Emergency Preparedness and Civil Defense eBooks

If you have a Kindle or other e-reader (or a computer, since you download a free Kindle viewer at this link), there are a considerable number of emergency preparedness and civil defense books available. Many of those books are linked on this page.

• Civil Defense Publications for the Public
  
  
  • In Time of Emergency A Citizen's Handbook on Nuclear Attack, Natural Disasters (1968) (free Kindle book).
    This 1968 Civil Defense publication was widely distributed. It contains one section on surviving a nuclear attack, and another covering a wide variety of natural disasters. This Kindle edition, unfortunately, does not contain any illustrations. However, it contains quite a bit of useful information, and it's free. A Google Books version, with the illustrations, is also available.
    
  • Protection in the Nuclear Age is a 1985 FEMA publication, largely written for the public.
    
  • Defense Against Radioactive Fallout on the Farm (at Google Books).
  • Protect and Survive. British Civil Defense pamphlet.
  • Manual of Civil Defence, Volume 1, Pamphlet 1, Nuclear Weapons (UK Civil Defence Pamphlet)
  • Manual of Civil Defence Vol. I Pamphlet No.2 Radioactive Fall-out Provisional Scheme of Public Control(UK Civil Defence Pamphlet)
  • Fallout Protection
  • FEMA Home Shelter
  
  
  
• Nuclear War Survival Skills

  Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson Kearny was originally published in 1979, and contains a wealth of information, not only on the nuclear threat, but also on general preparedness topics such as water, food, and medicine. The book was based upon research done at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and is in the public domain. The book is available at a variety of places on the web, usually in PDF format. Among the sources are:
  

  • Google Books
  • Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine
  • Other sources are listed at Wikipedia.

  The PDF format is not particularly good for Kindle, but I have found that by putting the book in the landscape mode, it displays fairly well.
  
  

• Government and Planning Documents
  
  
  • The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (1977) (full PDF at dtic.mil). This is generally considered the definitive work on the subject. It is also available at this link at fourmilab.ch as 18 separate PDF files.
  • Planning Guidance for Response to a Nuclear Detonation is a 2010 publication of the Environmental Protection Agency. It contains fairly extensive information on the effects of nuclear weapons, and information intended for policy makers.
    
  • Design and Construction Guidance for Community Safe Rooms. FEMA, 2008, at Google Books.
    
  • Effects of Nuclear War at defconwarningsystem.com
  • Worldwide Effects of Nuclear War: Some Perspectives (free Kindle book).
  • Structure shielding against fallout gamma rays from nuclear detonations (1980) (at Google Books).
  • Electric Power Emergency Handbook (1980) (at Google Books).
  • Rural Fire Defense in Wartime (at Google Books).
  • Severe Space Weather Events--Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts Workshop Report National Research Council, 2008 (at nap.edu).
  • Effects of Nuclear War. 1979.
  • How Nuclear War Might Start. 1988 Rand report on possible early 21st century scenarios.
  • Nuclear War in Los Angeles 1980.
  • Domestic Nuclear Shelters Technical Guidance
  • Precautions Against Nuclear Attack (U.K., 1956)
  • Recovery from Nuclear Attack
    • 1988 FEMA final version
    • 1979 version, with additional documentation
  • Fallout Shelter Manager's Guide. Madison County, Alabama, 2010 revision.
  • FEMA Attack Enviornment Manual (1987)
    • Chapter 1: Introduction to Nuclear Emergency Operations
    • Chapter 2: What the Planner Needs to Know about blast and shock
    • Chapter 3: What the Planner Needs to Know about Fire Ignition and Spread
    • Chapter 4: What the Planner Needs to Know about Electromagnetic Pulse
    • Chapter 5: What the Planner Needs to Know about Initial Nuclear Radiation
    • Chapter 6: What the Planner Needs to Know about Fallout
    • Chapter 7: What the Planner Needs to Know about the Shelter Environment
    • Chapter 8: What the Planner Needs to Know about the Postshelter Environment
    • Chapter 9: Application to Emergency Operations Planning
    • Full document at scribd.com
  • Survival of the Relocated Population of the U.S. After a Nuclear Attack, Oak Ridge National Labs, 1976.
  • Maintaining nutritional adequacy during a prolonged food crisis Oak Ridge National Labs, 1979.
  
  
• Shelter Management Textbook. Office of Civil Defense, 1967.
• Military Documents
  
  
  • Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense (at Google Books).
    
    
  • In the 1980's, the U.S. Army published a series of technical manuals entitled "Designing Facilities to Resist Nuclear Weapon Effects". There were a total of eight volumes, but not all are available online. The ones linked below are available for free download:
    
    • TM 5-858-1 Facilities System Engineering
    • TM 5-858-2 Weapon Effects
    • TM 5-858-3 Structures (at scribd.com).
    • TM 5-858-4 Shock Isolation Systems
    • TM 5-858-5 Air Entrainment, Fasteners Penetration Protection, Hydraulic-Surge Protective Devices, EMP Protective Devices (at scribd.com).
    • TM 5-858-6 Hardness Verification (at Google Books)
    • TM 5-858-7 Facility Support Systems (at wbdg.org)
    • TM 5-858-8 Illustrative Examples (at Google Books)
    
    
  • Nuclear Handbook for Medical Service Personnel (at Google Books)
    
    
• For more documents, see listing at civildefensemuseum.com.
• I have a separate bibliography covering Electromagnetic Pulse.
• For more documents, see listing at upenn.edu.
• Popular Science and Popular Mechanics
  
  Amazingly, every single issue of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science is available absolutely free on Google Books. These old magazines contain a wealth of information, and can be downloaded to your e-reader with a minimum of difficulty.
  

  If you're looking for survival fiction, please visit my TEOTWAWKI fiction page.

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