18.5 Heat and ventilation: the forgotten danger

Cresson Kearny, in Nuclear War Survival Skills (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), insists that a crowded shelter in hot weather must be ventilated and cooled with enough outside air. Several people and pets in a closed bathroom produce heat and humidity that rise quickly, and in summer or in hot climates the blackout has probably already shut off the air conditioning. Heat stroke can kill before the threat you are hiding from does.

1. Keep a thermometer with a hygrometer in the shelter. Watch temperature and humidity (for the heat index, see chapter 10).
2. Keep the shelter door closed only when necessary: during the tornado, the first hours of fallout, or while the chemical cloud passes.
3. Move the indoor air: battery-powered fans or the box-fan filter connected to the power station.
4. Cool the bodies, not the room: wet cloths on the neck, armpits, and groin, minimal light-colored clothing, frequent sips of water. Pets on the tile floor.
5. Reduce heat sources: LED lights instead of bulbs; no candles.
6. Shifts: when authorities allow (or the danger is low), have part of the group move to the hallway or another area of the core to spread out the heat.
7. Decision rule: if someone shows signs of heat stroke (confusion, stops sweating, hot skin), it is a medical emergency (chapter 7). Against fallout, heat stroke justifies opening up, ventilating, and calling for help (chapter 15). Against a chemical cloud, do not open while it passes: apply the cooling measures and call 911.

Kearny also describes a homemade air pump, the KAP (Kearny Air Pump): a frame with flaps that swings like a pendulum to push outside air through a shelter. It is designed for improvised shelters with openings, not for a sealed bathroom; it is only mentioned here for reference (section 18.14).