Plan of Action

Stage 1 Shelter Complex

This Strategic Plan is based on the impact of the Cretaceous/Tertiary size comet or asteroid with Earth. This impact resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. This impact produced approximately 100 million megatons of TNT equivalent energy. This would correspond to an asteroid approximately 8 miles in diameter, a short period comet 11 miles in diameter, or a long period comet 6 miles in diameter.

The Plan of Action is based on a 3 Stage Approach. Stage 1 focuses on the use of Below-Ground Shelter Complexes designed to survive the immediate effects of a Comet impact. Stage 2 focuses on the use of Above-Ground Shelters designed for surviving the effects of the "impact winter". Stage 3 focuses on replanting civilization.

In Stage 1, this plan calls for the construction of underground shelters based on the concept of Just-in-Time Shelters. This concept is analogous to just-in-time manufacturing. Shelter construction will commence after a threat is identified. The United States went through a stage of building atomic bomb shelters in the 1960's. Most of these shelters today have decayed into broken rubble. Just-in-time shelters should be built when they are needed. This effort must be on a massive scale requiring individual initiative, ingenuity and labor.

The primary design driver of the Stage 1 Shelter Complex is the survivability of personnel and materials through the immediate effects of a large comet impact. The immediate effects are expected during the first 72 hours after impact. After that period, the firestorms will subside and atmospheric temperatures will begin to return to normal. The layout of a Shelter Complex that would support 800 personnel is depicted in Figure 2. The shelter complex design incorporates 20 (6’x80’) personnel shelters, each capable of sheltering 40 individuals. (Infants and children 3 years or younger will not be included in this count because their use of resources will be substantially less than that of adults. Therefore the actual complex population may be in the range of 850-900). The shelter design will provide approximately 90 cubic feet of air per person. The shelter might physically house more individuals but the downside would be a critical reduction in air volume per person and the unacceptable increase in the probability that all personnel within the shelter will die of asphyxiation. The personnel shelters were designed as 20 individual shelters rather than one large shelter for enhanced survivability. Some individual shelters may be destroyed by debris bombardment or earthquake damage without destroying the entire complex. The shelter complex design also encompasses long trenches to maximize efficient use of bulldozers. In addition, the design provides a minimum safe distance for liquid fuel storage.

The shelter complex will occupy an area approximately 430 feet by 510 feet. This represents a footprint of 5 acres of land.

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