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-Caveat Lector-
Alabama Reopening Fallout Shelters
By JAY REEVES
AP, 2007-09-28 00:10:29
_http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/alabama-city-reopening-fallout-shelters/20070
927171609990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001_
(http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/alabama-city-reopening-fallout-shelters/20070927171609990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
)
(http://news.aol.com/nation)
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Sept. 27) - In an age of al-Qaida, sleeper cells and the
threat of nuclear terrorism, Huntsville is dusting off its Cold War manual to
create the nation's most ambitious fallout-shelter plan, featuring an abandoned
mine big enough for 20,000 people to take cover underground.
A fallout shelter sign is seen Sept. 19 in Huntsville, Ala. Fearing a nuclear
strike by terrorists, officials are working to identify potential shelters
for 300,000 people in the city and surrounding county.
Others would hunker down in college dorms, churches, libraries and research
halls that planners hope will bring the community's shelter capacity to
300,000, or space for every man, woman and child in Huntsville and the
surrounding
county.
Emergency planners in Huntsville - an out-of-the-way city best known as the
home of _NASA_ (javascript:;) 's Marshall Space Flight Center - say the idea
makes sense because radioactive fallout could be scattered for hundreds of
miles if terrorists detonated a nuclear bomb.
''If Huntsville is in the blast zone, there's not much we can do. But if it's
just fallout ... shelters would absorb 90 percent of the radiation,'' said
longtime emergency management planner Kirk Paradise, whose Cold War expertise
with fallout shelters led local leaders to renew Huntsville's program.
Huntsville's project, developed using $70,000 from a Homeland Security grant,
goes against the grain because the United States essentially scrapped its
national plan for fallout shelters after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
_Congress_ (javascript:;) cut off funding and the government published its
last
list of approved shelters at the end of 1992.
After Sept. 11, Homeland Security created a metropolitan protection program
that includes nuclear-attack preparation and mass shelters. But no other city
has taken the idea as far as Huntsville has, officials said.
Many cities advise residents to stay at home and seal up a room with plastic
and duct tape during a biological, chemical or nuclear attack. Huntsville does
too, in certain cases.
Local officials agree the ''shelter-in-place'' method would be best for a
''dirty bomb'' that scattered nuclear contamination through conventional
explosives. But they say full-fledged shelters would be needed to protect from
the
fallout of a nuclear bomb.
Program leaders recently briefed members of Congress, including Rep. Charlie
Dent, R-Pa., who called the shelter plan an example of the ''all-hazards''
approach needed for emergency preparedness.
''Al-Qaida, we know, is interested in a nuclear capability. It's our nation's
fear that a nuclear weapon could get into terrorists' hands,'' Dent said.
As fallout shelters go, the Three Caves Quarry just outside downtown offers
the kind of protection that would make Dr. Strangelove proud, with space for an
arena-size crowd of some 20,000 people.
Last mined in the early '50s, the limestone quarry is dug 300 yards into the
side of the mountain, with ceilings as high as 60 feet and 10 acres of floor
space covered with jagged rocks. Jet-black in places with a year-round
temperature of about 60 degrees, it has a colony of bats living in its highest
reaches
and baby stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
''It would be a little trying, but it's better than the alternative,'' said
Andy Prewett, a manager with The Land Trust of Huntsville and North Alabama, a
nonprofit preservation group that owns the mine and is making it available for
free.
In all, the Huntsville-Madison County Emergency Management Agency has
identified 105 places that can be used as fallout shelters for about 210,000
people.
They are still looking for about 50 more shelters that would hold an
additional 100,000 people.
While officials have yet to launch a campaign to inform people of the
shelters, a local access TV channel showed a video about the program, which
also is
explained on a county Web site.
If a bomb went off tomorrow, Paradise said, officials would tell people where
to find shelter through emergency alerts on TV and radio stations. ''We're
pretty much ready to go because we have a list of shelters,'' he said.
Most of the shelters would offer more comfort than the abandoned mine, such
as buildings at the University of Alabama in Huntsville that would house
37,643. A single research hall could hold more than 8,100.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Alexandra Kirin said of Huntsville's
wide-ranging plan: ''We're not aware of any other cities that are doing that.''
Plans call for staying inside for as long as two weeks after a bomb blast,
though shelters might be needed for only a few hours in a less dire emergency.
Unlike the fallout shelters set up during the Cold War, the new ones will not
be stocked with water, food or other supplies. For survivors of a nuclear
attack, it would be strictly ''BYOE'' - bring your own everything. Just throw
down a sleeping bag on the courthouse floor - or move some of the rocks on the
mine floor - and make yourself at home.
''We do not guarantee them comfort, just protection,'' said Paradise, who is
coordinating the shelter plans for the local emergency management agency.
Convenience store owner Tandi Prince said she cannot imagine living in the
cavern after a bombing.
''That would probably not be very fun,'' she said.
************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/
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