If all of the talk of a potential World War III is making you a bit anxious, then knowing where to go in the unlikely event of a nuclear war might ease your mind.
A nuclear fallout shelter is designed not to withstand the initial explosion, extreme heat, or shockwaves.
Instead, its purpose is to protect occupants from radioactive particles, or fallout, that drift through the air after a blast. While they won’t stop a direct hit, they can be lifesavers after the fact.
During the Cold War, fallout shelters boomed: public buildings - schools, libraries, and basements - were identified and stocked.
Today, many remain, hanging unnoticed in basements across states like New York, Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Milwaukee, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C.
However, decades-old supplies of canned food and medicine are likely long gone.
However, a columnist has uncovered a new fallout shelter map, confirming that hundreds - maybe thousands - of these bunkers still exist, and they're all detailed on TruePrepper.com.
As Air Force veteran and survival expert Sean Gold explained to TruePrepper: “The thicker the shielding, the better the protection. Alternatively, several yards of dirt will work, so many shelters are below ground.”
But thick walls are just the start. Gold emphasized that ventilation with proper filters, enough food and water for months, waste disposal, and even somewhere to sleep are vital.
Until the 1950s and ’60s, the U.S. had an identification drive called the National Fallout Shelter Survey, and plaques with the three-yellow-triangle symbol still dot large cities.
New York alone reportedly had over 18,000 such shelters during its nuclear standoff with Russia.
But decades of neglect and repurposing - into storage units, parking lots, or private basements - have left most dormant.
Gold has been through each state and located the shelters, but in some places, like Alaska, they are quite sparse.
If you're in California, then it looks like Sacramento is your best bet, though most of the cities have some shelters to use.
Florida has notably fewer, with cities like Miami and Orlando being densely populated but with very few options.
Chicago doesn't have many shelters because, as Gold mentions, during the Cold War, it was used to house nuclear weapons and therefore wouldn't have survived a direct attack.
If you're in Maryland, then you're in luck, because there are close to 1,000 identified shelters in the area, with the majority in Baltimore.
Massachusetts, particularly around Boston, appears to also have quite a few shelters to choose from.
Michigan had close to 2,000 shelters during the Cold War, though whether this number still exists is unknown.
If you're in Nevada, then some of the casinos and mines in Las Vegas were designated as shelters.
Pennsylvania has many shelters scattered across the state.
Texas is full of shelters thanks to community planning, so it will be easy to familiarize yourself with the locations.
Washington, D.C., understandably has an enormous number of shelters, though some may now be disused and unstocked.
Gold expresses that if there ever is a nuclear strike, you only have a few minutes to get to a shelter, and you might not be able to reemerge for a few months due to the radiation.
You can see full interactive maps of all the shelters in every state HERE. Maybe it's time to start restocking the shelves...