Posted on 06/15/2012 2:55:06 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
No, a bunker will not save you from the apocalypse
Everybody talks about the apocalypse, but almost nobody actually prepares for it. But let's say you're one of the few visionaries who actually plans for every eventuality. You've been stashing your supplies. You've built a personal bunker, or you've purchased your own spot in a communal "survival suite."
When the apocalypse finally comes — possibly later this year — will you really survive if you're locked inside a bunker? (Answer: No.)
Protecting against any 2012 scenario A thriving industry exists to offer structures that will defend against a variety of 2012-related events. These scenarios include pole shifts (and the earthquakes that would follow), electromagnetic pulses, and solar flares — along with more traditional scenarios, such as biological and nuclear attacks.
One of the most successful manufacturer of disaster bunkers, Hardened Manufacturers, speaks of the Maya Calendar as a reason why they've created their structures:
From our perspective as architects, engineers, physicists, future-scanning analyst and construction program managers, we view the 2012 phenomenon not as a question of the accuracy or validity of the Mayan date, but as a problem of shelter design optimization under severe constraints. In this perspective, we look at the anticipated possible effects and the design measures necessary to mitigate those effects.
Hardened and other survivor bunker building companies like Vivos and Survival Condo say you should have multiple backups of critical life support systems, air filtration, installation of an air-lock, and multiple escape hatches, to increase your chances of surviving a 2012-related event. These structures are not cheap — estimates from several survival shelter companies place a spot in these bunkers from $40,000 to $1 million. The companies also market their structures as "vacation homes" or unique corporate retreats, should a 2012 disaster scenario never arise.
You cannot plan for everything
There are some events that simply cannot be planned for, let alone imagined, among the multiplicity of possible 2012 disaster scenarios. A pole shift, and the ensuing tectonic movement, could lead to a chain of volcanic eruptions. The Yellowstone Caldera in the mid-western United States is long overdue for an eruption, with the U.S. Geological Survey closely monitoring seismic activity at Yellowstone National Park.
These fortified shelters will also have difficulty defending against strikes from above, as they are only prepared for a 500 pound (roughly the size of a small boulder) airborne impacts. Hardened Structures claim their bunkers will provide protection from the air burst resulting from a 100 megaton bomb detonated 20 miles away — but a ground impact in the same 20-mile radius would likely destroy the shelter, and render the surroundings uninhabitable.
The biggest threat?
"Hell is other people." - Translation of a line from Jean-Paul Sartre's Huis-clos
Many apocalyptic scenarios call for extended periods of isolation. With bunkers designed to supply and care for up to 1000 people, would you really want to spend a year or more of your life trapped underground in an isolated community, cut off from whatever remains of the human race outside?
What about the unforeseen psychiatric issues that would arise in the aftermath of the apocalypse, as people realize their extended family and friends are dead? Such an event would be akin to a bizarre psychological experiment. It's easy to imagine how the survival prospects of extremely bored people lacking distinct social ties could drop, the longer they're kept in a confined space together.
And then there would be the threat of other survivors — once all the local Wal-Mart, Target, and sporting goods stories have long since been picked clean, the roaming scavengers would regard any remaining shelters as a major jackpot.
Anyone searching through rural areas of Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Texas (areas with a high proportion of these bunkers) could simply canvass the area with a metal detector, since these bunkers include EMP shielding, which requires a metal lattice. Construction contractors that worked on the bunkers, regardless of the confidentiality standards held during the building process, will also know the specific location of bunkers in the area. So the people inside the bunkers could easily become sitting ducks, waiting for a series of assaults from other survivors.
Lottery ticket
If you lack the desire or finances to build a structure for yourself, Surefire Living offers a program for qualified individuals who want to live to see 2013. Surefire Living is creating 10 survival sites scattered across the globe, providing a financially friendly option for those who cannot pay for an entire bunker with personal finances. Inhabitants are chosen based on their education and usefulness.
Surefire Living also offers a Lottery of Fate option. Write an essay, pay an $80 entry fee — and if you're chosen, you win a vacation in one of their facilities. You are not guaranteed you'll have a spot should the apocalypse arrive, but you do get a free concealed carry gun permit course, along with the chance to write an essay for eighty bucks.
Surviving the unforeseen
It's extremely difficult to imagine every possible disaster scenario, and prepare for all of them. Not to mention all the changes that every scenario would wreak on the world afterwards. And then there's the more basic question: if society as we know it stops and your family and friends are dead, do you want to go on living? And if you survive these initial events, will you live though the madness and chaos that will come along with the long struggle to restart society?
