsday has occurred and
you are a survivor. While you are waiting for the spouse
and kids to get home maybe you should do something practical.
Like go down to the supermarket and lay in a bit of
an extra stock.
You may notice that the little corner store has closed.
If he has believed the rumor, he wants to save his stock.
And besides, your money may not be worth anything tomorrow.
You thought you had seen rapid inflation before but
this is like from zero to a million in sixty seconds.
At the supermarket, if you are early enough, you will
find pandemonium. If not, you will find practically
nothing. Maybe a large bag of dog food (take it) and
some cans of floor wax (forget it). The rest of the
stuff was all in those carts that you met come flying
up the walk as you came running down.
There won't be any girls at the cash registers, (they
have done their shopping and gone). Besides, the cash
registers aren't working anyhow, with no power. It may
have taken the hired manager a little longer to figure
out that he should grab what he can and head home to
his family, but he has probably gone now. The only cops
you will see are the one's grabbing stuff themselves.
If on the way back you spot a shopping basket with
something in it - think twice before helping yourself.
If there is an altercation there are probably no doctors
at the hospital to sew up the lacerations. Everyone
else is also too busy to bother calling an ambulance,
if they could, and one wouldn't be available if they
did.
Of course the trip to the supermarket may have been
nothing like that at all. It may have just been a bit
more active than usual but if most people haven't caught
on yet then we are very lucky. You just keep mumbling
under your breath. "Good people, good people - that's
the way, that's the way, just stay calm." This way we
can just go about doing what we have to do as quickly
as we can, while trying to not stir up panic. "Yes.
I understand the cash registers aren't working but please
let me just help you add this up by hand. No, that's
fine, just keep the change."
Then, of course, if everything is really this calm
we can take that good old plastic credit card and go
out and buy all the good survival stuff that we are
going to need and should have gotten beforehand. Don't
worry about paying for it, no one is ever going to send
you a bill. Getting the stuff home may be a bit of a
problem if the car isn't working (the EMP may have wiped
out that fancy electronic ignition). "No, that's fine.
You don't need to deliver it. I'll just put it here
in my little red wagon." But you sure don't want to
lug it all the way up to your thirty-second floor apartment,
if there is somewhere safe that you can stash it. "Can
you really believe that people are staying this calm?
How is it that we seem to be so much smarter than the
rest?"
More than likely you are now back home and all you
have is the fifty-pound bag of dog food. Are you really
going to be able to carry it up to your thirty-second
floor apartment? You know the elevators aren't working
of course. Then maybe you could hide it in the trunk
of your car in the garage- if no one sees you.
Ah, back home in the apartment. Home sweet home. The
kids are home from school now. Do you have enough guts
after that scene at the supermarket to send them out
to do some more scavenging? It isn't exactly a party
going on out there. Did you see Watts, Detroit, Washington
D.C., and Baltimore after some of their similar parties?
I did. I think I would keep the kids home. Not much
you can do except to wait for the spouse to walk home.
Shouldn't be more than a few hours.
The spouse finally makes it home. "What do you mean
all you got is fifty pounds of dog food? We don't even
have a dog." The electricity isn't on. We can't cook
anything anyway. Best to eat everything out of the refrigerator
before it spoils. Won't be anymore water as soon as
the gravity feed tanks on the roof empty. Hope you saved
a few pot's full. If everyone filled up their bathtubs
- it is all gone. It has gotten cold. Might as well
go to bed. There is no light to see anything by anyway.
Certainly not going out in those streets in this dark
with all that noise going on down there. Hopefully,
everything will look brighter in the morning.
Day Two
Morning comes early with the noise of people throwing
pots and pans over the sides of their balconies along
with the blankets, pillows and other things that it
saves them carrying down. Apparently some of the residents
are moving out. Perhaps you should too.
Everything looks better in the light, doesn't it?
TV still doesn't come on. Telephone isn't working either.
And you know what - the toilet doesn't flush. Can't
cook anything. Got to eat what you've got. See, that
wasn't so bad. Make it sort of a picnic. Eat it right
out of the can. There is not going to be any water to
wash dishes.
But see, we survived doomsday. Didn't even
see an explosion, hear a bomb, or anything. Maybe we
should sit down together and try to figure out what
we are going to do from here. The bombs may still be
coming. Probably are.
If the attacker's plans have gone according to schedule
they have probably finished with their primary targets.
They have hit the three Titan Wings in Kansas, Missouri
and Arkansas (three wings, eighteen missiles each, for
a total or fifty-four) or the things have landed in
Russia by now, so why bother. They have certainly been
knocking the bejammers out of Montana and the Dakotas.
Can't hear or see a thing from here of course. [Author's
update note: This is point is a little dated. The Titan
Wings have been decommissioned and both the U.S. and
Russia have now put much greater reliance upon the MUCH
greater and more reliable destructive power of MIRVed
warheads aboard nuclear submarines. The primary targets
are now most like submarine bases, to prevent more subs
from leaving port).
Then they will start on the secondary targets. All
the SAC (Strategic Air Command) bases both in the US
and around the rest of the world. Oh, they have lots
to keep them busy for a while. Cities themselves are
pretty far down the list. Maybe they won't even go for
them. Any airport with over a ten thousand foot runway
is pretty important however because the SAC could land
and refuel their bomber there. So you know where that
puts us. They will probably get around to us in the
next day or two.
There are two strategies of warfare. One is called
counterforce and the other is called countervalue.
With counterforce you knockout the enemy's forces so
he can't harm you. This can be very chivalrous like
the fighting codes of the knights of old. You never
harm the women and children.
On the other hand, with countervalue, you go after
everything the enemy holds dear in order to demoralize
him. This was the technique of the Mongolian hordes.
"Take no prisoners." "Eliminate the enemy." "The only
good Indian is a dead Indian." "Eliminate the Jews."
"Sock it to the Japs."
Women, children, babies, everybody goes.
Now the problem with countervalue warfare is if everybody
knows they are either going to win or die, some people
can get very tough. So maybe the best thing is to knockout
the military forces and hold the cities as hostage.
"Now, either surrender or we bomb the cities." Anyway,
the cities aren't generally the first targets.
And so here we sit. Unscratched, the day after
doomsday. But we can see some problems on the horizon.
Very possibly the city is going to be bombed in the
next day or two. Even if it isn't, how can we stay here?
The electricity is off. The heat is off. The water is
off. And it isn't coming back on. The elevators aren't
working. For older people it is "If we go down (if they
can go down), we can't come back up."
There is no more food in the grocery store. And there
won't be any more. (Unless you believe your government,
which says they will start delivering it in about two
weeks - want to bet?). Then there is that horrible stuff
called fallout that is going to start showing up in
about twenty-four to forty-eight hours, or sooner.
