Commercial Doomsday Shelters

[skb12172]

What are your thoughts on this article and the trend in general? Fire Away!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/201 ... 8_ST_N.htm

[skb12172]

What about the smaller ones people are putting in their houses/back yards?

[Fill]

I think a cellar or similar structure is great for natural disasters, but I can't imagine a small shelter being survivable for the amount of time you would need to outlast an NBC attack.

In the military, I figured out that the only way to survive such an attack is to be somewhere else. For what you spend on a suitable shelter, it's more cost effective to live somewhere that's less likely to be hit.

And I don't think this location near Barstow will be a secret for very long, especially if there's actually a disaster like they're planning for...

[Erik]

For most of those events in the article, you'll need to get to the shelter within minutes, if not seconds. That kind of takes away the purpose of a big shelter that I assume will be quite some distance away. If you have that much time it makes more sense to get away from the area. For that kind of emergency you'd be better off with a cellar or something similar that you can get to quick. If you dont have a cellar I think any underground concrete structure would be adequate, even a piece of concrete pipe buried in the backyard. But that's a short time solution, a few hours or maybe a day at most. Once the immediate danger is over it's better to be somewhere else. Having a small house in a remote location, or having a mobile home you can take to a remote location you are familiar with sounds like a much better option.

[Netpackrat]

I think the idea behind one of those shelters, is to protect you from fallout if/when it drifts into your area, not to protect from a nuclear hit in close proximity. As Fill said, the only real defense is to be somewhere else, but even if you are somewhere else, the radiation can still kill you based on wind patterns, etc. In order for the shelter to do you any good, it would need to be stocked with sufficient supplies to last until the fallout decayed to safe levels.

[Darrell]

I am surrounded by high value nuke targets; the closest is so close that I'll be incandescent vapor in a millisecond. No sweat.

[JAG2955]

I think that they're kind of a waste of money, but I'm not going to stop anyone who wants one, or care if someone has one. Realistically, if you survive the initial blast, and have a 90 day food/water supply inside of your house, with only a relatively simple filter, you'll be fine. Even so, if you really feel like wandering out, get radiation poisoning to nearly a fatal dose, then recover, your chance of terminal cancer only increases by about 5%*.

*Source is the Navy nuclear medicine doctor I spoke to.

[FelixEstrella]

A share in a survival shelter. I wonder if the seller is guaranteeing no "overbooking" like the airlines do. ["Looking for volunteers to give up their seats?"]

[Aglifter]

Getting to it is a problem, but if done right, its not a terrible idea - it might be better to put together a community, rather than shares, however. Still, survival will be a whole lot easier if you already have a dentist, surgeons, doctors, farmers, chemists, engineers, machinists, etc.

[moose42]

Just make sure you've got spare water chips and a GECK or two.

Actually I think it would be a good thing to have in the backyard in case of tornadoes, or Graboids. Not a very good solution to a flood though.