pace, here are two ways of improvising fallout protection in your yard:

* Dig an L-shaped trench, about 4 feet deep and 3 feet wide. One side of
the L, which will be the shelter area, should be long enough to
accommodate all family members. The other side of the L can be shorter,
since its purpose is to serve as an entrance-way and to reduce the
amount of radiation getting into the shelter area.

Cover the entire trench with lumber (or with house doors that have been
taken off their hinges), except for about 2 feet on the short side of
the L, to provide access and ventilation.

On top of the lumber or doors, pile earth 1 to 2 feet high, or cover
them with other shielding material.

If necessary, support or "shore up" the walls of the trench, as well as
the lumber or doors, so they will not collapse.

* Dig a shallow ditch, 6 inches deep and 6 inches wide, parallel to and
4 feet from the outside wall of your house.

Remove the heaviest doors from the house. Place the bottoms of the doors
in the ditch (so they won't slip), and lean the doors against the wall
of the house.

On the doors, pile 12 to 18 inches of earth or sand. Stack or pile other
shielding material at the sides of the doors, and also on the other side
of the house wall (to protect you against radiation coming from that
direction).

If possible, make the shelter area deeper by digging out more earth
inside it. Also dig some other shallow ditches, to allow rain water to
drain away.

AN IMPROVISED SHELTER ON THE GROUND FLOOR

If your home has no basement or storm cellar (and no crawl space that is
surrounded by foundation walls up to the first floor), you can get some
limited fallout protection by improvising a fallout shelter on the first
or ground floor of your house. However, this type of shelter probably
would not give you nearly as much protection as the other types of
improvised shelters described in this chapter.

Use an inner hall, inner room or large clothes closet on the ground
floor, away from outside walls and windows.

With doors, furniture and appliances, plus stacks of other shielding
material, you can create an enclosure large enough to live in for a
short time. If possible, use boxes filled with sand or earth as
shielding material, and fill drawers and trunks with sand or earth.

If there is not room for the shielding material in the limited space of
a closet or small room, you can place the material on the other sides of
th