In Time of Emergency - United States. Office of Civil Defense (best reads txt) 📗

The Attack Warning Signal means that an actual enemy attack against the United States has been detected, and that protective action should be taken immediately. This signal has no other meaning, and will be used for no other purpose.

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THE ATTENTION OR ALERT SIGNAL. This is used by some local governments to get the attention of citizens in a time of threatened or impending natural disaster, or some other peacetime emergency. The signal itself is a 3-to 5-minute steady blast on sirens, whistles, horns or other devices. In most places, the Attention or Alert Signal means that the local government wants to broadcast important information on radio or television concerning a peacetime disaster. (See Chapter 1 of Major Natural Disasters section of this handbook.)

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What To Do When Signals Sound

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1. If you should hear the Attack Warning Signal--unless your local government has instructed you otherwise--go immediately to a public fallout shelter marked like this, or to your home fallout shelter. Turn on a radio, tune it to any local station that is broadcasting, and listen for official information. Follow whatever instructions are given.

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If you are at home and there is no public or private shelter available, you may be able to improvise some last-minute protection for yourself and your family by following the suggestions in Chapter 5 (pages 33-38) of this handbook. As a last resort, take cover anywhere you can.

2. If you should hear the Attention or Alert Signal, turn on a radio or TV set, tune it to any local station, and follow the official instructions being broadcast.

Don't Use the Telephone

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Whichever signal is sounding, don't use the telephone to obtain further information and advice about the emergency. Depend on the radio or television, since the government will be broadcasting all the information it has available. The telephone lines will be needed for official calls. Help keep them open.

Learn Your Community's Signals Now

As mentioned before not all communities in the U.S. have outdoor warning systems, and not all communities with warning systems have adopted the two "standard" warning signals.

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You should therefore find out now from your local Civil Defense Office what signals are being used, in your community; what they sound like; what they mean; and what actions you should take when you hear them. Then memorize this information, or write it down on a card to carry with you at all times. Also, post it in your home. Check at least once each year to see if there are any changes.

If There Is a Nuclear Flash

It is possible--but extremely unlikely--that your first warning of an enemy attack might be the flash of a nuclear explosion in the sky some distance away. Or there might be a flash after warning had been given, possibly while you were on your way to shelter.

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• TAKE COVER INSTANTLY. If there should be a nuclear flash--especially if you are outdoors and feel warmth at the same time--take cover instantly in the best place you can find. By getting inside or under something within a few seconds, you might avoid being seriously burned by the heat or injured by the blast wave of the nuclear explosion. If the explosion were some distance away, you might have 5 to 15 seconds before being seriously injured by the heat, and perhaps 30 to 60 seconds before the blast wave arrived. Getting under cover within these time limits might save your life or avoid serious injury. Also, to avoid injuring your eyes, never look at the flash of an explosion or the nuclear fireball.

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• WHERE TO TAKE COVER. You could take cover in any kind of a building, a storm cellar or fruit cellar, a subway station or tunnel--or even in a ditch or culvert alongside the road, a highway underpass, a storm sewer, a cave or outcropping of rock, a pile of heavy materials, a trench or other excavation. Even getting under a parked automobile, bus or train, or a heavy piece of furniture, would protect you to some extent. If no cover is available, simply lie down on the ground and curl up. The important thing is to avoid being burned by the heat, thrown about by the blast, or struck by flying objects.

• BEST POSITION AFTER TAKING COVER. After taking cover you should lie on your side in a curled-up position, and cover your head with your arms and hands. This would give you some additional protection.

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• MOVE TO A FALLOUT SHELTER LATER. If you protected yourself against the blast and heat waves by instantly taking cover, you could get protection from the radioactive fallout (which would arrive later) by moving to a fallout shelter.

Chapter 4 FALLOUT SHELTERS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SUMMARY

Before an emergency

1. Learn the locations of the public fallout shelters that your local government wants you to go to in a time of attack. If no instructions of this kind have been issued, learn the locations of the public shelters nearest to you when you are at home, work, or school. Make sure each member of the family knows these locations.

2. If there is no public fallout shelter near your home, prepare a permanent or preplanned family shelter at home.

During an emergency

1. When you are warned of an enemy attack, go immediately to a public fallout shelter or to your own home shelter, unless your local government has given you other instructions.