Now, we have all seen or heard about the book and
the movie "On The Beach", and Beach himself shows up
with the solution. A pocket full of cyanide pills.
If you want one he will give you one for each of your
kids or grandkids. There is only one catch. There are
only so many and I don't want them wasted. So you will
have to line up each of your children or grandchildren
in a row and pop it down their throats right while I
am here. How many of you will do it? "Here is your vitamin.
Open wide..."
No? Then you really are a survivor. Here you always
said you hoped the bomb would fall right on you and
then when I offered you an easy out... Oh well, it won't
be that bad. A world without electricity, automobiles,
radio, television, telephones, and supermarkets. And
maybe eventually with only twenty million people in
North America. (They won't all be Canadians).
But then, that is the kind of world that was here
in 1800. The people then didn't have cars, supermarkets,
movies, TV, radio, telephones, modern medicine, airplanes,
rockets, and computers. And they survived. They may
have even enjoyed life. Maybe even more than many people
do today with all their drugs, tranquilizers, and what
have you.
People generally are survivors. Put them out on an
ice floe in the middle of the arctic with no expectation
of rescue, no supplies - nothing - and they will hold
on. Some will even survive until they happen to be rescued.
So you are a survivor and you survived doomsday. But
you will eventually die. We will all eventually die.
That is the nature of this world. The question is not
whether or not you will possibly die, but how long you
will live, and what life will be like during that time.
So you have survived. And if you and your kids are
going to continue to survive you had better get the
heck out of the city. Not only is there the possibility
that there will be bombs but those little scenes down
at the supermarket, or anywhere else a little bit of
food happens to show up, are going to become more and
more unpleasant as anarchy prevails.
Moreover, without the toilets flushing and with no
one removing the dead bodies, health conditions are
really going to reach a state you just wouldn't want
me to describe. So, off to the country. But, how? And,
where?
Before actually departing for the country let us further
consider the alternative of staying in the city. Perhaps
you are convinced that the Russians would never really
get around to bombing your city. Or you feel you have
sufficient underground shelter if they do. Nothing,
of course, would protect you if there were a direct
hit on your shelter, but a good bomb shelter could certainly
give you very good protection as little as five miles
from ground zero.
The trouble is that subways and underground garages
are not designed as blast shelters. They do not have
blast vents and doors. Anyone in such a place, at the
time of blast, within a couple of miles of ground zero
will be subjected to a phenomenon called popcorning.
Minute particles of greatly accelerated sand will cause
blisters to pop out all over exposed parts of the body.
This, combined with several other pathological mechanisms,
will probably result in a rather painful death within
a few days.
Although the blast protection in an underground shelter
is much superior to being above ground there are reasons
that one is better off staying in their high-rise apartment
rather than going to a large public shelter if they
feel there is little or no danger of blast.
The public shelters have no supplies and no equipment.
The average designated public shelter is supposed to
shelter over three thousand people. Can you imagine
the anarchy and conditions there? Without food, the
first to die will be infants who are not being breast
fed. Other early candidates will be persons who require
special medications (especially the elderly) and anyone
who happens to be injured.
Not only will deaths have negative psychological effects
on the survivors, they will create severe sanitation
problems. There will be enough sanitation problems anyway
if the water and sewage systems are not working. Most
of the designated shelter locations do not have sanitary
provision for three thousand people in the first place.
One of the greatest hazards in an underground shelter
is carbon dioxide poisoning. The designated public shelters,
almost without exception, do not have adequate ventilation
for large numbers of people over a considerable period
of time. And the existing ventilation systems generally
depend upon electricity being available.
There are ventilation defense and survival techniques
available. However, if you were to try to implement
them in a large public shelter situation you would probably
be one of the first persons killed by the other survivors.
The reason is that most people have misconceptions about
either the air becoming radioactive, or containing radioactive
particles that they feel would be more dangerous than
the carbon dioxide.
Add to these problems the fact that you might not
have any light in the shelter, that anarchy may become
rampant, and that there will almost certainly be no
food, and perhaps, more importantly, no water and you
will see why no trained survivalist would want to be
caught dead in the place.
Returning to one's own high rise apartment, after
the danger of blast is past, gives much more favorable
opportunities for continued survival than given by remaining
in a public shelter. If you are ten or fifteen stories
above the ground the distance will probably adequately
protect you from any radiation from the fallout on the
ground. If there are ten or more stories above your
head then that distance will also protect you from fallout
on the roof.
The apartment dweller should try to secure an inner
room without any windows. A blast fifteen or more miles
away will knock out the windows and it is the glass
shards that will kill most people. Pulling drapes and
blinds are all helpful defenses. A blast wave will be
preceded by a brilliant flash of light. The survivor
will have from several seconds to three or four minutes,
depending upon the distance from the blast, to duck
behind a sofa or to take other shelter.
Training oneself to take similar immediate defensive
action can also help give protection from the intense
thermal radiation that accompanies a nuclear blast,
and that can start fires fifteen to twenty miles
from ground zero. Fires, in themselves, can be a problem
and if you are downwind from a large fire or firestorm
you have to watch out for carbon monoxide poisoning.
Fire defense techniques are generally well known so
I will not dwell upon them here. One thing you need
not do is call the fire department, if you could. There
is little they could do, if they were still around,
without central water supplies. But the thing you can
do is improvise closings to seal off all the apartments
above you, and those immediately below you, so that
fallout will not blow in and settle on the floors over
your head, or otherwise near you.
Now, it may be possible to organize your activities
with other survivors to become a cliff dweller like
those of old. A bucket on a rope might be used to haul
up water gotten from a nearby stream or pond, and waste
could be let down in the same way.
Some ingenuity may be required in providing heat and
light, but if you really have sufficient supplies of
food for yourself and your fellow survivors to hold
out until another crop can be planted and harvested
(most survivalists recommend at least two years supply),
and you seriously face up to the sanitation problems
created by morbidity, and you and your co-survivors
are sufficiently organized against anarchy, and there
are no more nearer bomb blasts - then you are probably
well on your way towards continued survival. At least
you are many times better off than being in a public
shelter.
There may be all sorts of reasons why you elect to
remain in the city rather than head for the country.
If the attack comes in the winter and you do not have
a planned escape route, adequate clothing and supplies
to make the trip, are not physically able to make the
trip, and do not have a known destination of refuge,
well then...
Those who have most prepared themselves and have made
the best plans should pray that their flight does not
come in the winter. During a storm, or severely cold
weather, it is very likely that many more persons may
be killed by exposure than by any other single cause.
The roads and highways will most likely be jammed. If
there has been an explosion in the vicinity then overpasses
and utility lines may have been dropped onto the roadways
making them unusable.
Even without a blast having occurred, traffic jams,
accidents, or vehicles just running out of gas will
probably create bottlenecks that completely clog the
roads. Once people find themselves just sitting there,
not moving, they will abandon their vehicles. My guess
is you can forget using an automobile for escape unless
you had a plan and immediately implemented it before
the general panic set in.
