St Louis Fallout Shelters


I can remember being a kid and seeing signs for St Louis fallout shelters on buildings around town.

I’m trying to keep track of them or at least keep track of where they were. There’s an awesome PBS documentary called something like, “Underground St. Louis” that I would love to see again.

They go into an undisclosed building and show what remains of the shelter there. I’m not sure of when it was made but I checked it out once from the University City library back in like 97 or 98. (EDIT: My friend found the video online and it’s posted below oh yeah!) I’m old as dirt.

Games have been made that revolve around these things and every now and then one of these time capsules is found in someones back yard. The suburban fallout shelter, the ultimate in post-atomic age living.

St Louis Fallout Shelters

Under St Louis – KETC Channel 9 Documentary


Wikipedia

 

fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War.

During a nuclear explosion, matter vaporized in the resulting fireball is exposed to neutrons from the explosion, absorbs them, and becomes radioactive. When this material condenses in the rain, it forms dust and light sandy materials that resemble ground pumice. The fallout emits alpha and beta particles, as well as gamma rays.

Much of this highly radioactive material falls to earth, subjecting anything within the line of sight to radiation, becoming a significant hazard. A fallout shelter is designed to allow its occupants to minimize exposure to harmful fallout until radioactivity has decayed to a safer level.