SHELTER EXITS The basement shelters are also provided with emergency exits. These consist of tunnels whose length is at least half the height of the building above, and which terminate in concrete exits with one or more openings usually located in the backyards or adjoining gardens. (See fig. G-16, on opposite page.) In addition, basement shelters in adjoining buildings may be interconnected in order to provide further exits. PLANS FOR FOOD AND WATER Although equipped for long-term occupancy, no food is stored in apartment house basement shelters as it is not feasible under Soviet conditions, partly because the doors are kept locked and partly because they dont use the canned food, as we do, and partly because no Russian, in his right mind, would trust his food outside of his apartment, since his neighbors might take it. Instead, the population is instructed to take along food for several days when seeking cover. This fact and the absence of cooling equipment is likely to restrict the occupancy time. Of course, additional food might be obtained when the level of radiation has declined to the point where people can leave the shelter for short periods of time and the doors of the shelter can be kept open once the fallout has settled. The population has been instructed in methods of protecting food and water against contamination. EMERGENCY SHELTER TO BE BUILT AFTER WARNING The Soviet authorities plan to build a variety of fairly simple fallout shelters in the cities and especially in the countryside when the Soviet Government announces a "threatening situation" alert. This is one of the warning signals of the Soviet civil defense system and is to be announced when the Government has strategic warning of a possible attack or when it thinks that war threatens. In the Soviet civil defense system, many important prophylactic and preparatory measures are to be put into effect only when this alert is announced. Most of the emergency fallout shelters consist of earth-covered trenches, dugouts, or galleries in hillsides and make use of whatever material is handy. (Lumber, precast concrete slabs or pipes, sheet metal, and so forth.) These are built with approximately 3 feet of dirt over them. They are not designed for long-term occupancy except the dugouts. They are built for 25 to 100 persons and with some exceptions, such as dugouts, are not equipped for long-term occupancy. Soviet sources claim that a simple shelter can be built in 24 hours by the population at presurveyed sites and civil defense units are trained in the speedy tracing and laying out of such shelters. (See figs. G-17 and G-18, pp. 288 and 289.) |