A motorcycle, scooter, or even a bicycle might offer
certain advantages over an automobile. One might carry
a smaller form of conveyance on a larger one and then
implement the smaller means of conveyance, such as a
bicycle, when that became the necessity.
The most dependable means of escape would probably
remain walking. If one had to walk all the way out,
and they were in any physical shape at all, they could
surely do it in two or three days. Once again, proper
preparation can make all the difference. Proper walking
gear, proper survival clothing, a planned escape route,
proper selection of material to be packed, and proper
allocation of loads.
And, as before, there are better alternatives. One
could have pre-arranged pickup points and times with
co-survivors coming from the refuge destination, or
in a worsening pre-crisis situation you may have made
an early dispersal. But the greater likelihood is that
anyone with a practical survival plan who reacts immediately
can get out well before the rush sets in.
Just getting out into the country, or to the other
side of the mountain, will increase the survivability
factors for many people. The threats of blast and thermal
radiation will have been greatly reduced. But blast
and thermal radiation while very nasty in their effects
are not going to kill that many people anyway. Oh, they
will kill millions, but as a percentage of the people
living the day before doomsday they will, combined,
kill only ten to fifteen percent. And most of these
will be a considerable distance from the blast and will
eventually die as a result of injuries caused by the
broken glass shards.
As stated before, depending upon the time of year
and the weather, many more may be killed by exposure.
But there is still another big killer coming. That is
of course the fallout from the weapon explosions that
took place many hundreds of miles away. This fallout
may require from a few hours to a day or two to arrive.
If the weather permits, and the survivors know what
they are doing, they may still have time to build an
expedient shelter against the fallout.
Techniques for defense against fallout have been developed
and tested at great expense by almost every nuclear
nation. While information on these techniques has been
made readily available, most people have not availed
themselves of it.
Two basic techniques are available. One is to leave
the contaminated area. But the extent of the contaminated
area may be far too wide to escape, or one may not have
accurate information as to the delineation of the contaminated
area, or they may not have the means of transportation,
nor the means of survival should they reach a radiation
free area.
The other basic means is to provide shelter within
the contaminated area. Weather, ground, and time conditions
permitting it is possible to dig a trench and cover
it with dirt supported by poles, wooden doors, or a
vehicle. Properly designed, such an expedient shelter
can make all the difference between avoiding the effects
of fallout radiation, and not avoiding those effects.
The details of how to build an expedient shelter are
to be found in books listed in the bibliography.
One of the most important and often overlooked factors
in designing a shelter is the matter of providing an
airpump so as to eliminate the problem of carbon dioxide
poisoning. The technique for building such an expedient
pump from materials readily available in time of crisis
is also found there.
The effect of fallout radiation is not always death,
although many times it is. Even if it is death it is
not immediate death. Intense radiation causes a very
painful, and horrible death (what the literature calls
a hard death) over several days. More likely
the effects are drawn out over a period of weeks, months,
or even years. As the title of this document points
out, all these people will have survived doomsday. It
is not a question of survival but the condition of survival
with which we must concern ourselves. Everyone will
die eventually but it is the quality of life in the
interim that is of importance.
MYTH #02 Most people would be quickly killed by the
bomb blasts, thermal radiation, or radioactivity.
By the second year after doomsday the combined affects
of blast, thermal radiation, and fallout will probably
have resulted in some immediate, but mostly delayed,
deaths accumulating to 35% of the population that were
living on doomsday. Deaths that can be directly attributed
to radiation and weapon related injuries will continue
until five years after doomsday so that by that time
40% of the population that was living on doomsday may
no longer be surviving because of the above named factors.
However, the total population surviving five years
after doomsday will probably be only 20% of the number
that was living on doomsday) Obviously, nearly half,
or perhaps more than half, of the fatalities will be
directly contributable to causes other than the bombs.
What then are these equally effective causes of post
doomsday mortality? They are exposure, starvation, plagues,
and anarchy. While the threat of chemical and biological
warfare is not to be ignored the primary causes of these
means of mortality can be looked upon as being more
natural. That is to say they will just result
naturally from the breakdown of the social infrastructure
that we regularly depend upon for day to day survival.
The four factors that will determine survival are
- Location
- Knowledge
- Preparation
- Luck
On doomsday most people will be living outside of
areas that will be struck in initial attacks by blast
or thermal radiation. Many others will already be living
in areas that will never be damaged by blast or thermal
radiation. Both of these groups, if they have the knowledge
of what to do, and have made the proper preparations,
will very likely find themselves in the group of survivors
who are living unharmed five years after doomsday when
the surviving population has once again established
some semblance of order and is once again multiplying
and replenishing the earth.
Selecting and Designing a Shelter
MYTH #03: You can build an adequate shelter in your
basement.
For a number of reasons, basement shelters do not
offer the amount of protection that is commonly supposed.
A proper analogy between them and a survival installation
as described later in this document would be to compare
a plank with a well-equipped and commanded lifeboat.
This is not to say, that if someone finds themselves
in the water from a sunken vessel, it is not well to
advise them to grab hold of a plank and start paddling
in the direction that one hopes there lies shore, if
there is no better means of survival, such as a lifeboat,
or raft.
Similarly, there is very little protection afforded
(starting from the rooftop down) by a layer of shingles,
a foot or two of light insulation (composed mainly of
air-spaces for the purpose of retaining heat), a quarter
to half inch of plaster board, some paint, a carpet
on the floor, another layer or two of thin boards, and
perhaps some paneling or ceiling tiles if the basement
is finished. The distance between the roof and the basement
(a two-story house offers more than a bungalow in this
way) does allow some additional protection, but this
factor, along with the combined density of all the matter
described, would not equal more protection than would
be afforded by six to eight inches of earth.
When, within such a basement situation, one starts
to create an expedient shelter using, as is usually
advised, such materials as bookcases and trunks (filled
with earth if possible), there are certain design errors
that are liable to creep in. Piling dirt or other material
on the floor above will help but the greatest dangers
will be from the areas outside the basement wall where
the foundation extends above the ground. It is best
to keep ones shelter at least three feet below the outside
ground level, and to have at least three feet of soil
above one's head.
The next most overlooked problem is that of proper
ventilation, so as to avoid carbon dioxide poisoning.
As stated before, most survival experts advise a location
other than the basement for such reasons as the threat
of carbon monoxide poisoning in case of fire, broken
gas mains, and the threat of fire itself that may result
from the wide spread firestorms caused by the thermal
radiation associated with a nuclear blast.
There are certain advantages to a basement shelter.
One may have access to necessities such as food, clothing,
and blankets stored in the home. There may still be
water available from the hot water tank. And, most importantly,
one may feel certain psychological comfort by being
in the familiar surroundings of their own home. None
of these advantages of course hold a candle to the advantage
of being in a properly equipped and manned survival
center.
