Michael J. Totten: Bomb Shelters

August 24, 2006

Bomb Shelters

Amichai Geva and Yehuda Beinin, the two peace activists I interviewed earlier, gave me a tour of one of the community bomb shelters at Kibbutz Shomrat, just north of Akko (Acre) near the border with Lebanon.

The entrance leading underground is in a communal area behind several old houses. The door was unlocked and open just in case the war started again and the sirens went off.

The stairs lead deep underground, deep enough that I felt psychologically secure down there as well as physically secure.

The place is purely functional, though. It is not where you want to live for a month.

This shelter is used by 20 people. There are a couple of smaller rooms that branch off from the main room pictured above.

But I only saw one single bed.

Here is a picture of Amichai’s bomb shelter. His house is new, and all new houses are required by law to include sealed rooms (to protect against chemical weapons) that can also absorb a direct hit by a rocket or missile. The walls are solid, thick, and lined with books. Amichai told me he rather enjoys staying in his above-ground shelter. It's just another room in his house. With books, a computer, music, a bed, and a window, what more do you need?

Posted by Michael J. Totten at August 24, 2006 05:21 AM

Comments

Fantastic fotos, selection especially (I'm no judge of "foto art").

It would be good to find out how much more expensive the new houses with a sealed room are. I'd guess some 10% more, overall.

Don't the new sealed rooms require sealed water & toilets, too?

Thanks.

Posted by: Tom Grey - Liberty Dad at August 24, 2006 08:25 AM

Liberty Dad, no. The sealed rooms are simply a small room in the house that is surrounded by reinforced concrete, has a steel door, and if there's a window it has a seal around it (kinda like your freezer -- you see it MJT's last photo). There doesn't have to be a toilet or anything... It' just a safer place to go when you thin the rockets are falling, but doesn't compare to the kind of protection afforded by underground bomb shelters (MJT's first set of pics). I've never seen one that wasn't used in "regular times" as either a living room, office, spare bedroom or storage closet...

Posted by: Josh at August 24, 2006 09:02 AM

I remember in 2003, before we went into Iraq, that Israelis also had gas masks, and other similar items in their safe rooms. Do these items have to be turned in after a while?

Posted by: Renée C. at August 24, 2006 09:44 AM

There doesn't have to be a toilet or anything...

That seems kind of shortsighted. A lot of the chem/bio stuff those sealed rooms are intended to protect you from take well over 24 hours to disperse (and some of it is very persistent).

A spare crapper would make that time a lot more plesant.

Posted by: rosignol at August 24, 2006 10:09 AM

What's the use of having a room made of concrete if it also has a GLASS WINDOW? Kind of defeats the purpose, no?

Posted by: Carlos at August 24, 2006 10:52 AM

I remember in 2003, before we went into Iraq, that Israelis also had gas masks, and other similar items in their safe rooms. Do these items have to be turned in after a while?

Yes, every Israeli is supposed to have one (you should see the ones for babies, they're little tents). They are supposed to be refreshed every once in a while.

That seems kind of shortsighted. A lot of the chem/bio stuff those sealed rooms are intended to protect you from take well over 24 hours to disperse (and some of it is very persistent).

Yes, I remember during the war they said to keep a pail, etc. handy in the room. But that's only needed if a gas attack really occurs. During the Gulf war we just went into the sealed room until the all-clear siren went off. Maybe 15 minutes.

What's the use of having a room made of concrete if it also has a GLASS WINDOW? Kind of defeats the purpose, no?

Usually the rockets come down from the top. The chance of one coming through the window is pretty slim.

Posted by: Yafawi at August 24, 2006 12:24 PM

Is it ordinary glass? I don't know that I would assume that it is glass. Can we get a verdict?

Posted by: Lindsey at August 24, 2006 12:29 PM

There are different variations of protection, but a safe room like the one with the window in MJT's photo is not designed to protect you from a direct hit... It does, however, afford a good deal of protection with thick concrete walls, a minimal blast window covered by metal shutters (see photo), a heavy metal door that pushes outwards (so you can escape after the house theoretically collapses around you), and seals on all entry/exitways in case of chemical weapons attack. Some people have air filtration/circulation systems in their safe rooms, but many (most?) do not. For that level of protection you need to go to either the more secure safe room on the floor of every apartment block, or one of the underground shelters (designed to withstand direct hits) found in every community.

Sound scary? It is. During Gulf War I there were a few incidents of people even suffocating from completely sealing themselves in their safe room or forgetting to open the tabs on their gask masks... Whoever says that terror doesn't work is lying. It's works... all too well :-/

To get a good sense of the different options as well as how the system works in terms of sirens, sealing things off, gas masks, etc., check out the English language page of the Israeli Homefront Command here:

http://www1.idf.il/oref/site/en/oref.asp?pi=20070

Posted by: Josh at August 24, 2006 01:12 PM

Yafawi and Josh, thank you for the replies. These bomb shelters and safe rooms seem so strange to someone like me living here in the States. Gas masks for babies, sigh. Terrorism is just so way beyond evil. Even hell must have a special torment section for terrorists.

Michael, thanks for thinking of this article, and posting it on your blog. Since I've never seen a bomb shelter I was curious about them. To me, it's things like this that really bring home the insanity of having to endure terrorists while trying to raise a family and get on with the only life one's got.

Posted by: Renée C. at August 24, 2006 05:49 PM

This is a normal part of life in Israel.

Maybe this helps folks to understand why Israelis prefer to deal with the attackers proactively and on their own ground instead of waiting until they are bombarding Israel with rockets. Or gas. Or nuclear weapons.

Israel has the strongest military in the middle east. Some people seem to think this is gratuitous. It isn't. It is critical, because Israel needs the strongest military in the middle east to protect its civilians against the kind of governments and organizations that target them as Hizballah has just done.

Maybe these pictures also helps people to realize how truly amazing it is that Israel has been willing to take risks for peace in the past. It is all very well for Europeans or Americans to decry Israeli actions. But Europeans and Americans don't have to have bomb shelters built into every new home... .

Thanks, Michael.

Posted by: howard at August 24, 2006 10:03 PM

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