2. Stay in shelter until you receive official notice that it is safe to come out.

FALLOUT SHELTERS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

After a nuclear attack, fallout particles would drift down on most areas of this country. To protect themselves from the radiation given off by these particles, people in affected areas would have to stay in fallout shelters for 2 or 3 days to as long as 2 weeks. Many people would go to public fallout shelters, while others--through choice or necessity--would take refuge in private or home fallout shelters.

Identifying Public Shelters

Most communities now have public fallout shelters that would protect many of their residents against fallout radiation. Where there are still not enough public shelters to accommodate all citizens, efforts are being made to provide more. In the meantime, local governments plan to make use of the best available shelter.

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Most of the existing public shelters are located in larger buildings and are marked with this standard yellow-and-black fallout shelter sign. Other public shelters are in smaller buildings, subways, tunnels, mines and other facilities. These also are marked with shelter signs, or would be marked in a time of emergency.

Learn the Locations of Public Shelters

An attack might come at any hour of the day or night. Therefore you should find out now the locations of those public fallout shelters designated by your local government for your use. If no designations have yet been made, learn the locations of public shelters that are nearest to you when you are at home, work, school, or any other place where you spend considerable time.

This advice applies to all members of the family. Your children especially should be given clear instructions now on where to find a fallout shelter at all times of the day, and told what other actions they should take in case an attack should occur.

A Home Shelter May Save Your Life

Public fallout shelters usually offer some advantages over home shelters. However, in many places--especially suburban and rural areas--there are few public shelters. If there is none near you, a home fallout shelter may save your life.

The basements of some homes are usable as family fallout shelters as they now stand, without any alterations or changes--especially if the house has two or more stories, and its basement is below ground level.

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However, most home basements would need some improvements in order to shield their occupants adequately from the radiation given off by fallout particles. Usually, householders can make these improvements themselves, with moderate effort and at low cost. Millions of homes have been surveyed for the U.S. Office of Civil Defense by the U.S. Census Bureau, and these householders have received information on how much fallout protection their basements would provide, and how to improve this protection.

Shielding Material Is Required

In setting up any home fallout shelter, the basic aim is to place enough "shielding material" between the people in the shelter and the fallout particles outside.

Shielding material is any substance that would absorb and deflect the invisible rays given off by fallout particles outside the house, and thus reduce the amount of radiation reaching the occupants of the shelter. The thicker or denser the shielding material is, the more it would protect the shelter occupants.

Some radiation protection is provided by the existing, standard walls and ceiling of a basement. But if they are not thick or dense enough, other shielding material will have to be added.

Concrete, bricks, earth and sand are some of the materials that are dense or heavy enough to provide fallout protection. For comparative purposes, 4 inches of concrete would provide the same shielding density as:

--5 to 6 inches of bricks.
--6 inches of sand or gravel . . . . May be packed into bags, cartons, boxes,
--7 inches or earth. . . . . . . . ./ or other containers for easier handling.
--8 inches of hollow concrete blocks (6 inches if filled with sand).
--10 inches of water.
--14 inches of books or magazines.
--18 inches of wood.

How To Prepare a Home Shelter

If there is no public fallout shelter near your home, or if you would prefer to use a family-type shelter in a time of attack, you should prepare a home fallout shelter. Here is how to do it:

• A PERMANENT BASEMENT SHELTER. If your home basement--or one corner of it--is below ground level, your best and easiest action would be to prepare a permanent-type family shelter there. The required shielding material would cost perhaps $100-$200, and if you have basic carpentry or masonry skills you probably could do the work yourself in a short time.

Here are three methods of providing a permanent family shelter in the "best" corner of your home basement--that is, the corner which is most below ground level. If you decide to set up one of these shelters, first get the free plan for it by writing to Civil Defense, Army Publications Center, 2800 Eastern Blvd. (Middle River), Baltimore, Md. 21220. In ordering a plan, use the full name shown for it.

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Ceiling Modification Plan A

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If nearly all your basement is below ground level, you can use this plan to build a fallout shelter area in one corner of it, without changing the appearance of it or interfering with its normal peacetime use.

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However, if 12 inches or more of the basement wall is above ground level, this plan should not be used unless you add the "optional walls" shown in the sketch.

Overhead protection is obtained by screwing plywood sheets securely to the joists, and then filling the spaces between the joists with bricks or concrete blocks. An extra beam and a screwjack column may be needed to support the extra weight.

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Building this shelter requires some basic woodworking skills and about $150-$200 for materials. It can be set up while the house is being built, or afterward.

Alternate Ceiling Modification Plan B

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This is similar to Plan A, except that new extra joists are fitted into part of the basement ceiling to support the