MYTH #04: You must filter the air coming into a shelter
to remove the fallout.
One of the general misconceptions regarding fallout
and fallout shelters is that the air itself may become
radioactive. This is simply not true. Those with a little
learning will then say "Ah, yes, but it will contain
radioactive particles of fallout". That is true, but
a properly designed air intake, even for an expedient
shelter, will cause most of the particles to drop out
of the air flow before the air enters the shelter.
Should the number of particles still suspended in
the air be a problem, an expedient filter, such as a
damp sheet hung in the air intake passageway, will do
an adequate job of filtering the air.
If the air vents do not have automatic blast valves
then the air passage should be quickly shut and remain
shut for a few minutes after the brilliant flash of
a nearby nuclear explosion (so as to prevent the popcorning
effect described earlier). The air passages will have
to be shut in every case where there is a large fire
nearby that is generating carbon monoxide that would
otherwise seep into the shelter.
Most expedient shelters will not have precautions
such as those just described. The danger of carbon monoxide
poisoning is one of the main reasons that most survival
experts recommend that even if one has a basement in
their house it is preferable to build an expedient shelter
a considerable distance outside and away from existing
structures in case of fire.
MYTH #05: Water would become radioactive.
As has been mentioned before, the materials necessary
for building an airpump, and an expedient radiation
detector, are available in almost every home. Anyone
planning on attempting to use the basement survival
method should obtain ahead of time the detailed instructions
for building these devices, and store these instructions
in their home, along with an emergency supply of food
and containers for storing approximately 14 gallons
of water for each individual that is going to be accommodated.
There is a similar misconception about water becoming
radioactive as there is about air becoming radioactive.
This may have something to do with misconceptions about
the nature of heavy water, but we won't go into
that here. Radioactive particles do become suspended
in water, however, and that is why for the shelter confinement
period, you must make sure that you have a sufficient
store of potable water available ahead of time.
During the recovery period, after radiation has decreased
to the point where it is safe to work outside, there
are techniques for letting fallout settle out of water,
and for distilling water, in order to make sure that
it is safe for drinking and cooking. However, far from
keeping air and water out of a shelter, it is absolutely
necessary to life that they be available.
While an expedient shelter could mean the difference
between life and death, it is probably not something
that you would want to continue to use for a very long
time.
MYTH #06: There would be no dangerous radioactivity
after a couple of weeks.
There is a wide range of misconceptions about what
is safe and what is not. The matter is sufficiently
complicated that a person should have professional advice.
However, if there was no doctor going to be available
to set a broken leg I presume you would go ahead and
do the best you could. And if one had to build a bridge
to get across a river and there was no structural engineer
around, again I presume one would have a go at it.
Doctor's would like to have their x-ray machines available
when setting a leg, and engineers would like to have
their surveying equipment, specification guides, and
computers or slide rules when they are building a bridge.
So you can well imagine a radiological defense officer
would like to have radiation detection equipment available
when giving advice in a radiation defense situation.
However, if the advise, expertise, or equipment, is
not available, one must go on. One rule of thumb is
that if there is not enough fallout that you can see
it, then there is not enough of it that it will kill
you. Fallout is usually small grain dust or grit, often
having a light color, but not always. It depends upon
its source. The best place to spot it is on a smooth
surface, like the hood of a car.
The more dense fallout is, probably the greater the
hazard, although there isn't necessarily a direct correlation.
It may fall thick enough that quite a little heap of
it may be brushed up from a surface that is one foot
square. It is possible to build, from common materials
found around the home, an expedient radiation detection
meter. The details for such a meter are found in books
listed in the bibliography.
Even if one has commercially available radiation detection
equipment there is still some considerable skill required
in its use. For example, almost all survey equipment
is designed to be used by an adult of normal stature.
This means that if the equipment is held in the hand
of a walking adult it will tell how much radiation is
being received 3 1/2 feet above the ground, and particularly
by the adults vital organs which are above that level.
A child's or an infant's vital organs will be below
that level and will be exposed to much more hazardous
levels than an adult's. For this reason, if one is passing
through an area that is suspected to have any radiation
at all, a child should be carried on an adult's shoulders.
There is another rule of thumb that for every seven
fold increase in time radioactivity will decrease by
ten fold. This is called the seven/ten rule. This is
based upon standard decay. It is useful as an example,
for training, and in building theoretical models, but
in actual practice the decay rate is likely to be something
quite different. It is determined by the isotopic composition
of the matter under consideration.
There is another commonly held misconception among
semi-trained individuals that low levels of radiation
cannot be rapidly fatal. Someone, after several days
in the confines of a cramped expedient shelter, might
conclude that because their meters now indicate a very
low level of radioactivity (or perhaps no radioactivity
if it is a high-range instrument), that it would now
be all right to go outside and sleep on the ground in
the cool breezes beneath the bright summer stars.
The fallacy again arises from taking measurements
at a level that assumes the vital organs are well above
the radiation source. This is not the case when a person
is stretched out on the ground for long hours of sleep.
These long hours of low level radiation exposure to
the vital organs will result in a fatality in just a
few days.
Likewise, perfectly healthy adults who take infants
out of the cramped, unpleasant, expedient shelter to
allow them to play during the day on a blanket spread
out on the ground will be quite shocked to see those
infants sicken and die in just a few days while they
themselves remain healthy. The infant's vital organs
again being close to the weak radiation source for a
long period while the adults' vital organs are being
protected by distance.
MYTH #07: Radiation sickness is not contagious so
there is no danger in assisting those affected.
The statement that radiation sickness is not contagious
is often found in the literature. That is true. The
erroneous conclusion is drawn, however, that being around
persons with radiation sickness is not dangerous. The
danger arises from the manner in which radiation kills.
Sufficient radiation can cook the vital organs, but
more often what happens is that it kills the white corpuscles
and the ability of the bone marrow to make more of them.
It is the white corpuscles that are the body's defenders
against viruses, bacteria, and other disease causing
bodies.
Once these defenders are lost the person succumbs
to a disease they might have otherwise warded off, and
once that disease takes hold in the individual they
may become highly contagious.
In this manner there is grave danger of plagues breaking
out, and all sorts of illnesses one does not generally
see, becoming very threatening. For this reason rigorous
quarantine, sanitary measures, and health defense measures
must be imposed and enforced.
Becoming aware of such unexpected and unpleasant snares
may initially make one feel that the situation is hopeless.
The danger really arises from a person's unfamiliarity
with the circumstances. There is the story of the explorer
who asked the young native if there were crocodiles
in a certain stream. He was assured there were not.
While then swimming in the stream he once again saw
the young lad on the bank and asked for reassurance
that there were no crocodiles. "Oh no sir!", replied
the shocked young fellow, "They won't come here. They
are all afraid of the piranha."
