It is so damp that the guide refuses to switch on the light for fear it will spark an electrical shortage. This small facility, built a half-century ago to accommodate the port’s managers, is usually ankle-deep in water. The bomb shelter on Export Street just north of downtown Riga, in view of tall cranes and massive cargo ships moored at the port, is typical. Most are neglected, and the Fire and Rescue Service estimates that a third are flooded. Dozens are used by companies for storage. Since Latvia gained independence in 1991, no significant investments have been made in the shelters. “They still contain information that is considered secret.” “That’s the order from above,” says Margarita Pluksna. Although the maps are old and their doomsday scenario is more than two decades in the past, the tour guide asks a group of Associated Press journalists not to photograph them. In one expansive, well-scrubbed shelter beneath a former convalescent center used as a Communist Party weekend resort, bright yellow maps detail contingency plans in case of a nuclear war.
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