Nuclear Survival in the Suburbs

Non-fiction

By: Don Shift

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

How does a person who lives in a wood framed house in the suburbs survive a nuclear war, especially if they don’t have a basement? Turns out, the crazy advice to get into the interior rooms of your house and shelter underneath the mattress isn’t so nuts after all. You don’t need a fallout shelter to survive and you may only have to stay inside to avoid lethal radiation poisoning.

How is this possible? A highly overlooked defense against radiation is distance. Basically, if you can get inside away from the radiation outside, the dose you will be exposed to will be around half. This is why you’re told to get into the center of a building. If the radiation level is low enough, even sheltering in the center of a joisted masonry or wood framed slab on grade house can be effective.

Major cities with metropolitan populations of one million or more are the likely targets for nuclear weapons. The good news is that radioactive nuclear fallout isn’t likely to be as widespread or intense as popular media and culture portrays it to be, or outdated civil defense documents show, this book could encourage and ensure millions to survive.

Surviving a nuclear attack doesn’t have to be a matter of luck. Learn:
—What likely nuclear targets are how to calculate your risk.
—The kinds of nuclear weapons that might be used and the damage they may cause.
—How to take advantage of the inverse square law.
—How to turn household items into radiation shielding.
—Tips to make your basement a better shelter.
—Why radiation exposure may not be a death sentence.

This book answers a lot of the questions you may have about nuclear war but not know to ask. In it, fears are reassured and myths dismissed. Don’t rely on Hollywood’s version of nuclear war, but get the truth.

Don Shift is a veteran of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office and an avid fan of post-apocalyptic literature and film. He is a student of disasters, history, current events, and holds several FEMA emergency management certifications. His works include the non-fiction Suburban Defense, Suburban Warfare, and Rural Home Defense; the Ventura Sheriff EMP series of novels (Hard Favored Rage and Blood Dimmed Tide), Late For Doomsday, and Limited Exchange, both nuclear war survival stories.