The young fellow would have found himself equally
in danger from things with which he was not familiar
in our society, like automobiles and electrical appliances.
It is not that the hazards are so onerous, but simply
that we are not familiar with them.
FOOD - Some Important Considerations
MYTH #08: Food exposed to radiation becomes radioactive
and is therefore not edible.
Food is the most serious problem. Most food that is
in the house will not be harmed by the radiation, no
matter how intense. There are three types of radiation
that are found in fallout. Alpha particles, beta particles,
and gamma rays. As the first two names indicate, they
are particles. They are minute (too small to be seen)
pieces of atomic matter that attach themselves to the
fallout (bits of dust that may or may not be large enough
to be seen).
In any case, these particles may be simply washed
off many types of foods that have a natural covering,
such as eggs, bananas, potatoes, oranges, etc., or off
well sealed foods such as those in vacuum packed cans.
Foods such as grains (rice, dry cereals, etc.) that
are in partially used packages that have been opened
should be viewed with suspicion. Fallout dust may have
crept in.
The food in its unopened container or natural covering
should be rinsed under flowing water and then placed
on a surface that has been similarly cleansed, before
opening. Make sure that the hands (and under the nails)
have been thoroughly cleansed before handling the food.
There is little danger in handling such articles. The
radiation given off by these particles is so weak that
it will often not even penetrate something as thin as
the cellophane wrapper on a package of cigarettes.
You may then ask "Why, then, be concerned?" The reason
is that once these minute particles are ingested into
the biological system they will get into the organs
and the very bone marrow itself where they can do a
lot of damage. This is not to say that you need not
worry about getting the alpha and beta particles on
your skin. You do. Because they can cause skin burns.
However, good hygiene practice can eliminate that problem
but they are a much more severe hazard internally than
externally.
MYTH #09: If you have a special radiation suit
like you see in the movies and on TV you will be protected
from the radiation.
As an aside, this is one of the reasons that those
fallout or radiation suits that you see in all
the pictures and movies and on TV are such a joke.
Those things are not going to protect the guy from anything,
that a couple of good garbage bags wrapped around his
feet and made into a hood to go over his head, would
not do as well. In fact the garbage bags are in many
ways better. They would be considered disposable.
The main purpose of the fallout suits is to prevent
the wearer from tracking the fallout into the shelter.
The user simply takes the suit off at the door. If the
person were to wear it on inside, it would defeat the
purpose. There are some clean handling techniques that
are beneficial to know and practice, but in a wartime
situation there is so much of the stuff around that
peacetime standards of exposure and cleanliness lose
their meaning.
The gamma rays are another matter. They are very penetrating.
No fallout or radiation suit is going to protect you
from them. It requires much more dense matter to protect
you than you could lift, let alone lug around. This
is why one must remain in a shelter when there is intense
radiation. With good housekeeping there should not be
so much dust inside a shelter as to create a hazard
from gamma rays. However, be sure to dispose of the
contaminated rinse water that you have used for cleaning
the food containers and persons returning from outside.
It may contain matter that is giving off gamma rays.
There will probably not be sufficient fallout on the
food packages (or you can get rid of it quickly enough)
that you need concern yourself about the amount of gamma
radiation that you are going to get from that source
during the decontamination process. However, the food
may have been stored in an area that has received very
intense radiation. That can of beans or peaches may
have been stored right out there where it was receiving
1000 roentgens of radiation per hour. An amount that
would have killed you right away. But it will not be
harmed.
That is right. It is perfectly edible. If it were
not so I would have told you. It is only living things
that radiation hurts. Even then it depends upon the
frequency and intensity of the radiation. For example,
there are all sorts of radio and TV waves going right
through where you are sitting right now and they are
not harming you.
The food in the can is already dead and the gamma
rays are not going to harm it. They will not make it
radioactive. If the radiation is strong enough it may
kill any bacteria that happen to still be living in
the food and thus preserve it even further. If the food
is supposed to contain bacteria (such as yogurt) I am
not sure what it would do for that!
Radiation preservation of food is a technique that
is already being used in industry and will probably
become much more widely used in future years. Many people
already have radiation (microwave) ovens in their homes
today. One further analogy. Fire will kill living animals
but we use it to cook our food. You really shouldn't
be overly frightened about radiation, either.
MYTH #10: New crops of food grown in future years
will not be radioactive.
Food that is grown in radioactive soil, or that has
not yet been harvested when, fallout falls on it is
another matter. This food will absorb the particles
of radioactive matter into its own structure and thus
become dangerous.
The biological food chain acts as a marvelous strainer
and concentrator of radioactive isotopes. This was well
demonstrated in certain tests that took place at Almagordo.
From some intentional surface bursts and because of
the unintentional venting of some underground bursts
there was some fallout carried onto the milkshed for
southern Utah.
The amount of fallout deposited over the surface was
so slight that the most selective instruments could
not detect it. An atomic or nuclear explosion releases
its great amounts of energy by changing some matter
into energy. It also changes certain amounts of matter
into new and different types of matter. Without going
into detail about atomic theory, the nature of the atom
with its electron rings, and its nucleus consisting
of protons and varying number of neutrons, let us simply
say that these new forms of matter are generally unstable
isotopes. That means they are going to change into another
form of matter.
Once again, the matter, in the process of changing
from one state to another, releases certain amounts
of energy. It is this energy that we measure as radioactivity.
The energy, depending upon the isotope involved, may
be rapidly dispelled or it may continue to be released
for a very, very long time. Most unstable isotopes release
their energy and transform into a stable state within
fractions of a second or at least within minutes after
a nuclear explosion. Others take hours, and still others
days, weeks, or months. Some take centuries.
Each isotope starts out with just so much energy.
For all practical purposes we can say it is not going
to get any more. Once that isotope has released all
its excess energy it will become stable. Since the isotope
releases its energy at a specified rate we can say how
long it will take to lose half of its energy. After
that, it will then take the same length of time again
for it to lose (give off) one half of the remaining
amount of energy. Question: When will all of the energy
be given off by the isotope?
An ancient Greek philosopher posed the same problem.
He said, "Suppose there is a bear at the back of a cave.
On the first day the bear walks halfway to the entrance.
On the next day he walks half of the distance that remained
to the entrance after the first day. And on the day
following the bear walks half of the distance that remained
to the entrance from the previous day. The bear continues
to do this same thing on each subsequent day. He walks
half of the distance to entrance of what was left from
the previous day. The question is: when will the bear
get out of the cave?"
The answer is: "Never." This sort of regression is
what mathematicians call asymptotic. That is to say
the figures continue to approach zero, closer and closer,
but they never reach it. So just as the bear never gets
out of the cave, all of the energy is never lost. But
much (one half) of the energy is lost in the first half-life.
