Thank you for your informative website.
Would it be prudent, if money is really tight, to lay plywood in the attic crawlspace of my apartment and then line it with bags of dirt, as a makeshift shelter? Then I could remain in my apartment without having to move alot of furniture around or haul in dirt, and live there until the threat passes?

Selina

Hi Selina,

You could give it a shot, but I’d be wary of overloading it and causing it to collapse. I’d focus on a small area, such as over the bathroom, and cover the space above it. Hopefully, the bathroom is centrally located in the apartment, and not on an outside wall.

The key is having as much mass between you and the outer walls of whereever you shelter. Each wall between you and the outside of the apartment, adds a little bit more mass to slow down Gamma rays…the ones that will make you sick (Gamma kills white blood cells, and in return, you can easily get infections, which get serious very quickly, and result in the deaths that most talk about when nukes go off…if the blast and thermal threat doesn’t get you, the ability to fight simply infections will).

Hope this helps.

Rich

hi my name is jarrah I live in Queensland Australia. I am interested in building a bunker probably 1-2 feet under ground it will be roughly 2m ( 6 feet ) high with 3m by 2m floor space I was wondering if you could recommend some building materials for frame work, water proofing ,walls ( panels ) and insulation. I would also like to know if you have any design drawings or simple instructions for me to follow you can reply to this email at jarrahmay@XXXXXX.com thanks a heap

PS .any useful construction tips would greatly appreciated thanks.

Hi Derek,

For free plans, drawings, and more, visit this page…

http://www.survivalring.org/pdf-index.htm

For building shelter, you need mass…concrete is best and the thicker the better. Use the basic underground shelter plan here…

http://www.survivalring.org/pdf/cw_shelterh121.pdf

to get an idea of what you’re looking at. The plans are fairly complete in details, specs, and how to build.

Not sure what the weather is like where you are, but if it’s mostly dry, with an occasional downpour, you could start digging the first part of summer, and have it done, finished, and livable in a month or two. The key to water proofing is first, good drainage AWAY from the shelter…sump pumps if needed… and then using rubberized waterproofing material with a tar type of glue to seal the seams.

After you get the shelter built, covered, and accessible with a sealing doorway or access port, you can put up 1×2 furring strips with adhesive directly on the inner cement walls, put insulation between them, and then paneling over that..for a nice, cool, and comfortable livable shelter.

I’d plan on at LEAST 10 square feet per occupant, and double that for REAL comfort. Have external and internal power source…batteries, solar panel, etc…external antenna wired into the shelter for communications, radio, news….and at least two weeks of food and water..preferabley as much food and water as you can afford.

Hope this gets you started…

Rich

Since 1999, I’ve had spurts of time where I’ll go months without having a media person contact me asking to help them find “Survivalists”. I guess this is better than the FBI and other alphabet agencies asking for the same thing.

The lady below is looking for folks into prepping and practicing a lifestyle of being ready. If you’re interested in helping her out, send her an email below. She writes for StyleWeekly.com

Hi Richard,

I’m a magazine writer in Richmond, VA, and I came across your Web site today. I found your site to be quite comprehensive and I wanted to ask you if you’re acquainted with any folks or organizations in Virginia, particularly Central Virginia, who are interested in survival and emergency preparedness. If so, could you tell me how to get in touch with them?

Many thanks,

Melissa Sinclair
Melissa.Sinclair@styleweekly.com

From the (e)mailbag this week…

Dear Mr.. Fleetwood:

After seeing the horrific disaster from the Hurricane in the south, my son and I were speaking about Civil Defense Programs. He served in the Canadian Military and had training in some of these areas. He wondered, as I did, if Civil Defense has gone the way of the Dionsaur. This encouraged me to go on my children’s computer and look up information. I came across your site and read Civil Defense Now.

I was needless to say blown away. Where are guys like you when George Bush needs them. I have never before read such a comprehensive article which was dead on. Our Canadian Universities should have information in their
libraries with respect to Civil Defense Programmes in Canada. I have heard very little since the 1950’s when I attended school.

Regards,
Mrs E Dugal

Hi Ms. D,

There are tens of thousands of fine folks in our government employ, as well as hundreds of thousands of volunteers, both spontaneous and trained, who take it personally when someone up the ladder in charge of taking care of our nation’s citizens….doesn’t.

FEMA dropped the ball with Katrina and response. But, it was not just FEMA’s fault. It was largely the fault of multi-term, buddy-buddy, congressional sewer rats who spent ALL our money on things that DID NOT and WOULD NOT save our citizens in a full blown, all-out, unbelievable national catastrophe.

There is NO national civil defense in this nation anymore. The old US civil defense program disappeared in the Carter administration ( read “Democratic fudiciary reappropriation” - the money that would have helped prepare our nation better, instead went to national pork barrel projects.

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