Luckily, Hardened Structures also offers a line of armored vehicles protecting against ballistic impacts, hurricanes, and EMPs. So if we find ourselves in a Mad Max-style future, you can roll out of your bunker fully prepared. Give me an armored car and a nice underground reserve of fuel. That, or a stocked submarine with its own nuclear power supply — but if anybody's selling nuclear submarines to private individuals, they haven't put up a website.
"No, a bunker will not save you from the apocalypse"
Bummer ... I'm going to go read my books!
Those photos are from the best Twilight Zone episode ever filmed, IMHO.
having served on board a nuke sub, I’d prefer any rational alternative..
Those photos are from the best Twilight Zone episode ever filmed, IMHO.
I agree.
If the apocalypse is a financial apocalypse a bunker will be almost useless. Think about it, all your savings, worthless, the government paying it’s employees in worthless paper, a loaf of bread > $1000.00. What will you do? The power would be off, same with the food supplies. All civilized government breaks down. That’s the doomsday that this regime’s policies are bringing about.
“Those photos are from the best Twilight Zone episode ever filmed, IMHO.”
I agree! We have a bunch of them on DVD and they’re always awesome! This one was my favorite too. I can relate to him not wanting to be around people and just wanting to be left alone to read some books. The end was a neat twist though.
What if it is a supermegaCarrington event unlike anything in recorded history?
http://iceagenow.info/2012/06/catastrophic-termination-ice-age-video/
“Trying to survive a cataclysm from above, literally fire coming down.”
“Solar activity / instability at present is the highest it has been since the end of the last ice age,”* says geologist Robert Schoch, Ph.D., in this startling video from thunderbolts.info
“A major solar outburst could end an ice age, incinerate the surface of the Earth (leaving only large stone structures remaining). create deluges of Biblical proportions as plasma would evaporate water and ice which would later be re-precipitate, and the cataclysm would force survivors to seek shelter in thick stone buildings, caves, and underground,” says Schoch.
From the Christian’s New Testament Bible:
2 Peter 3:10
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”
11 “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”
If your bunker (or cave) was deep enough underground you might be able to survive. Just how deep you’d have to be is something I’d like to know.
|
I didn't have books to read nor any other diversion. I was just there, alone, and no less content than I am now. Weird I know. |
You don't have to make it impossible to break into your shelter, just harder than getting access to someone else's resources. It's the same as the door locks on my home. I have picked my door locks (kids - oops), but I still lock my doors when I'm gone. Most criminals are lazy and would rather walk through an unlocked door than learn a real skill like picking locks. A series of assaults by other survivors? Not likely. Most zombies would rather go after urban apartment dwellers than try metal detectors to search for a bunker, or use explosives to break through reinforced concrete. Note: I don't have a bunker, but I think their value is being dismissed based on an inappropriate comparison.
As for surviving after SHTF, I feel sorry for those who would give up like this author implies. I intend to survive with my family, and I expect many friends in my area to survive too. Life is a beautiful gift from God, and I have no interest in throwing it away until He chooses to take it back.
Ditto
Thanks for your service. Imho, if an apocolyps happens, so be it. My job sucks that bad..
And I know I misspelled it. Im sick as a dog and don’t care..
I don’t want to be saved from the apocalypse If everyone else buys the farm, I might as well too
2 Peter 3:10
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”
Proof that Scripture supports Global Warming.....
My family and selected friends are doing everything possible to prepare, including food 3+ years, water supply, septic (if you lose electric, toilets won’t work. The author is correct in that people are your greatest concern. That is why you need a bug out house if you can (ours is 1.5 hours away from the city and we stored our food in multiple locations.)However, the dictator in chief could come and get it if they wanted to, so there is no total protection.
That’s the kind of global warming that you can believe in!
The author has an awful lot of difficulty with plurals for such a purportedly learned individual.
I don’t have a “bunker” myself, but wouldn’t begrudge someone who did. What with all these potential bunker failure scenarios listed in such great detail, one might get the impression that the learned author believes such scenarios won’t befall those without one.
What’s the old saying, “you makes your bets and you takes your chances.”
True. The only benefit of prepping is if you’re in a situation like Greece’s collapse and already self-sufficient with food, water, etc. The lack of money doesn’t matter because you don’t need it.
All this reminds me of a great movie, “Blast From the Past’ (1997) with Sissy Spacek, Christopher Walken
Brendan Fraser, and Alicia Silverstone.
It’s a LOL comedy about a naive man, Brendan Fraser, who has been brought up with a 60’s lifestyle (in an underground shelter with only his parents) for 35 years and suddenly finds himself in the virtually alien civilisation of the late 90’s.
Anybody see it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.