I'm late to this party, but this is an emergency that I've put some thought into over the years. We live about an hour and a half from our state capital and about 4 and a half hours from NYC.The first thing that I'd do is send hubby to get our oldest two daughters. They each live 5 minutes from us, but in opposite directions.The oldest has 5 children and is rather disorganized. She'd have to just throw the kids in the car and get to our house. The younger daughter always has a bag of "stuff" packed and would be able to leave her apartment almost immediately. I'd run next door to alert the family members there to the situation and instruct them to get into the basement with supplies to last for 3 weeks.
Our house is an old Victorian that stands about 40 feet tall with a full attic. We also have a full basement. It is one of those old dirty basements and not the "family room" type. While hubby was gone, youngest daughter and I would start hauling our camping equipment, futon mattress, bunk bed and sofa bed mattresses into the basement. We also have a full sized mattress that could be used. We already have plywood, nails, tape, plastic sheeting and tools to further secure and shield the basement. There are two, 40 gallon hot water tanks which can provide some water. I would also fill both bath tubs with water. The tubs are situated in the exact same place but on different floors. They could provide a good barrier to radiation. We'd sleep directly under them, as much as possible. There are also a couple of laundry sinks down there, so I'd fill those with water before turning off the water main. I'd also grab the rolling wood bins from the porch and drag them into the house. After the quarantine period, we might need the wood for heat and the bins hold enough wood to barely get us through two days each. This would keep us from having to go outside.
Youngest daughter would start hauling the 4 emergency bins down to the basement. They are filled with all kinds of stuff that might be useful, including meds,toiletries, extra toothbrushes KI, toilet paper, sanitation items,trash bags, flashlights, batteries, radio, matches, etc..I'd start moving the pantry into the basement. If there was time, I'd grab the hens out of the barn and put them in a cage inside the house. (I have a really large cage, and the house would be a safer place for them.) Inside or outside, I'd load them up with a lot of food to see them through and plenty of water. With so many people, I don't want to have animals in the basement with us. There will be enough unpleasant odors. The turtle would probably be alright in the main part of the house, too. He doesn't eat in the winter and I'd probably just give him a little extra water to keep it from evaporating. Daughter and I would put the quail into the barn and hope that they'd be okay. Worst case scenario, I have empty dog crates that the hens could go into so that they could be on the 1st floor, but they might not be safe from raccoons there and they shouldn't be kept in close proximity with the quail due to poultry diseases.
Hubby and everyone else should have arrived by this time, so I'd put them to work. The little ones would go in the basement with the older ones helping us to continue to move supplies into the basement. There are already bins of old toys and games down in the basement to occupy them. We can also fill laundry baskets with books to keep folks entertained. We'd move the rest of the stored water and food into the basement and shut off the furnace. We'd also move all of the dirty laundry and anything else into the bathrooms to provide additional mass to protect our basement sleeping area. Clean clothes and linens would be brought into the basement, as would all coats and winter gear. Keeping warm in the basement without a working furnace would be a challenge and we don't really have a workable heating solution for the basement that doesn't require ventilation.
We already have 5 gallon buckets in the basement and an old toilet seat. We could empty the waste into the basement drain pipe and pour disinfectant down it. There is a bookcase down in the basement that I'd planned to use to organize the food on, but I do like the idea of using books as a shield. Since that wasn't my initial thought, I don't want to claim it as a part of my plan!
We'd seal off the basement windows, but we'd be able to get air from the rest of the house. We'd start organizing the space. We'd put down a layer of cardboard or trash bags or whatever else under the mattresses to keep them off the ground and away from any dampness. There is a huge roll of carpet padding down there, so we'd find a use for that, too, maybe as a barrier to catch radioactive particles. We'd set up a food prep area by covering the workbench. There is already an old table down there that we could use. The aforementioned bookcase would become a pantry. If we remembered to bring the folding screens down, we could partition an area off for toileting and sponge-bathing. If not, we could string up a couple of tarps to create a space for that.
There would be 10 of us in an area that measures about 1000 square feet. We would either eat food that could be heated in a chafing dish or potpourri pot or just eat cold stuff. We have an old set of pots and pans in the basement that would be serviceable. We'd take the KI and hope for the best.That's about all that I can think of right now.
My youngest son would survive, he is 3 hours away at school. My older boy is home with me. . . 
