Fallout shelter program

In fact, the untenability of the shelters was public knowledge before they had even opened. Conditions were a serious problem, but location was a bigger one. Two-thirds of the fallout shelters in the U. In New York, for example, most of the government shelters could be found in Manhattan and Brooklyn—despite the fact that a megaton hydrogen bomb detonated over Midtown would leave a crater 20 stories deep and drive a firestorm all the way to the center of Long Island. What were the feds thinking?

According to Kenneth D. Rose, author of the book One Nation Underground , defense officials placed their faith in the counterforce doctrine, a game theory that held that atomic war would be waged with only military installations as targets. But that was wishful thinking. And Americans knew it. Anyone who read the newspapers understood not just that an inbound ICBM would leave them only 15 minutes, if that long, to get to a fallout shelter—but also that few structures in the city would survive a strike anyway.

As Steven R. In January of , Life magazine encapsulated the sentiments of many when it quoted a bank teller named Dorothy Gannaway. They are between one of the generator foundations and the back basement wall of the building. The overall condition was ok. This is a very good example of a stock of fallout shelter supplies. The only thing missing that might commonly be found with a stock like this is a medical kit or two.

The photos above are looking towards the east in the back southeast corner of the building. The generator foundation is on the left side and the back wall of the building is on the right in the photo. The photo at right above is looking towards the west from the other end of the area where the supplies are located.

It's been about 20 years since I have found a decent pile of shelter supplies like this. The pile of rotten crackers in the bank in Paris Texas really didn't count as a decent stock of supplies. I always get a strange feeling when looking over a stock of shelter supplies like this. I always think to myself that when this stuff was put in place it was expected to have been used in the event of a nuclear war.

It's almost like the stuff has been sitting waiting all these years for something to happen. I guess looking back in there and seeing all those ominous labels on the boxes and barrels is what brings that feeling up. Courthouse Baylor Univ. Fallout Shelter Sign Over Front Door I can usually spot a shelter sign on a building a mile away but this one is a bit covered-up. The survey was made possible by procedures which had been developed from more than five years of research -- procedures where a number of complicated calculations could be made rapidly on various types of structures to determine the degree of protection the structures would offer against penetrating gamma radiation.

The surveyors sought out areas in buildings with sufficient mass or distance between the shelter areas and the outside where fallout radiation could have been deposited. For example, basement areas with heavy concrete or masonry walls, upper floors of high rise buildings distance from fallout on the ground , dams, tunnels and even caves are the types of areas that were designated as fallout shelters. These surveys are in various stages of completion throughout the country. Local officials, as part of the Emergency Management Assistance program, are to provide basic update information through the State offices to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

This update information is then used to correct the Shelter survey data bases and to generate corrected printouts of the shelter information back to the local officials. This guidance is provided to assist local officials in the performance of update surveys of shelters that have been identified in their jurisdiction.

The quality of the update effort will result in better formal information on the shelters benefiting both the state planners and the emergency management officials at the local level. The CSP usually consisted of a map and list of shelters with areas marked on the map for specific shelters. Fallout Shelter Supplies Many public fallout shelters were partially if not fully stocked with supplies. These supplies were most commonly placed in out-of-the-way locations of the shelter areas.

The Office of Civil Defense plan was to provide 2 weeks worth of supplies in the shelters. Initial radiation from fallout would be very intense. The more intensely radioactive the fallout, the faster it will decay since it is the more unstable. The plan was for a 2 week shelter stay to allow time for this radiation to drop to a level where it might be possible to leave the shelter for a short period of time to seek out more supplies or to move to areas outside the shelter permanantly.

Of course it would depend on the radiation levels outside the shelter at the time. Adequate ventilation was figured in when shelter area capacity was calculated during the national shelter survey. By , the program was allowed to lapse and municipalities would be faced with the problem in the coming years of disposing of the biscuits and supplies.

Previous: Nelson Rockefeller and Civil Defense. Explore This Park. Life magazine, September Woman views bomb shelter display which is stocked with food and other supplies, Library of Congress LC-DIG-ds Although the question of whether to build a shelter was an omnipresent conversational topic in many suburban households and communities in , Americans themselves largely rejected the proposition. Written by Naomi Kroll Hassebroek, September You Might Also Like.

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