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Shelter dwellers should provision themselves with at least a two-week supply of both water and food. For drinking, one quart of water per shelter occupant per day is considered necessary; in addition, another daily half-gallon per person is recommended for washing and other sanitation purposes. Although water should be stored in plastic or metal containers—blast might break glass bottles—anything would do in an emergency. The food should be imperishable or long-lasting, and neither salty nor sweet, to inhibit thirst. Says Margaret Moore, nutritionist for the Louisiana Board of Health: "Keep a few canned vegetables you can eat cold, to conserve fuel supply. Decide which canned meats you like cold, remembering saltiness. Pickles will help ease thirst, and canned vegetables are an extra source of liquid."
Basic to every efficient shelter are an air-intake-exhaust system, a first-aid kit, flashlights and a battery radio (the shelter may need an antenna; otherwise, the radio might be useless underground). Chemical toilets are available at reasonable prices; the minimum provision for disposing of human waste is a stock of plastic bags. Among other useful items: sanitary napkins (which can double as bandages), toothache pills, tranquilizers. deodorants and air purifiers, tight-lidded garbage cans, matches, a can opener, bunk beds with paper sheets, books and games for children.
Nobel prizewinning Physicist Willard Libby plans to take a large supply of sleeping pills into his own $30 did-it-him-self shelter, so that he and his family could doze out most of the ordeal. Several companies are selling prepackaged, high-protein emergency food supplies, and the Mormon church is distributing a two-week supply of emergency rations, packed in a neat metal cylinder, to all its members, along with the urgent suggestion that all good Mormons stockpile a full two-year supply in their larders. Others purvey all-purpose packages, such as the Bolton Farm Packing Co.'s "home survival kits," containing 49 items, from canned water to playing cards. Perhaps the most ghoulish shelter article is the "burial suit," a $50 polyvinyl plastic wrapper for" anyone who dies in a shelter. It contains chemicals "to keep odors down" and can be used as a sleeping bag by the living.
In some areas, special equipment is necessary. Underground shelters in New Orleans, because of the city's high water table, should be watertight or equipped with water pumps. Since a nuclear blast would almost certainly wreck the Mississippi River levees and flood the city, "coning towers," to assure ventilation above the floodline (and also periscope surveillance of the outside) are standard features of New Orleans shelters.