orb many of the gamma rays and keep them from reaching you.

A fallout shelter, therefore, does not need to be a special type of
building or an underground bunker. It can be _any space_, provided the
walls and roof are thick or heavy enough to absorb many of the rays
given off by the fallout particles outside, and thus keep dangerous
amounts of radiation from reaching the people inside the structure.

A shelter can be the basement or inner corridor of any large building;
the basement of a private home; a subway or tunnel; or even a backyard
trench with some kind of shielding material (heavy lumber, earth,
bricks, etc.) serving as a roof.

In addition to protecting people from fallout radiation, most fallout
shelters also would provide some limited protection against the blast
and heat effects of nuclear explosions that were not close by.

Chapter 4 (pages 23-32) discusses the various types of fallout shelters
that people can use to protect themselves in case of nuclear attack.

FOOD AND WATER WOULD BE AVAILABLE AND USABLE

From many studies, the Federal Government has determined that enough
food and water would be available after an attack to sustain our
surviving citizens. However, temporary food shortages might occur in
some areas, until food was shipped there from other areas.

Most of the Nation's remaining food supplies would be usable after an
attack. Since radiation passing through food does not contaminate it,
the only danger would be the actual swallowing of fallout particles that
happened to be on the food itself (or on the can or package containing
the food), and these could be wiped or washed off. Reaping, threshing,
canning and other processing would prevent any dangerous quantities of
fallout particles from getting into processed foods. If necessary to
further protect the population, special precautions would be taken by
food processors.

Water systems might be affected somewhat by radioactive fallout, but the
risk would be small, especially if a few simple precautions were taken.
Water stored in covered containers and water in covered wells would not
be contaminated after an attack, because the fallout particles could not
get into the water. Even if the containers were not covered (such as
buckets or bathtubs filled with emergency supplies of water), as long as
they were indoors it is highly unlikely that fallout particles would get
into them.

Practically all of the particles that dropped into