And three quarters of the energy is lost by the end
of the second half-life. After ten half lives a very
large percentage of the energy is gone.
It is because so much of the energy is lost in the
early periods (half-lives), as compared to the later
periods, that it is important to be in shelter during
the early periods after fallout has fallen. We might
divide the half-life times of radioactive isotopes into
three categories. Very short term, medium term, and
very long term.
As mentioned earlier, most of the unstable isotopes
generated by an atomic or nuclear explosion are very
short term. They give off all their significant amounts
of energy in a matter of seconds. Unless you are within
very close range of an atomic or nuclear bomb there
will be no way for this radiation to reach you. It was
this initial radiation that caused the horrible radiation
burns and sickness at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
First the good news. There will not be any persons
subjected to long suffering from the initial radiation
by the nuclear weapons of today. The bad news is that
the reason why is that the weapons blast such a large
hole or create such a large area of complete destruction
that the initial radiation can't escape. That is to
say the totally destructive blast extends beyond the
range of the initial radiation.
On the other hand, the survivors of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki did not have much problem with fallout. The
first major victims of fallout were some fishermen many,
many miles downwind from the Bikini Island tests. Fallout
is a phenomenon much more associated with nuclear weapons.
Nevertheless, there was fallout in Southern Utah.
As stated before, it was so slight it could not be detected
by the most sensitive instruments. The specific matter
of interest in southern Utah was the isotope 131 of
iodine. This was absorbed by minute bacteria in the
soil. In the process of filtering the iodine out of
the soil the bacteria greatly concentrated it.
The bacteria were absorbed by legumes and other biological
forms higher in the food chain. Each in turn further
concentrated the iodine isotope.
Finally, after the iodine had found its way into the
grass a cow came along and ate it. Now a cow is a very
complex organism in itself. There are all sorts of biological
activities going on in a cow. Various organs and the
bone marrow filter out different minerals for different
purposes. One of these complex systems forms milk. This
particular cow, and hundreds of others like it, was
milked, and the milk was bottled and distributed to
children all over the area of southern Utah.
The children were also complex biological organisms.
They in turn had numbers of specific organs that specialized
in straining out various minerals and compounds from
the food that they consumed. The end result was that
their thyroids once again concentrated the iodine 131.
And this to such an extent that if you held a radiation
detector next to their necks it buzzed like a rattlesnake.
This was not healthy.
In fact numerous problems developed among the population.
There were a great number of mentally retarded children
born, and a number of other unpleasant ramifications.
This need not have occurred from the iodine 131 if we
had known what we know today.
MYTH #11: There is no such thing as a fallout pill.
There is a simple pill that would have prevented the
difficulty. It is supplied in every nuclear emergency
kit in Russia and available in Denmark and Sweden. Unfortunately
it is not sold in North America.
Fortunately, however, the pill is quite simple to
make. Ahead of time, obtain a quantity of potassium
iodide from your local drug store. Five dollars worth
should be lots. When needed, take a regular glass and
fill it a fourth or less full of water, and then slowly
start pouring in the potassium iodide while thoroughly
stirring the water.
Don't worry about how much you pour in. You cannot
pour in too much. After a while you will notice that
the chemical no longer dissolves in the water. It just
lies there on the bottom. This means that the water
is saturated. You can now stop pouring in the chemical.
More will not help or hurt.
Next take an eyedropper, or a soaked piece of paper
if you do not have an eyedropper, and drop four drops
onto a little piece of bread for an adult. Or two drops
for a child. If you get several times that amount it
is not going to harm you (although in much larger amounts
it is a poison).
Now take some butter or margarine and make a little
ball out of the bread and pop it down. Tastes awful.
Ugh. Take once a day for 100 days after the last bomb
falls. This is good stuff and you should have it around
for reasons other than defense in case of a nuclear
war.
If you live anywhere within in a couple of hundred
miles of a nuclear generating plant you might suddenly
find yourself needing the stuff. The US department of
Health rushed a supply of pills to Three Mile Island
and they have a standard brochure all printed ready
for distribution in case it or some similar site vents.
The department of defense also keeps a supply near
the old Titan sites that are deteriorating and breaking
down. [Author's update note: Once again those sites
have been now decommissioned and no longer present a
problem, but much greater concerns now arise from Terrorist
Threat, and the U.S. Government is now stockpiling in
many cities not only these pills but others for Bateriological
and Chemical Threats]. Canadians have nothing. I'll
take that back. They do have lots of nuclear plants
and the distinct possibility of bombs exploding over
their heads and on their soil.
The reason why the potassium iodide works is that
the thyroid will absorb only so much iodine. After that,
any iodine taken into the body is passed off by the
kidneys. Since the body already has all the good stuff
it wants it passes out the bad stuff. This is what we
call thyroid blocking.
Do not try to use the tincture of iodine that you
put onto cuts. Taken internally it will kill you. And
you cannot eat enough iodized salt to do you any good.
You would get salt poisoning long before you got sufficient
iodine to do the job.
MYTH #12: There is a fallout pill that will protect
you from all radiation.
I wish I could tell you about another pill that would
solve all your radiation and other problems. But there
is none. Unless you mean the cyanide pill mentioned
earlier and things really are not that gloomy. As I
hope I have carefully explained, most of the radiation
we have to be concerned about from a nuclear bomb will
decay in a matter of days or weeks to a level where
we can deal with it.
MYTH #13: There would be dangerous radioactivity for
thousands of years.
You may say "I've heard that some radiation will be
around for thousands and even hundreds of thousands
of years". Yes, but those isotopes are our friends.
(That may be putting it a bit strongly.) Anyway, they
are not near so harmful as many people think. There
is the point of view that no radiation is good for you.
Some dermatologists maintain that you should not even
get a suntan. (Yes, that is radiation that you get from
the sun.)
There is even the theory that it is cosmic radiation
that causes both overall genetic change, aging, and
death. In any case we are all subjected to many sources
of radiation every day. The question is not whether
or not you are going to receive radiation, but how much
and how quickly. Let us compare the radiation we are
concerned about with another type of radiation. Heat.
Just as we measure radioactivity in roentgens we measure
heat in calories. If I were to tell you that that pipe
over there was going to put off a million calories of
heat, you might say, "Let me get away from it!". But,
if I then said that it was going to be over the next
million years, at the rate of one calorie per year,
you would realize that you were in greater danger of
freezing to death than of burning to death if you were
depending upon that pipe for heat.
It is not how much heat is going to be given off (it
may be a large amount) but how much over what period
of time. A mere two hundred calories suddenly inflicted
upon one point of the skin would create a bit of a sting,
but hundreds of thousands might be comfortably absorbed
from a heating pad over an appropriate period of time.
