Use an inner hall, inner room or large clothes closet on the ground floor, away from outside walls and windows.
With doors, furniture and appliances, plus stacks of other shielding material, you can create an enclosure large enough to live in for a short time. If possible, use boxes filled with sand or earth as shielding material, and fill drawers and trunks with sand or earth.
If there is not room for the shielding material in the limited space of a closet or small room, you can place the material on the other sides of the walls, or on the floor overhead.
BOATS AS IMPROVISED SHELTERS
If no better fallout protection is available, a boat with an enclosed cabin could be used. However, in addition to emergency supplies such as food, drinking water and a battery-powered radio, you should have aboard the items you would need (a broom, bucket, or pump-and-hose) to sweep off or flush off any fallout particles that might collect on the boat.
The boat should be anchored or cruised slowly at least 200 feet offshore, where the water is at least 5 feet deep. This distance from shore would protect you from radioactive fallout particles that had fallen on the nearby land. A 5-foot depth would absorb the radiation from particles falling into the water and settling on the bottom.
If particles drift down on the boat, stay inside the cabin most of the time. Go outside now and then, and sweep or flush off any particles that have collected on the boat.
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CHAPTER 6
SUPPLIES FOR FALLOUT SHELTERS
SUMMARY
BEFORE AN EMERGENCY
1. If you intend to go to a public fallout shelter in a time of attack, find out now whether it has emergency supplies in it.
—If it has emergency supplies, always keep on hand at home (or in your car) those few additional supplies you would need to take with you.
—If it does not have emergency supplies, always keep on hand at home all the supplies you would need to take with you.
2. If you intend to use a family fallout shelter at home, always keep on hand, in and around your home, all the supplies and equipment you would need for a shelter stay of two weeks.
DURING AN EMERGENCY
1. If you are going to a public fallout shelter, take with you the supplies you will need.
2. If you are going to your home fallout shelter, gather up the supplies and equipment you want to take to the shelter area with you.
SUPPLIES FOR FALLOUT SHELTERS
People gathered in public and private fallout shelters to escape fallout radiation after a nuclear attack would have to stay there—at least part of the time—for a week or two.