Your citys fallout shelters

Ive been trying to find any printed/online material showing Phoenix's fallout shelters and have been wholly unsuccessful. Ive been on the Maricopa county Emergency Managment site, the states site, and a few others. The only site i found that my end up referencing any is the National Shelter System Site but you must register with your personal info and be eligible.

eligibility includes:

* Access requests MUST be approved by EMA in your jurisdiction, and are reviewed for concurrence by FEMA before NSS accounts are activated
* Complete required NSS training, and submit request using NSS User Access Request Form
* Must have a demonstrated business need for access
* Free to State/Tribal/Local users with no ongoing maintenance or licensing fees
* Must be employee or volunteer of an agency with a primary or support role in management or coordination of shelter activities in your jurisdiction, and have concurrence of State/Tribal/Local Emergency Management Agency (as appropriate for your jurisdiction)

Anyone else find it odd that the information is not readily available? Or am I dense and just not looking in the right spots?

Arizona was prime for Titan missile bases and internment camps for Japanese-Americans. I find it hard to believe they would not have shelters still in use since we still have air raid sirens throughout the city. I doubt most arizonans would understand what the sirens were if they were to go off.

I think it really depends on where you live. I surely would rather get incinerated than end up in a fall-out shelter around here.

Now if you lived in Switzerland where they have nice shelters, nice people, and they even think ahead and store food..that would be totally different.

Shelters were huge back in the 50's and 60's. But as the Cold War wound-down they all went to disrepair. Other than storm shelters I'd be surprised if there were any functional 'fallout' shelters left. And if there are... I'd tend to Agree with Sonya.

Most Fallout shelters would be located in Period Post Offices, High Schools, colleges and other public buildings. The museum I volunteer at-has one- although I havent asked where the access is-yet.

Alot of older buildings may still have the Yellow and Black Fallout sign on the building or near a stairway that leads to a basement or sub basement area. Look for Civil Defense Shelters as well.

I was doing some research on this subject some years ago and I also couldn't find a listing for Denver area shelters. I would recommend that you try Historical Archives for the 1950's/60's.

reply to post by Sonya610


while i would agree and plan on my own shelter i would much rather know where some rinky dink old ass shelter is than try and make it on my own if i were caught up during an incident and unable to get home. A few days in a hell is better than a lifetime if i die

reply to post by ShadowMaster


That got me thinkin about the town i grew up in. There the only two logical places that would still have them would be the two schools that are there and ONE historical town building. Ill see about those when i go back. More there for a fun thing to try and locate but in my own town just for the extra option should i need them

Have a shot at googling it, I typed in my city followed by "fallout shelters" and got some interesting info...

The Victoria tunnels at Newcastle upon Tyne, for example, completed as long ago as 1842, and used for transporting coal from the collieries to the river Tyne, had been closed in 1860 and remained so until 1939. 12 m deep in places, the tunnels, stretching in parts beneath the city of Newcastle, were converted to air raid shelters with a capacity for 9,000 people.

Not exactly a fallout shelter and I bet its been neglected over the years but its better than nothing I suppose, its really of no use to me anyway as I live quite far from the city center where this is located. by the time I got there it would probably be full and I wouldn't feel very safe heading into the city center which is the most likely place a nuke would be set off.

We have one in our town. 223 total occupancy and 55,000 total pop. Plus its a basement in a structure that provides little overhead protection at a university that is private property.

Nice.

reply to post by SHNIPE


The civil defense fallout shelter program is fairly dead since first Bush (the Elder) was president. It had a short lived resurgence with Reagan, but fell back with budget cutbacks.

Look for the yellow triangle signs on public buildings. These were the designated fallout shelters, but none will have food, water, medical supplies, or any radiac equipment.

It's really best to go your own route for protection in these matters, so to speak. Tons of info on the net from many legitimate web sites including Government sources.

In American a woman is more likely to get repeatedly raped by bubba the night stalker if they found them selves in a fallout shelter in America.

the society is so degrading towards women that They would be better to head for the mountains.

So much for contingencies for your contingency

"Shelter in place unless instructed otherwise by the media. Close all doors and windows"

This is my city's actual emergency response plan.

