Nuclear emergency planning for Munich

[Kat 59]

 

I was watching Jericho recently, which is a (stupid) TV series about a small town in the US that gets cut off from the world after a full-scale nuclear attack on the major cities, and got interested in what plans might be in place here for the event of fallout from a Chernobyl type accident or an attack.

 

I did some googling, and found an EU manual 'A European Manual for Off-site Emergency Planning and Response to Nuclear Accidents'

It's 341 pages though, so if anyone cares to read it all, please give us the condensed version here.

 

Switzerland has fallout shelters for everyone in the country (Oh so Swiss!), most of which are now being used to store skis and wine. But there seems little preparation in Germany.

 

More googling produced only the information that the Fire department and the Kreisverwaltungsreferat are nominally responsible in Munich during an Emergency and that the KVR has a program called BASIS that in some way will help, but I couldn't find out how. What I found here

 

I don't know where I'ma gonna go when the bomb/reactor blows. (Jimmy Buffet fans, beware the Ohrwurm). I'd just feel better if I had a plan other than sobbing and screaming hysterically, should the worst happen. PriorPlanningPreventsPissPoorPerformance ya know.

 

Has anyone seen any lists of neighborhood shelters?

[gideon 137]

The question isn't how do you survive. But do you want to?

[kathie 1,006]

The bunkers apparently exist, and the locations of them will be announced "in plenty of time" if needed

 

Edit: Oops, just noticed that my link only goes to the main site. If you click on "Zivilschutz" and then on "Schutzbau" you will find the info about the shelters...

[NOFXmike 18]

If you visit Berlin, Kat, go to "The Story of Berlin" museum, they walk you through a fallout shelter underneath the building. Of course, it wouldn't actually work for more than a week...but...

 

...it still looks cool, was very impressive to see.

[James_Runner 12]

Last summer in Berlin I went on a tour of a bunker built into the subway system. It was quite informative, led by a guide whose job it is to maintain the bunker and tell others about this curious piece of Cold War history. I don't remember the numbers the guide used, but they were quite low in terms of the number of people who could find shelter if Doomsday ever dame. :blink:

[Kat 59]

 

The question isn't how do you survive. But do you want to?

I thought about that, then I looked up the symptoms of radiation poisoning and decided that I'd rather starve.

Edit: @Kathie That's the same link I gave before, and there's no Schutzbau link.

[Owain Glyndwr 889]

i dunno, after watching that post-apocalypse episode of The Simpson's nuclear war doesn't sound too bad.

[kathie 1,006]

Kat, if you click on Zivilschutz first, there most certainly is ;)

[Kat 59]

Okay, I see the page now, Schutzbau, but it looks like F-all. I guess we'll all just die. Slowly. Vomiting and shitting, with our skin blistering and our hair falling out, while our organs get cooked from the inside. As I said before, I'd much prefer to starve. :(

[Freising 503]

Maybe you are also interested in germanys preparations for fighting a russian invasion. For example there are rumours and some clues (like US army manuals), they planned to use so called Atomic Demolition Munitions (ADM) to blow up traffic routes or industrial facilities that shouldnt fall into the enemies hands. www.lostplaces.de also points out several old WW2 and coldwar bunkers. (in german of course) When the shit hits the fan you could hide there. ;)

[Kat 59]

No, I'm just interested in plans for events that have some likelihood of ever happening. Fallout isn't all too far out there, odds-wise.

[Bron 227]

 

Switzerland has fallout shelters for everyone in the country (Oh so Swiss!), most of which are now being used to store skis and wine.

I've slept in one. There was a rowing competition and competitors were allowed to stay overnight in the municipal bunker. One night in a bunker with 100 sweaty, smelly, snoring rowers was bad enough, staying in one for weeks just doesn't bear thinking about.

[Allershausen 6,414]

There shouldn't be any bunkers, no hiding place, not for anyone. As soon as some idiot thinks they can shelter from nuclear war, the sooner they might think of starting one.

[leky 173]

Don't you all know nuffink...everyone know that in the event of a nuclear war you should tie off your ballcocks.

[Darkknight 2,305]

A handful of Berlins Big train stations have bomb shelters built-in. I've been to the one mentioned above. What they do

is pull 2 trains into the station, then close off the 2 ends of the stations tunnel with 2 30 tons doors. They then setup cots

on the lower platform, the trains, and the upper platforms. There are also blast doors on the upper levels which are closed

to separate the station into the different sections. During normal operation of the station, passengers walk thru the shelter

and have no idea their doing so. If I remember correctly this station/shelter can handle 5-7 thousand people.

 

For those in Munich and Frankfurt the Hauptbahnhofs have fallout shelters as well. If you've ever parked in the lot

under Frankfurt HBF, then you might have noticed that the tunnel going from the street to the parking lot is rather

deep. You'll also pass a huge yellow/black stripped blast door.

 

Frankfurt also has a huge fallout shelter for city officials and other bigwigs. Its located under the new Fire Dept./shelter

on Marbachweg and Giessner Str. Google Maps (Old Image)

 

In Munich's HBF the Shelter is in the lower levels of the station. If your standing on the platform for the U1/U2 and take the escalator

to the crossover level, make a right at the top go thru the door and up the stairs (to the main Underground level) you'll pass one of

the shelters blast doors on the left (Painted black/yellow). I'd imagine, most if not all large older stations have some kind of shelter

in them.

 

As a side note, if you goto the Deutsch's Museum In the Power area you'll find a diorama of what MUC HBF looked like in the 1800s.

You might be surprised to know that there is a huge room under the main walking area (where the kiosks and info desk are) whish

was used to house the power generating equip. for the station and surrounding city blocks.

[deco 23]

I wondered what Munich had planned when the topic about emergency siren tests came up a while ago, as there don't appear to be any siren warnings in Munich. After a bit of googling I came across the fire brigade website already mentioned and found a few other links that I might as well post here, in case anyone feels like browsing through them (although most of them are in German).

 

The website for the Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe (Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance) includes a pdf document in German and English that outlines its responsibilities, and mentions various systems already in place.

 

There are some downloadable tips in German on how citizens can be prepared for emergencies, e.g. regarding food, hygiene, and what to pack, or you can download them in one big pdf document: "Für den Notfall vorgesorgt". The document covers a fair range of situations, and is similar to other countries' publications on preparing for emergencies (e.g. NZ's "How to Get Ready" brochure) although it's not as incredibly detailed as the US's FEMA guide).

 

The BBK website provides a link to its online emergency planning information service called "deNIS" (deutsche Notfallvorsorge-Informationssystem).

 

The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior also provides more info in German on Katastrophenschutz and Zivilschutz.

[davidallen 0]

I was in Landsberg a few times and noticed that the car park carved into the hill under the castle has very thick (2ft) steel doors at some of the entrances. I suspect this is also a shelter for those who want to see what a post nuclear/biological/chemical war world looks like.

[fraufruit 42,674]

My dad was a home builder back in the day. He built many "fallout shelters" in the 60's. What a joke!! That was back when they showed films in school instructing kids to get under their desks in case of nuclear attack.

 

Pass the cyanide, please.

 

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