Helsinki Shelters Give Swiss a Run For Their Money

[Uomo Senza Nome]

Finland's capital Helsinki, population 658,000, is a bustling metropolis that perfectly fits the part of a modern European city. However, 18 meters (59 feet) below the city is something you might not expect -- a vast network of caverns and tunnels blasted from the bedrock that can accommodate every last one of Helsinki's residents, plus nearly a quarter-million more.

Not only Tactical but also practical.

Because many of these bunkers contain large open spaces, they can be set up as sporting arenas. These arenas can then be rented out to youth and amateur leagues to help offset the maintenance cost of the facilities. Some bunkers even contain Olympic-size swimming pools. Other businesses can also take residence in these shelters to support these ancillary functions, such as food and beverage stalls. There are even children's playgrounds in some of the bunkers.

Why Finland Built A Massive Network Of Nuclear Bunkers (msn.com)

[Optimist]

Using the shelters as everyday normal infrastructure in peace time makes a lot of sense. I know a lot of the civil defense shelters and supplies were left to rot in the U.S. and from what I've heard they're mostly unusable now. A few months back I was listening to an interview with some Swedish guys and it sounds like Sweden also had an extensive shelter system with lots of supplies, but that had been left in neglect since the end of the Cold War. They were talking about how there used to be a supply of gas masks for every person in Sweden, but since there had been no maintenance they had mostly rotted and then had to be burned. Now Sweden was looking to ramp up preparations in response to Russia's actions and they made it sound like Sweden was having to almost start over from scratch because things had got so bad. (I haven't verified any of the stuff about Sweden, it was based on one interview and I can't even remember what podcast it was on so I could very well be full of crap.)

I wonder what state Moscow's subway system shelters are in? I wouldn't necessarily believe anything the Russians say about it as it wouldn't be surprising to me if everything they had stockpiled had been sold off illegally by corrupt officials. IIRC New York also had a system of subway shelters but they were in a pretty sorry state.

I don't know much about the Swiss bunker system other than they supposedly have space for everyone in the country.

Overall the Finn's strategy of making use of the space all the time makes the most sense to me as something that sits locked-up and out of the way seems like it would be easy to let fall into disrepair and would be harder to justify the cost of upkeep.

[MacWa77ace]

There are guys making youtube videos that explore these bunkers. Some are right under main cities. And are full of supplies, a lot have standing water or flooding. tons of supplies.
Just have to go to youtube and search for 'forgotten bunkers' or abandoned bunkers or other similar keywords and a bunch will come up.

I used to get a bunch of those as suggested videos, also abandoned mine and abandoned building videos, but not lately so haven't been keeping up. If you don't want a genre they tend to stop being suggested. Algorithms.