BE AFRAID! Alabama city reopening fallout shelters

[PA Democrat]

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - In an age of al-Qaida, sleeper cells and the threat of nuclear terrorism, Huntsville is dusting off its Cold War manual to create the nation's most ambitious fallout-shelter plan, featuring an abandoned mine big enough for 20,000 people to take cover underground.

Others would hunker down in college dorms, churches, libraries and research halls that planners hope will bring the community's shelter capacity to 300,000, or space for every man, woman and child in Huntsville and the surrounding county.

<snip>

Huntsville's project, developed using $70,000 from a Homeland Security grant, goes against the grain because the United States essentially scrapped its national plan for fallout shelters after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Congress cut off funding and the government published its last list of approved shelters at the end of 1992.

After Sept. 11, Homeland Security created a metropolitan protection program that includes nuclear-attack preparation and mass shelters. But no other city has taken the idea as far as Huntsville has, officials said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070927/ap_on_re_us/fallout_shelters

[Red Zelda]

1. Bammy's main problem

... is all the stupid in the air.

[MelissaB]

8. Huntsville is a liberal city with many transplants from the north and Canada.

But I guess you wouldn't know that.
:spank:

[Donnachaidh]

2. Here's proof that the Repukes wanted to send us back to the 1950's terror era

I wish I could remember Lewis Black's bit about the schools teaching him how to duck and cover from a nuclear bomb under a *pile of kindling* - his desk.

Ugh -- someone outside of Homeland Security had better inspect those fallout shelters. Has HS gotten ANYTHING right since it began? I'm not sure I'd want to trust my family's safety to that gang of incompetents.

[PA Democrat]

3. I was thinking about how bad conditions were inside the Superdome

in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I think I would rather die in a nuclear blast than die of hunger, thirst and disease.

I think in general, this is more fearmongering. If the government is reopening fallout shelters, then the threat from IRAN must be real. Right? Right? :sarcasm:

[Donnachaidh]

12. I was thinking more of the threat of black mold

I doubt seriously if anything HS opens is disinfected properly.

It's unbelievable how low this government will sink in order to scare the populace.

[truth2power]

4. Stupid Homeland Security grant. Meanwhile...

many Americans don't have health care.

Oh...and the Prez has an MBA. Hekkuva job, Bushie! :(

[PA Democrat]

5. Yeah, I'd say more Americans are terrorized by health care costs

than by the threat of a nuclear blast.

[5X]

6. Just another heads up....

portable cell towers have been moving south along highway 75
in Ok. My not mean anything, or could be a pre-emptive move
of needed supplies.

[PDenton]

7. Sounds like a make-work

project for Alabama.

I can't think any particular reason why Alabama would be a target for a terrorist attack. At any rate, I think fallout shelter would be useless because the US would get little or no warning of such an attack before the shelter could become useful.

[juajen]

10. Since Louisiana is home to the B-52's I think we should be

preparing rather than Alabama, but, what do I know. Maybe that's the home of yet another shadow government. In addition to Barksdale Air Force Base, we also have oil and gas out the wazoo. Somehow, I don't feel so safe anymore.

[NoPasaran]

9. We cannot allow a mine shaft gap to develop

[lovuian]

11. I remember getting under our desk when a nuclear attack

happened... stupid stupid stupid