Last minute or expedient shelters

[mitunnelrat]

the people of fukushuima got rapidly evacuated even after a massive tsunami hit the area and devastated utilities and infrastructure.

with the sort of radioactivity that would be released from anything but a nuke going off you would be much better off to spend half the day stuck in traffic trying to get out than sitting at home in any sort of expedient shelter. expedient being the key. if you have a fallout shelter and filtered air, then yeah. stay put. if you look at the fallout maps from chernobyl, arguably a worst case scenario, even if you humped it out on foot over rough terrain you would be ok.

mind you all of this applies to the idea of absorbed dose, ie the idea of distance and time being more important than shielding in this case. you you are near a localized incident such as the explosion of a dirt bomb, you would be far better off protecting yourself with plastic tarp and duct tape to prevent ingestion of radioisotopes as opposed to trying to put PF between you and any fallout.

I'll let others who are better versed in this subject debate the merits of one type of shelter over another. My point was more that we may not always have control of our circumstances, and should be prepared for different eventualities. I'll go out on a limb and state that I believe the OP is aware of this as well, and is looking to expand his knowledge base to cover more than one approach, hence his asking for info on expedient shelters, rather than whether or not he should BO or SIP in different events.

[Stormfeather]

Quickest and easiest I think would be to have already surveyed the area for any buildings or structures that would be suitable as a fallout shelter. If there aren't any and you don't have shelter at home, then the next best thing think is a construction site with some heavy equipment.

Dig a trench with a backhoe or excavator, flip a dump truck or dump trailer upside down over the trench and use the earth from the trench to cover over the upside down truck or trailer. Use a right angle turn at each end and park whatever you can find over them and cover with more dirt. Just a thought or two.

I read that one in your storys! great idea!

[Optimist]

Kearny Davis and the folks at Oak Ridge did a book on this back in the early 1960s. ScribD has it for download, and I have it on the CDs I sell on the gun show circuit. It's worth looking up.