Goods Storage
The shelter complex should allow space for goods storage. Critical items should take priority. These items include:
Light: matches, lighters, flashlights, batteries, oil or kerosene lanterns, oil/kerosene, candles, gasoline power electric generator, outdoor electric lights, hand powered flashlights.
Heat: log cutting and splitting tools, chainsaws, two man crosscut saws, wood burning stoves and flue pipes, blankets.
Food: hand powered grain/corn mills, pots & pans, canned and packaged food, vitamins and minerals, cooking oil.
Water: baking soda, cheesecloth’s, distilling units, water filters, ceramic filters, ion exchange, buckets, water jugs & barrels, large plastic trash cans, hand water pumps.
Protective Equipment: filter masks, half mask respirators with acid gas cartridge, nitrile gloves, raincoats, waterproof boots and other raingear, chemical splash goggles, UV sunglasses, sun block lotion, tents, thermal underwear, warm clothing.
Tools: construction hand tools, nails, log chains, cable hoist/puller, shovels, wheelbarrows, ladders, post-hole diggers, levels, rototillers, tractors.
Others: medical supplies, portable communications equipment, solar panel or wind electricity generators systems, knowledge books, rope, thermometer, steam engine, radiological survey meter, potasium iodate tablets.
I also recommend storing 3 rolls (20’x100’) of 6 mil clear plastic. This material could be used for construction of greenhouses in Stage 3. I also recommend automobile and truck tires be removed from vehicles and buried under earth. These can be fashioned into wagons in Stage 3. The wheel was one of mankind's greatest inventions.
The first tools needed to transition into Stage 2 will be shovels & wheelbarrows. Shovels should be stored in the personnel shelters. Wheelbarrows should be the last item buried and the first dug up.
I have tried to balance the list of critical goods and materials needed for survival from a comet impact with common & readily available resources. If this plan is to succeed, it has to be practical.
I will list several alternative proposals for good storage:
Alternative #1: Tractor trailers, U-Haul type trailers, vans, buses, mobile homes or other retangular shaped vehicles might be used as storage containers. Dig a long trench 6 to 8 foot deep and one vehicle wide. Line the bottom of the trench with 4 inches of gravel or crushed rock. Back the vehicle into the trench. The sides and the roof of these vehicles may be crushed by the weight of the earth and by the blast wave. Position the vehicle within the trench. Remove the tires allowing the base of the vehicle to contact the layer of gravel. Shore up the interior of the vehicle in the same manner that a mine is shored, using beams of lumber. The vertical columns should support the weight of the soil. Next fill the vehicles with goods. When all the vehicles have been positioned within the trench, cover the vehicles with 6-mil black plastic and backfill the sides of the trench with granular soil and mound 3 feet of soil on top the vehicles.
Alternative #2: Large ISO Intermodal Shipping and Cargo Containers could be used to store goods. A long trench 8 foot deep and approximately 12 feet wide should be excavated. The shipping containers are designed to transfer weight at the four corners of the container. As a result a substructure should be created to support these corners. This could consist of burying 4 layers of bricks forming a 1 foot by 1 foot square for each corner. Each container should be backed into position within the trench and then filled by hand with grain. This can be done 2 at a time by starting at the center, positioning the containers back-to-back. Then the next set of containers could be positioned within the trench and filled. This process would continue until all containers are in place within the trench. Even though these shipping containers are stacked seven high on cargo ships, they are susceptible to buckling and collapsing. The weight of the goods should counterbalance the weight of the earth on the sidewalls if the container is filled with goods and the trench is filled with granular soil at the same time. This is not the case for the ceiling of the shipping container. The weight of the earth will crush the ceiling of the shipping container. As a result, the inside of the shipping container must be shored up like the inside of a mine, using vertical wooden columns to support the weight of the soil. The containers should be covered with sheets of 6-mil black plastic. The trench should be filled in with dirt and an earth mound created insuring that the containers are covered with a minimum of three feet of earth.
This may represent the most efficient method for goods storage but it may not be appropriate to use these containers for goods storage when they will desperately be needed for grain storage at other sites.
Alternative #3: Place the goods in small metal airtight containers on the surface of the ground and cover them with a minimum of 3 foot of earth. Empty ammunition could use a rubber seal to make them airtight. (Rubber seals could be cut out of rubber roofing material.). The items could also be vacuum packaged and placed in metal containers that are not airtight. Items may be placed in large garbage bags and wire tied. This method is not watertight but it is quick and simple and may provide some protection.
I recommend that all stored electronics be protected from the effects of an ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP). This includes any electronics that contains transistors, semiconductors, computer chips or integrated circuits. These elements are very pervasive and are integrated into many common items. Protect these items by storing them within a Faraday Cage. The electronics should be disconnected from electrical power and any external antennas. The Faraday Cage should be constructed from a metal that can shield magnetic fields (steel). In order to protect the electronics, it is very important that the metal seal completely surrounds the equipment. Even a small pin-prick size hole can defeat the protection. The following are several simple Faraday Cage designs.