It is the same with radiation. Most isotopes give
off their energy so rapidly that they are like flash
bulbs. Flash and they are gone. It just happens right
in the vicinity of the bomb. Others are like regular
light bulbs that give off their light and heat for some
period of time before they burn out. They may travel
a long way from the bomb as fallout before they dissipate
their energy. For these we need a shelter to protect
us if we are in their vicinity. Nothing else will do.
Still others are like those small luminescent lights
that some people put in their bathrooms for night-lights.
Only weaker still. They just sit there and barely glow
for a very long period of time.
Little miniature flashlight bulbs or matches are a
good analogy to fallout particles. One or two of them
in a room with you will not harm you. But surely you
can imagine the situation where if you had thousands
and thousands the light would either be blinding or
the heat so intense that you would be incinerated.
Fallout is just the same way. A few pieces inside
a shelter with you will not harm you, but if you go
outside where there are millions of the little beasts
lying around then you have had it. The only difference
between their radiation and the radiation from a little
flashlight bulb or a match is that it is invisible radiation
that you cannot see or feel - like that from an x-ray
machine.
MYTH #14: There would be no dangerous radioactivity
after a couple of years.
After having explained all this, now I must tell you
that there are some isotopes that unfortunately do not
fall into either the short range of initial radiation
(which we do not need to worry about because it does
not extend out of the blast area), nor the medium range
(that you will be protected from by a fallout shelter),
nor the very long range (that decays over so many hundreds
of years that their energy is too weak to concern us
here).
These remaining isotopes are real meanies. There may
be solutions to the problems they present but there
are no simple solutions. There will not be enough of
them around that they will make walking around dangerous
for most people but the problem is that they get into
the food chain and that they have relatively short half-lives,
between five and 30 years.
That means that during the next couple of hundred
years they are going to be giving off most of their
energy. Fortunately, some of them are rather rare, and
given that they are going to be widely dissipated in
worldwide fallout we can largely ignore their effects.
Others may be concentrated in certain areas, certain
types of soil and certain foods where we can avoid them
also.
So they will not be that serious a problem.
Some others, however, particularly Cesium 137 and
Strontium 90, present mayor problems in keeping them
out of the food chain. Even here, there are available
defense techniques. For example lime, gypsum, fertilizer,
or organic matter (in practical amounts) may be applied
to low calcium soil, or naturally high calcium soil
may be used for growing certain crops which have an
uptake preference for calcium over strontium.
There are known refining and purification techniques
for some foods and milk, and there are some new techniques
which I have discussed with some of the researchers
at some of the leading nuclear laboratories, but which
the world isn't ready to hear about as yet.
These methods along with others such as land denial,
deep plowing, surface scraping, and selective utilization,
are harsh realities that are going to have to be faced
by the long-range survivors.
MYTH #15: You are prepared if you have a two weeks
emergency supply of food stored.
More important to the present theme are questions
as to what preparations survivors should be making ahead
of time. Since it will take a while to get crops growing
again because of social disorganization, ozone depletion
in the atmosphere, climatic changes, crop adaptation,
early crop failures, soil deprivation, and similar factors,
survivors will need a couple of year's supply of food.
Wheat and honey are the only two basic foods, of which
I am aware, that have an indefinite shelf life. Thousand
year old kernels found in the pyramids have still sprouted.
Fortunately, these two foods, wheat and honey, meet
most adult nutrient requirements. Powdered milk will
be necessary if one wishes to reduce the infant mortalities.
The infants will not survive otherwise, unless their
mothers have adequate natural milk, which is unlikely.
Salt is important as a preservative, among other purposes.
In addition to storing the four basic survival foods
(wheat, honey, powdered milk and salt), it is highly
advisable that one also store a couple of year's supply
of a variety of (non-hybrid) seeds. Some seeds will
not store very well and need to be continually replaced.
It is equally important to develop certain skills.
Gardening skills. I particularly recommend the
area of hydroponics because this would be one way to
grow foods free of contamination. Preserving skills.
Here I recommend learning to dry foods using hot air.
Freeze-drying requires too much elaborate and expensive
equipment and freezing itself is not reliable when electricity
is not reliable. Preparation skills. Bread making,
use of lentils, and making of many foods, or their substitutes,
that today are commonly gotten in prepared form.
On all of these subjects one could write a book. Indeed
many books have been written on them. Even if one does
not have time to immediately develop all these skills
they might do well to get themselves a survival library
and then as a next step acquire the essentials in materials
listed in checklists in most well organized manuals.
MYTH #16: You should be prepared to be self-sufficient
and be able to survive on your own.
The very best thing that a survival minded person
can do, after preparing for themselves an equipped place
of refuge, and developing their own survival skills,
is to associate themselves with other skilled survivalists.
No one person can know everything, and almost everyone
can contribute something. Agricultural, medical, mechanical,
communicator, you name it, all skills will be needed.
Few people could afford the equipment that an organization
can have. One well-equipped laboratory for testing for
alpha and beta particles in food costs $5,000. Along
with other radiation detection equipment and many other
types of emergency supplies, what individual can afford
it? Yet no nuclear survival group should be without
one.
Even in building a shelter the mayor expense is the
entrance and support mechanisms such as emergency lighting,
water source, etc. The incremental cost for space for
one additional individual is quite small. Thus, the
greater the number of people the overall cost can be
spread over, the less the average cost.
Moreover, no individual has the personal resources
that a group has. If the head of a single family survival
group is injured or lost the chances of survival for
that group are much reduced. However, if it is a large
group then there are numbers of people available to
continue to give support. Just like there are numbers
of people available to maintain twenty-four hour watches,
or to create a well manned convoy to go after necessary
supplies. One more prepared and equipped individual
added to such a group is an asset, whereas in a situation
like a public shelter, one more unprepared and unequipped
individual is just another liability.
A successful survival group will have to be either
completely homogeneous or thoroughly committed to thoroughgoing
tolerance and appreciation of a wide range of individual
preferences regarding society, economics, religion,
and future expectations. Still, a shelter is not a democratic
society anymore than is a ship or an airliner. The captain's
authority is absolute and one should have confidence
in his credentials and ability before boarding.
Neither is a shelter a democracy in the sense that
there must be much more stringent rules regarding behavior.
Everyone must perform assigned duties. There are no
wealthy passengers along for a free ride to be served
by others. There are many limitations to personal freedoms
such as contraband materials. No drugs or alcohol (except
under medical prescription and then as approved by the
commander).
All firearms and weapons must be placed in the armory
and will not be released except under orders from the
commander. All valuables will be receipted and stored
in the locker for safekeeping. No private stocks of
foods because under survival conditions this can lead
to social disorder. No tobacco or smoking inside the
shelter, since it would cause discomfort to others.
No loud toys, devices, or other objects that would
be environmentally disturbing to others. No large bulky
items, or great quantities of any item without the permission
of the commander. And no pets or animals unless the
survival community has made prior special arrangements
for their accommodation.
