People read the disaster articles and some people built shelters and stocked them with a year of supplies.

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Each house is stamped with a logo for USAID - that's the organization that built the shelters.

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Nor is his taste for wrought-iron fencing and some controversial French-built bus shelters.

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After a couple of hours, when the participants have built their shelters, they are collected, told there is no avalanche and returned to base.

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Detailed plans of the shelters built by German occupying forces in the 1940s are contained in the 300-page volume.

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In three sprawling camps on the outskirts of Dubie, men have built simple, shoulder-high shelters of sticks and bamboo.

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Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, which has had its share of devastating storms, has built around 1, 000 such shelters, each capable of accommodating 1, 000 people.

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Some coastal areas have tsunami shelters, while others have built floodgates to withstand inflows of water from tsunamis.

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Taking the safe-house notion even further, a smattering of houses built during the Cold War sit atop fallout shelters, ready for use in the event of disaster.

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The structures - which are all shelters, viewing platforms or beacons - will be built by 2007.

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