Final two points: (1) the stored electronics should be insulated from the Faraday Cage (for example, they could be wrapped in a blanket), (2) the Faraday Cage should have a path to ground (placing the Faraday Cage on earth, especially moist earth, will provide that path or grounding the cage by attaching a grounding strap that leads to a good earth ground.) I also recommend that sensitive electronic (such as engine computers and electronic ignition) be removed from vehicles and stored.
Although this plan is constructed on a just-in-time concept, there are individuals that desire to be prepared for emergency situations. For those individuals that fit this category, I will present the following suggestions that may make life a little easier should a comet impact become a reality.
In my opinion, one of the most useful items to have in this disaster is a mechanical light source. A comet impact may plunge the Earth into darkness for several years. The batteries in conventional flashlights will be dead within a couple days. Fortunately there are several designs on the market today including flashlights with hand cranks, flashlight operated by hand squeezes, and flashlights operated by shaking. My favorite is one called NightStar. This flashlight generates electricity by shaking a rare earth magnet within a coil of wire. The electrical energy is stored within a capacitor. The capacitor powers a Light Emitting Diode (LED) that can operate under extreme temperatures and is rated for 100,000 hours. Approximately 30 seconds of shaking provides sufficient energy to power the flashlight for 5 minutes. The device is ruggedized and should last for several years during this type of emergency.
The means to process the corn or other grains into flour is required. One last-ditch method is to use a slab of metal (such as a cast iron pot) and a hand sledgehammer and smash the grain into a powder. The flour could be mixed with water and fashioned into a corn tortilla and cooked. I tried this technique. It works but requires a significant amount of effort. An easier method is to use a hand operated grain mill, such as a Heidelberg Grain Mill, Country Living Grain Mill, Family Grain Mill, or Silver Nugget Mill. Food is essential for survival. Corn can efficiently be converted to flour using a grain mill. (It may also be possible to process the corn into muffins, bread and popcorn.)
Store hardware that will become difficult to obtain in this emergency, hardware that will be needed for construction. This includes metal rope, eye-to-eye turnbuckles, metal vent pipes, sheets of rubber roofing.
I have been heating my home with wood for about 25 years. Cutting and splitting wood is serious business. Saws and wood splitters are critical materials that should be stored for Stage 2 (above-ground shelters) and Stage 3 (replanting civilization). Most log cutting today use gasoline chainsaws and log-splitters. The days of 2 man crosscut saws and log splitting by hand is over. The problem with using gasoline-powered devices is what happens when the gasoline runs out. Therefore, in addition to storing a few gasoline powered chainsaws and log-splitters, I also recommend the storage of manual tools such as two man crosscut saws, axes, sledge hammers, steel wedges, machetes, files and sharpening stones. I have split wood by hand. Rule number one: axes don’t cut the mustard here. It may look good in the movies, but it doesn’t work well in splitting hard woods. Plan on using wedges and sledgehammers for this task. I tracked down a company that still provides two man crosscut saws. The company is called the Crosscut Saw Company.
Wind generating systems may be one of the only methods of generating electricity for several years after the impact. Violent weather will produce strong winds during the dark time after the impact. Electricity can be used to light the shelter. When the sunlight returns, solar panel systems may come into play and provide electricity also. Producing electricity is one of the basic steps in restoring civilization.
An operating steam engine can be a very useful device. It can be used to generate electricity, run a grain mill, run a saw mill, or even power a farm tractor. Make sure that you have someone with the knowledge to use it. When you add cold water to a hot boiler during refilling operations, the boiler has a tendancy to explode.
If you buy an emergency portable electrical power generator for your home, purchase a unit that provides a 240 volt outlet. If you own property with a drilled or driven well that would make an acceptable Stage 2 Shelter Site, consider purchasing a deep well hand pump.
Storage of a few sheets of plywood, 6x6 beams, 2x6 lumber, rolls of 6-mil black plastic, roll of chicken wire, and rolls of fiberglass insulation may be desirable, because these elements may be hard to obtain in the chaos leading to an impact. These items might be stored above the garage or be utilized around the house. For example, the plywood could be nailed to the garage wall and it could be used to hang tools from. Six foot by six-foot beams of treated lumber might be used as a main support for a swing set.
For farmers, I would recommend they purchase a large blade attachment for their bigger tractors. Farmers today operate large farms. Many have multiple tractors. Generally, they have one tractor equipped with a blade to grade their roads and clear snow in the winter. Generally they relegate this function to one of their older smaller tractors. In the event of an approaching comet, large shelters must be built. Shelter trenches must be dug quickly. The large tractors of today could easily move mountains. It would be a shame to have all that horsepower at your fingertips and not be able to effectively utilize it because of a lack of a large blade.
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