Preppers speak of “bugging in” instead of “bugging out” in SHTF (you-know-what Hits The Fan) situations, in reinforced homes or even bunkers.  My generation remembers when Washington told us we needed “fallout shelters” during the Cold War.  I can relate to the theory.

Thanks to friend D. Diem who passed it along, we can see one helluva far-sighted Shelter, created decades before the penultimate SHTF, the World Wars. (We have to assume that the ultimate will be worldwide nuclear warfare, I guess.)

Check it out here: http://www.chonday.com/Videos/newyobasemese2 .

12 COMMENTS

  2. Installed in 1913, 54 years after this event;
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
    Do you think this may have played a role in the decision to locate this vital apparatus so far underground?

    I too, remember the government encouragement during the ’50’s and ’60’s concerning preps and planning for the aftermath of nuclear war. Heck, I was the assigned radiation monitor for my elementary school class, roentgen meter and all. Free government plans and drawings on building a family fall-out shelter, and instructions on how thick to make walls according to the material being used ability to block radiation were made available to kids to carry home to parents. Families were also advised to have a minimum of 30 days of food, water, and sanitation supplies on hand. Voluntary (and sometimes mandatory) conversion of below ground portions of commercial buildings into public accessible shelters, stocked with long term food and water provided by the government.

    Now, approximately 60 years later, the government’s only advice for disaster preparedness is have a flashlight, radio, and food and water for 3 days, and to tune in your radio for instructions from the government, all the while using tax funds to build elaborate bunkers for themselves. Private citizens who, using their own funds, go about preparing for possible disasters or disruption, are ridiculed as anti-government nut jobs.

    One could rightfully think that those in power would see a large die-off of the population as a good thing, as long as they themselves survive.
    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/climate-report-proves-humans-are-the-new-dinosaurs-2013-10-12

    Yep, “we’re from the government and we’re here to help.”

  3. Considering when this facility was built, it ought to classified as one of the Seven wonders of the World, at least for the Machine Age?

    Interesting too, that the NAZI’s were dumb enough to attempt landing saboteurs, direct from Germany, who were almost bound to be caught, and arrested, instead dispatching one of their many German-American sympathizers, who spoke Native American English, and would certainly never have been questioned, or suspected, prior to committing the act of Sabotage?

  4. I saw a program on one of the science channels l think perhaps last winter.. Now it sits unused, obsolete..

  5. Right around the corner(s) at Radio City Music Hall government agents watched over the hydraulic stages during WWII as they were the same type used by the U.S. Navy.

  6. I’m so envious. My own SHTF bunker is a large cardboard refrigerator box covered in heavy duty aluminum foil in the backyard with two cans of Spam and a gallon of water inside. It’s not real secure, but better than nothing.

  8. Great bunker, but I’d rather be ten stories below Nebraska than Manhattan. I remember watching one episode of “Doomsday Preppers” where a schoolteacher and his wife bought a missile silo from the Air Force for $40,000 in the 1980s. I think it was in Nebraska, and they transformed it into a home. If I remember correctly, a nuclear device could detonate 1,000 feet (or something like that) above them, and they would survive.

    Dennis wrote some great stuff, and had two great links. As far as over-population goes, we have more people on the earth than ever before, but there is now less poverty than ever before. I think that is thanks to the Communist Chinese embracing state capitalism. (Too bad the USA can’t embrace capitalism). I thought the world would run out of oil, but then fracking saved the day. Somehow Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” just keeps providing what we need.

    If we want to reduce the human population, we can start with first-degree murderers, then rapists, then child molestors, then gang-bangers and terrorists. To shorten life expectancy, we can encourage smoking, over-eating, and we can have old people fight our wars. No more suicide prevention, no more motorcycle helmets, no airbags and no seat belts.

    Of course the quickest way to eliminate 90% of us would be to turn off the power for a year, and that is probably what some elitists are dreaming of doing. Have a Noah’s Ark for the elites, and start the world all over again. God help us!

  9. Dennis, back in the day the government even kept a large grain reserve for use during a wartime shortage. Not today. I can see a massive solar event, like the one that you cited, being sent to shut down the whole world’s armed forces about the time it gangs up on Israel. My own current default SHTF plan in the event of THE ROAD is to move into an abandoned mine and live on prickly pear and javelina until I get a 4-foot farm going. I haven’t tried the idea out on my better half, though. Competition for any adequate shelter could prove stiff, too.

    Three defenders have historically been about the minimum number needed in Arizona for successfully defending against raids, plus a real fort to fight from.

  12. Dennis,
    In the 1960’s I did library research on correlating atmospheric nuclear testing and increased stillbirth downwind. A correlation of about 50,000 increased stillbirths per year worldwide obtained after years of atmospheric testing. One example of later studies, regarding Chernobyl, confirms the stillbirth factor: . Imagine how much worse fallout than Chernobyl that nuclear warfare would create, not to mention the immediate destruction that would occur. Too much grief, to say the least.

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