Underground protection from weapons has always been the preferred method of survival. As basic as a hand dug foxhole on the battlefield or a deep fortress built into a mountain such as Colorado’s Norad. During WW2 when the cities of Great Britain were being bombed relentlessly by the Germans, families took shelter underground at night time. Deep underground Subways were popular. Some residences made their own shelters.
One popular shelter was to use exterior basement or cellar stair wells. They were usually built of brick or stone. An arched corrugated metal cover was placed over the stairwell and covered with one or two feet of dirt. There was instance where high explosives landed on the house or in the yard right next to these shelters and the occupants survived. These systems were so effective that the British government began issuing the arched corrugated covers to anyone who had a suitable stairwell.
After Nuclear devices were dropped on Japan at the end of WW2 underground shelters took on a new shape. The fear was no longer high explosives from air raids but instead nuclear weapons that could destroy an entire city in one fell swoop. During the cold war era the United States and USSR had tens of thousands of individual warheads each. The fear from the mid 1940s to the late 1980s was that one country would launch a nuclear attack and the other country would reciprocate with thousands of warheads passing each other on their way to destroy every city in the country. These fears shaped the underground shelters for their era.
The cold war era shelter was a deep underground shelter. It was sized and stalked to be able to be self sufficient for very long periods of time. These nuclear shelters were made of various materials from concrete to corrugated metal tubing buried deep enough to protect from initial nuclear blasts and radiation. Because of the size of these types of shelters, they were expensive. They were also next to impossible to hide the installation of such a shelter. You certainly had to have disposable cash in order to purchase, install and stock such a large shelter.
Because of the history of cold war era shelters, whenever you even mention a Security Shelter people automatically roll their eyes and think you are talking about a big underground bomb shelter. Shelters have changed since the cold war era as the types of threats have changed as well. Thousands of nuclear weapons passing each other in the upper atmosphere on their way to their prospective cities all over the world are no longer the greatest threat. In fact, if nuclear weapons were used it would most likely be a very small number of weapons delivering EMP devices. These devices would be far less destructive than thousands of nuclear weapons aimed at every city in the US.
There are new fears that are helping to shape the attitudes of modern shelters. My studies have found that the threat of nuclear weapons is at the near bottom of the list of most likely to happen. The top of the list of fears is economic collapse, social collapse, anarchy created form the collapse of our own monetary system, pandemic, coronal mass ejections, terrorism and other natural disasters such as tornados and hurricanes. The trend has changed from a deep underground bunker to an urban foxhole style of bunker. An urban foxhole is a smaller security bunker. It is still underground but because of its smaller size it can be installed with no one knowing you have it and can be installed under your existing garage floor in some cases.
The new urban foxhole style shelter can be used numerous ways. Ultimately it is an underground shelter designed for the survival of you or your food and gun stores during any catastrophic event. Because of the smaller size of the unit (compared to deep underground long term stay bunkers) it is far less expensive than old style bunkers. Because it can be installed directly under your garage floor it has the advantage of being accessed from inside your home. This is a very exciting feature. You urban foxhole can be used for a safe room for your children or loved ones in case of home invasion. It can also be used as a secure vault for your valuables and emergency stores while you are away from home. Your valuables can be kept safe from flooding or fires. Because of its constant relative inside temperatures and insulated hull system it is also ideal as a wine room.
Here are a few survival plans demonstrating just how you would use the Urban Foxhole.
Collapse of our countries economy. Under these circumstances your biggest threat at first would be social chaos. You would certainly see wide spread looting as panicked people fought for whatever they could get off of any store shelves. Remember most people have not even considered or believed such an event could take place. Our local law enforcement would quickly be overwhelmed and our military would be brought in to maintain order. You however would have an ample supply of stores protected in your shelter.
Your objective at this point would be to keep your supplies safe and continue to use whatever outside resources is available until depleted. Your supplies would be secure from flooding or fire. If you had to abandon your home temporarily for any reason, your goods should still be there when you return.
Once public reserves are depleted, social anarchy would degrade to another level. You might see groups banding together, most likely by geography, such as neighborhood or church groups. These groups would ban together for security and possibly to share resources. I recommend you never tell anyone you have a shelter filled with supplies. If people begin looting homes and robbing to survive then the shelter will offer a very safe place for the family to sleep. With the entrance located in your garage loved ones can be safely secured in just seconds. If possible never leave the homes main living space vacant. Armed security should always maintain a presence in the house to keep it from being searched by roving parties looking for something to eat. Your ability to help yourself and your family has priority over friends and strangers.
You will enter and exit the shelter as needed. You will still maintain a presence in society but you will have your own safety net if needed. Sometimes a safe place to sleep is the greatest thing of all. With an air system you could hide as long as your supplies and filters allow you to.
In the case of an EMP delivered by a nuclear weapon you and your family would take cover inside the Urban Foxhole under the garage or patio floor within seconds. Because this device is most likely an airburst delivery the hazards of a nuclear blast would not be long lasting. The security pod air in and outlets are protected with blast valves that will automatically shut off when a pressure wave or loss of pressure wave passes over head. As long as the nuclear detonation does not come in contact with the ground, long term radio activity from fall out will be minimal. For an enemy to cripple our country with an EMP device the targets would be our electrical grid supply system and not our cities in general.
As long as you are outside a 15 mile range of the detonation you are only required to have a 50psi protection rating on your shelter. Urban Fox holes have well over 500psi estimated protection. You would use your stockpiled stores and emergency communication systems to gather the necessary outside information to decide when to come out. The first 24 hours is the most critical time and you would want to not run your air filtration system if possible. This will depend directly on how many people you have in your shelter. NBC filters are available as are many other filters. When the oxygen level in your shelter drops to a certain point, occupants will become nauseated and light headed. You will turn your air filtration system on and off manually as needed to conserve you air filters. The air system runs off of 110vac/ 12vdc and has a backup hand operated pump system. These shelters can be modified to protect against radiation using geometric attenuation.
Natural Disaster survival. Your urban foxhole will be accessible in seconds from inside your garage. It should be designed to withstand earthquakes and tornados. It should be water proof. You should be able to flee if necessary and know the contents will be safe, secure and dry when you return.
Home intrusion. As mentioned above, with access from inside the house your loved ones can be secure in just seconds. Call for help from inside the foxhole.
Wine cellar. I bet you didn’t see that one coming did you? Many people want a wine cellar but they don’t have room for one. An addition to your home is not feasible or you really don’t want to ruin a bedroom to make one. Well now you can have one right under your garage floor, and it doubles as your safe room!
Secure Storage. An urban foxhole is ideal for securing guns, food, and valuables inside. Not only is it going to be a major undertaking to get into it for the bad guy. It’s going to keep your items dry. Now you can leave home and feel confident about not being robbed.
Where underground shelters were once huge financial investments costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and designed for the direst of circumstances. The modern urban foxhole can provide greater protection in a more convenient and manner directly under your home, and for considerably less money than deep bunkers. Shop around; protecting your family is a lot less expensive than you think.
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