the intersection of emergency preparedness, public health and environmental policy
“How to Survive a Nuclear Blast”, in the Wired How-To Wiki, is an excellent primer. For historical background, we strongly recommend Eugene P. Wigner’s Who Speaks for Civil Defense?, published in 1968, which provides an excellent start in explaining why the United States, notwithstanding its public commitments to the contrary, never bult adsequate blast or fallout shelters.
Huntsville is setting up a shelter system - although there are no plans to provide food or bedding. What about light and heat? Medical care?
From Jay Reeves’ Associated Press article:
In an age of al-Qaida, sleeper cells and the threat of nuclear terrorism, Huntsville is dusting off its Cold War manual to create the nation’s most ambitious fallout-shelter plan, featuring an abandoned mine big enough for 20,000 people to take cover underground.
Probably ideal for serving food in large shelters or shelter-in-place situations, or evacuations not on foot. Because of weight and size we’re not certain of their utility in a go-bag.
Available from Cheaper Than Dirt - 3 for $18USD.
We’ll let Mr. Tiemann speak for himself:
In the middle of a cornfield in the middle of Iowa, there is a data center.
Not just any data center. It’s InfoBunker, probably the securest data center you’re ever likely to find. It’s built in a decommissioned Air Force bunker that once housed hardened military telecom equipment, as the giant radio tower that stands above the parking lot—and can be seen for miles around—attests. But that’s pretty much all there is that can be seen by passersby, aside from a small entryway hut and some storage sheds and old wire spools on a patched, 60s-era parking lot. The facility extends five stories below ground, with multiple data floors, employee areas, and living quarters (the 24/7 staff doesn’t see the sun very much).
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It’s not my place to go into too much detail about what’s housed in the bunker, as just to get inside under escort you have to agree to a strict no-photos policy (perfectly understandable); but suffice it to say that the simplex lock on the main hut door is only the very beginning. Many hardened, keycoded, and biometric-protected doors stand between the outside world and the NOC floors, including the self-sufficient power systems (six days’ worth of diesel fuel; 17,000 gallons of water, for drinking and fire suppression; military-grade NBC air filtration). It’s built to withstand a 20-megaton nuclear blast at 2.5 miles, according to the website, and I can believe it. Your data will be intact even if the rest of the Internet has been vaporized.
