nagle@lll-crg.llnl.gov (John Nagle) (10/24/89)
From: well!nagle@lll-crg.llnl.gov (John Nagle)
John McPhee's "La Place du la Concorde Suisse", a very readable
work about the Swiss army, mentions a bit about their shelter system.
At present, Switzerland has blast shelters for 95% of their population.
These will resist a 1-bar overpressure, and include water storage and
air filters against fallout. Shelters have been required in all new
construction since the late 1950s, and have been retrofitted to many
existing structures. This is not just a marking program; if you build
a house in Switzerland today, you must build a bunker, and it will
probably cost you about $20,000US.
Hospitals, local civil defense centers, and such have 3-bar shelters.
The military and government have extensive installations inside mountains.
Details are classified, but general comments are on the order of "whole
cities inside mountains." There are aircraft hangars hidden in
mountains, and highways that double as runways. Enough fuel is in
storage to keep the military going for a year of war.
When WWIII comes, they're ready.
John Nagle