Fallout Shelters for This Century

During the Cold War's early days, we stocked shelters with fortified crackers and what-not when we thought we could survive a nuclear attack launched by the Soviet Union. It has been a long time since we prepared like this. I think it is time to revive this practice.

It seems that a federal role in future disaster preparation could build on this history without pushing federal authority into the state or local level. Let states and cities identify secure shelters that can endure whatever crisis is anticipated for the area. Is it flood-proof or earthquake proof or whatever. When states identify and prepare the sites, the federal government could pay for 90% of the cost of stocking the sites with long-shelf life food and other supplies such as water purification tablets that can keep people alive for a week until relief can arrive. And make sure there are wind-up radios set to a particular frequency so people know they are not on their own. Just knowing that authorities are on the way will help keep people calm.

The locals will have to secure the sites, inpect them periodically, and make sure they are only opened when a crisis hits and make sure they are opened.

We can set up a schedule of rotating the stocks out to use supplies about to expire. I'm sure that there will be foreign needs that can absorb these stocks so they won't go to waste.

Perhaps another option is for major chains to sign up as official disaster relief resources. The stores would be declared foraging centers for consumables. Police/military teams could be designated to be helicoptered in to these sites in order to distribute food and perishable items in an orderly fashion to people that make it to the sites. The troops would provide security and a presence that could remind people that help is on the way and they are not forgotten. The companies would be paid for the stocks and any damage and costs from the operation. Companies would get good press and be compensated for losses that would likely happen anyway. And supplies would be used rather than wasted.

These supplies would be useful for natural disasters or terrorist attacks when people are isolated from the rest of the country. If only the people at the New Orleans refugee centers had had resources other than the vending machines.