Tough. Yes, It is tough. But not nearly as tough as
the conditions of survival will be for those who are
not prepared. There are many items that are not prohibited,
and in fact are encouraged. A reasonable supply of one's
personal religious literature, the tools and resource
manuals of their trade or profession, survival manuals
and equipment of every sort, additional supplies of
food to be put into the common larder, and extra supplies
to be put into the common store.
MYTH #17: Any survivors would have to live the rest
of their lives underground.
Many people ask how long they might expect to have
to live in a shelter. There are no fixed answers. If
your shelter is an expedient hole in the ground you
might want to stay in it no longer than was absolutely
necessary. Maybe as much as a couple of weeks. If you
dug a pretty elaborate hole in the ground you might
be able to expand upon it and make it into a place where
you could survive through a winter.
If you owned space in a shelter city, like there is
in southern Utah or southern California, you might plan
to live there the rest of your life. The co-operative
shelter that I have been describing in the previous
paragraphs is not sufficiently elaborate that anyone
would want to make it a permanent home. Some persons
would probably be able to find larger and more adequate
quarters elsewhere after a few weeks.
Others might improve upon the existing structure and
remain there for a year or two until more adequate homes
could be built elsewhere. Decontamination procedures
would provide work areas, schools, and school grounds
outside of the shelter where people would carry on their
daily activities after a few weeks. However, it might
be beneficial for young children and expectant mothers
to sleep in the shelter or a similar structure for several
months.
Certain occupations, such as decontamination crews,
farmers who work on large un-decontaminated areas, explorers
who go into unsurveyed areas, long distance truck drivers,
and others who go out of well defined areas for the
next several years, will have to be closely monitored
to be sure their total exposure does not exceed established
limits.
It should be apparent to the reader, from what has
been said earlier, that a person may receive substantially
larger total doses over a large period of time than
over a short period of time, just as with sunlight.
A person may easily recover from several small sunburns
throughout the years, resulting from staying in the
sun overlong for an hour or two each time. If they were
to be exposed to the hot desert sun, that many hours
all at once, they would succumb.
In the same way one may recover from a number of small
radiation burns (although some controversy holds that
one never recovers - this seems unlikely), and in just
the same way one may receive small amounts of radiation
and never feel ill. Just the same, certain biological
conditions dictate that certain individuals, (particularly
the reproductively active) should receive less radiation
exposure and that others may receive much larger amounts.
MYTH #18: Life after doomsday won't be worth living.
Hearing descriptions of this sort some persons wonder
if life will be worth living afterwards. For some, most
assuredly so. Others do not find life worth living today.
How many times have you heard of a person like a famous
movie star, who had wealth, fame, beauty, health, the
company of famous illustrious persons, opportunities
to travel to all sorts of places, and to participate
in all sorts of interesting events, the fulfillment
of the very aspirations of thousands of young ambitious
people and yet that same person committed suicide.
On the other hand there are many individuals who suffer
daily from terrible physical afflictions and all sorts
of personal misfortunes. Oftentimes in the greatest
poverty. And yet, the world over, down through the centuries,
they have gone on surviving. Many actually finding happiness,
meaning, and perhaps even enlightenment in life. You
will survive. The conditions of that survival are up
to you.
Undoubtedly, the events that are about to transpire
will have a profound effect upon the attitudes of many
people and perhaps upon mankind itself. From the cauldron
of the holocaust there may spring forth a new race of
men who are less concerned with self-interest and who
will come to understand man's true nature and his divine
destiny.
Some of us may even feel that this event will herald
the coming to maturity of the human race. Instead of
no future, mankind may have a glorious future. There
will be great amounts of resources available, combined
with man's great advances in technology, to build a
new and glorious world civilization. Providing, of course,
that he has learned from this experience and does not
just go about preparing for the next war in another
twenty to thirty years.
But, I leave each man unto his own vision. While,
to myself, looking upon the immensity of the visible
universe, and pondering the events that have happened
upon this one single planet circling a solitary sun
among the uncountable millions in our but one of the
innumerable galaxies, I cannot help but wonder if the
events that are about to transpire are not less than
all that unique in the repetitive cycles of life and
nature that we see about us everywhere.
MYTH #19: You need not make any preparation because
you are either going to die in the holocaust or be saved
(religious connotation).
Men's philosophies today often go to one extreme or
the other. Claiming that all is within man's power.
Or that nothing is within man's power. There is a middle
ground. One can simultaneously feel that nothing can
be achieved except by the will of God and think that
the results are dependent upon his own efforts. God
sets the boundaries and within those boundaries man
can have some effect upon the outcome.
MYTH #20: The bombs today are so large and there are
so many they will destroy the world.
There are those who feel that the holocaust will destroy
everything. And well it might, for there are certainly
more than enough nuclear weapons in the world to achieve
that end. "Except those days be shortened, none will
survive, not even the very elect." But, if it is the
Divine Will, those days will be shortened. There are
those of us who feel that the Divine Hand is evidenced
in the dealings of the world, every moment unto every
moment.
The Divine happenings often seem quite natural. If
one were to say unto a mountain, "Be thou removed and
cast into the sea." and it should occur, another would
say an earthquake just happened to happen right then.
If the forces of nature should transpire so that in
the midst of the holocaust the planet should suddenly
tip on its side and place His sign (the Southern Cross)
suddenly blazing in the sky above the heads of the people
in the northern hemisphere, there are those who would
only recognize the natural causes.
Such an event would certainly play heck with the astral,
satellite based, and inertial, guidance systems upon
which the individual and MIRVed warhead delivery systems
depend.
Events would not even have to be as miraculous as
I have described in order to limit Word War III. There
is serious concern on the part of the military that
they will not even be able to fight the war because
of such factors as the EMP. However, I have faith in
the military. I am sure they will do an admirable job
of trying to destroy the world.
None of us have an infallible insight into the future
or its timetable. Whatever will be, will be. We can
but wait upon events to prove our speculations to be
right or wrong. While we are working and waiting some
of us put our trust in God. Others put it in the Government.
MYTH #21: You will receive adequate warning from your
government.
The government at first proposed the individual family
shelter plan. Then it abandoned it. Next it proposed
the community shelter plan. Then it abandoned it. Then
it proposed the relocation plan. Then it abandoned it.
Presently it has no plan. Don't you feel abandoned?
The government has millions to spend for destruction
but not a penny for defense. The EMO (Emergency Measures
Organization) has been completely shut down. The Ontario
government was allocated three berths in the Radiological
Defense Officers course (for the summer of 1982) given
by the Canadian Emergency Measures College at the Emergency
Planning Canada Federal Study Center in Arnprior, Ontario,
but it didn't feel it could afford to send anyone even
after our group offered to pay expenses for three people.
We appealed all the way up | 