I actually emailed the federal and provincial government here about the location of fallout shelters. They both told me there are NONE.

Can you believe that? The response from the province was to the effect of "Canada is not under nuclear threat and has no need for fallout shelters." I couldn't believe my eyes. If being between Russia and the US during the Cold War didn't qualify Canada for needing shelters well then I don't know what does.

What a joke.

Anyway, in the US some older churches also have fallout shelters. Like another poster said, they have the radioactive symbol on the outside of the building in yellow and black.

I guess with no shelters here and the ones in the US in disrepair, the only ones to survive WWIII will be the Swiss. We're on our own if we want to survive anything.

I remember that the middle school I went to had a big fall-out shelter. To my knowledge it was the only building in town with a completely underground basement.

The sign was still there above the stares, and it became something of a running challenge among the students to see who could steal it first.

Some may find it interesting to note that my daughter's elementary school now practices not only the standard fire drills, but also the "bathroom drill" - each class has an enclosed bathroom with no windows. After their fire drills each quarter, the students are "bathroom drilled" in case of a nuclear/chemical event. Creepy, I guess, but no less so than the under-desk drills my parents went through as kids. Good to know they have a plan, despite its likely inadequacy.

Personally, I'd shelter-in-place here rather than go to a public shelter. Too many variables with a large group of people. I've made sure we have everything we need here for an extended period of time. We have a generator, well, food, building materials... the only a pretty significant situation would force a cut-and-run.

reply to post by fred3110



Theres an underground complex underneath The Monument Metro Station too.I had the privilege of being shown around it many years ago.

ok, im just wondering, is there any fallout shelters/ military bases that actually have fallout shelters near victoria!? or are we just stupid...

I think every region will have one, for the protection of local government and continuation.
This would primarily be so that local offices could send situation reports back to central government.

This is why they are not going to publish their locations. They cannot afford to be inundated with people if an event occurred.
And they certainly cannot house every person in every state.

You can bet that these places do exist, and they are maintained, they're just not for everyone.

But there will be above-ground emergency planning locations in the event of a disaster. Just as sports halls and stadiums are used, these are plans in place for just this scenario. Of course a stadium won't help you if Nuclear war breaks out, but not much would help anyway. I'd rather be incinerated too.

Incidentally, I was told a long time ago that our town in the UK has at least one air raid siren, and I think I know where our closest one is. But I have never heard it tested.
I hear our shopping center evac system go off almost every month, but not the air raid siren.
I know no one would know what it was if they did hear it. But then how would any government ease us into that? It would scare people. I guess they assume that if they ever did need to use it we would already be in a state of war (or knowingly close to it).

I think if any location began routine testing of warning systems it would increase fear publicly and cause headlines like "UK preparing for war!"

That wouldn't be a good thing.

Originally posted by detachedindividual
And they certainly cannot house every person in every state.

Tell that to the swiss, it is just matter of resource priorities.

Here in Finland any big apartment house/other big stucture must have civil defence shelter. All of them have airfilter eguipment. The bad thing is nobody checks or resupplies them, even according to law that should be done. emergency laws say that all of these shelters should be tested annually. means closing it airthight for checking leaks and ventilation systems test used. local firechief is responsible for asking test reports every year. this is newer done, which is sad.

To info even this order does not guarantee shelter for everyone. Only some bigger goverment run civil shelters are kept in good shape.

Incidentally, I was told a long time ago that our town in the UK has at least one air raid siren, and I think I know where our closest one is. But I have never heard it tested.
I hear our shopping center evac system go off almost every month, but not the air raid siren.
I know no one would know what it was if they did hear it. But then how would any government ease us into that? It would scare people. I guess they assume that if they ever did need to use it we would already be in a state of war (or knowingly close to it).

I think if any location began routine testing of warning systems it would increase fear publicly and cause headlines like "UK preparing for war!"

That wouldn't be a good thing.

Is Finland going to war then. all finnish emergency sirens are tested monthly. usually first monday or wednesday

My nearest civil shelter is about 100 m from my apartments door. Off course none of these shelters will take anything looking like near hit, but if filters are resupplied and seams are in good shape, those protect from fallout.