Parents starting an air raid shelter

[PanicStations2025]

I've called my parents tonight and they’ve been telling me all about the shelter that they’re building in case Russia attacks. I feel like this is crazy! They do live near an army base (within 10 miles) so they’ve been packing food, water, games, bedding etc to survive a week! Is it me or is that insane? Are we really at that level of risk now? Should I be starting a pack? What do I even put in it?

They’re massively involved in the community, part of the local committee, do litter picks, clean the church, volunteer for the local search and rescue :)

Heh yep and then it was all our fault nobody could get their home deliveries seems few people have learned their lesson, want to mock and stick their head in the sand.

Everyone should be prepared for disruption anyway. Not so much bombs, but cyber attacks. Even our local rag is pointing out portable generators. Other countries are advising to have some stores in.

But no, your average mumsnetter would prefer to scoff and blame everyone else when the SHTF.

This stuff makes you feel out of control, if anyone wants to make themselves feel better by feeling a bit prepared then let them.

It's worth just thinking what you'd do if your local water company had to shut off the water due to a threat of it being contaminated by a terrorist, or due to a cyberattack on water systems.

OK the local council might well start dishing out bottled water in a day or so but what about until then? Have you got some 2l bottles of supermarket water just to see you through a couple of days, at least?

The same goes for power, it's worth keeping a couple of power banks charged up for phones, and having a few tins and packets of ready to eat food to get you through a couple of days of not having power to cook with.

If every UK household had only that most basic level of preparedness, we'd instantly be way more resilient as a nation.

Govt and army would be able to focus more on fixing the results of an attack and less on doling out rations to totally unprepared citizens.

What is their plan after the 7 days? 🫤

Absolutely agree with all of this and I'm no prepper. But I'm going to start to have a few back up systems in place with a household power bank and wind up radio coming soon.

Get a copy of "When the Wind Blows" by Raymond Briggs & give it to them.
The radio version with Peter Sallis is brilliant.

For those asking- yes it’s a legitimate post, I’ve been around for years but name changed for obvious reasons :)

They’re not crazy and usually very calm, for example I was much more concerned about covid before they did. They’re not preppers or paranoid.

I don’t think they’re worried about nuclear war, more of a targeted attack on the local base. It’s close enough that they might be collateral damage.

@Cesarina they have a basement/cellar that’s mostly just used for storage (and the occasional flood!) At the moment.
@ElleintheWoods - yeah that’s what they said. People are being warned to get a weeks supplies so they’re doing that basically

@WilfredsPies - no nothing that crazy luckily! They have the cellar already so they’re just sorting it out and starting to get things stored in it

@Youlikepotatoesyes - at the moment there’s cards, dominos and monopoly. It’s a good idea for birthday presents though!

@Falconfield no, they’re just filling the cellar that they already own

I’ve definitely worded it badly since so many think they’re somehow building the shelter themselves, sorry! I just meant they’re building a pack of supplies for the cellar they already have.

I vividly remember my neighbours in the 80s building a shelter in their dining room with "fall-out blankets" (whatever they are) covering the windows and doorways, tins of food and supplies, camping stove, etc. They were far from the only ones as well.

It may seem silly or futile to some people, but when you're worried it can make you feel better to be doing something rather than nothing at all. AT the end of the day, they're not doing anything that could end badly, and having some extra supplies could be a good thing if rising prices cause a run on the shops one day.

Nuclear attack is the least likely, hybrid attacks are the most likely as they are already happening, and after that attack with conventional weapons is more likely than nuclear so yeah, preparing for a few days in case something happens is wise, because for a few days you won't have access to anything.

Though I'm not really too worried, at least not for the next few years. After that, maybe its time to worry.

Thanks for the detail OP. Some level of preparation for an attack or a cyber attack is reasonable, whether this is too much only time will tell.

Iron Dome is cutting edge,and as we have seen is not comprehensive: have we got something better than that?

No.

..and to answer a previous question: does the UK have the ability/capability shoot down a ballistic missile?,

The answer again is pretty much no, though there is a missile system on a few of our naval vessels which may have a limited anti-ballistic missile capability...

We certainly have nothing close to the Israeli multi layered system of which Iron Dome is one component.

As for us instantly firing back....would the PM authorise the use of Trident if he believed the incoming from Russia was conventionally tipped - the sort of thing Russia has been firing at Ukraine .....???

My Dad did this many years ago. He stockpiled so much stuff, that we lived on Cheese and Onion soup for months when we first got married!

I've seen enough post disaster TV shows to know I'd rather die within the first few seconds of said disaster!

I think this is more in case there’s a specific attack on the army base, rather than nuclear war

Children, children, let me tell you...'during the COLD WAAAAR' those of us of the Nena era were specifically educated by the UK government as to how we, as schoolchildren, could save ourselves in the event of the (99 red) balloon(s) going up...

You MUST paint your windows white (against flash, for fire reduction)
Do not stand near them
Remove internal doors and place them at an angle and place mattresses against them (blast and shrapnel protection)
Fill the bath with water
Shit in a bucket
Lie face down with your head towards the blast, preferably in sunglasses
Put dead grannies in bin bags and tape them up

...stopped remembering so googled 'Protect and Survive' official pamphlet:

http://www.roc-heritage.co.uk/uploads/7/6/8/9/7689271/protectandsurvive.pdf

Watch Threads as well - they made us watch it. It's truly frightening - One woman wees herself and a traffic warden becomes an even bigger cunt than normal.

That's if you want to survive. Not sure i'd bother. We used to discuss all this bollocks in the playground - four minutes warnings, radiation sickness, nuclear winter.. the 80's were shit.

That’s really made me laugh (the traffic warden bit). I can’t believe they let kids watch Threads, I saw it recently and fuuuuck it’s bleak. I’m a little bit too young to have watched it when it was out originally, but I do remember the 80s.

If they are British, they will most likely have seen threads in the 80s. It’s on BBC iPlayer and watched it recently and it scared the shit out of me.

Russia can park a sub armed with conventional weapons about 30 miles of our shore and hit us in less than a minute warning. They don’t need to come from Russia. And Iskander missiles do have enough range to travel from Kaliningrad to the UK.

Hope they painted their windows white and took the doors of their hinges !

Do I think someone will nuke us? - NO

Is it possible for a Russian nuke to reach us? - absolutely

Would it be shot down ?- no, hitting a moving target that is travelling at the speed an ICBM moves would be very very difficult.

But they have advanced warning systems. - That is so we can retaliate and this threat is what insures MAD (mutually assured destruction)

OP - if I was your parents I would be happy to go out in the first wave, but as you or someone else said an attact might not be nuclear and I can see how they might want some comfort about that.

Annie Jacobsen is a very interesting woman to listen to if you don't scare easily.

Do they have planning permission?

Yeah, it really is. My partner was horrified - and shocked they showed us at school. Three tears younger than me.

Being a prepper is fine, but they might want to consider what is likely to actually happen. If Russia bombs us, we bomb them. Mutual destruction- so that’s not how they’ll attack.

We are much much more vulnerable on the cyber front. All you have to do is set traps in the stock control systems of all the major supermarkets. Three days later our country would be on its knees.

I’d also rather go out in the first hit In The event of global nuclear war.

YABU for yet another nonsense post hyping up a war none of us want