Mar 02, 2011 Advice from the U.S. Government On How To Furnish Your Nuclear Apocalypse Shelter
Nuclear War Survival Skills, by Cresson H. Kearny, is a book that was once only available to people in the U.S. military, but now it’s available to everybody for free online. Packed with all the information you need to survive a nuclear attack, it’s the perfect guide for survivalists or science fiction writers trying to conjure up a world after the bomb. Keep this book around for all kinds of disasters, because it deals with everything from post-nuke communications tech to finding water. But it also has some chapters devoted to your apocalyptic comfort, too.
In chapter 14, “Expedient Shelter Furnishings,” we learn that having some comfortable furniture can aid in survival – though not too comfortable. In fact, we discover, Americans can sleep on concrete for two weeks:
“Throughout history, people have endured being crowded together while living and sleeping on hard surfaces. In times of war and privation, people have lived in such conditions for much longer periods than would be necessary for shelter occupancy due to fallout. Realistic basement-shelter-occupancy tests conducted by research contractors for the U.S. Office of Civil Defense (now the Federal Emergency Management Agency) have shown that modern Americans can live and sleep for two weeks on a concrete floor. In some of these tests, only 8 square feet of floor space was provided for each person; only pieces of corrugated cardboard 3/16-inch thick lessened the hardship of sleeping and sitting on concrete.”
Read the whole book online for free here
Via io9