Community Protection Through Civil Defense (1963)

This film was produced by the Jacksonville Duval County Civil Defense Council of Jacksonville, Florida to demonstrate one way in which one city initiated the first phase of our shelter provisioning program in the hope that others may benefit from our experiences. [music] [music] Community protection. Yes, that's what we are trying to attain to make the residents of this beautiful city of Jacksonville, Florida, [music] and the population of 455,000 people in Duval County as safe from nuclear attack as [music] possible. At the Duval County Courthouse, Mr. WA Jack Weatherford, director of the Jacksonville Duval County Civil Defense Council, explains to the county commission that in November 1961, a national shelter program was developed to carry out instructions of President Kennedy to Secretary McNamera to locate, identify, evaluate, mark, and stock suitable shelter areas in existing buildings throughout the nation. The Office of Civil Defense [music] in the Department of Defense under Assistant Secretary Stuart L. Pitman was given the total operational responsibility [music] for developing and implementing the program. The Naval Bureau of Yards and Docks and the US Corps of Engineers drew the first major assignment from the Office of Civil Defense that of conducting a nationwide survey of all buildings. They contracted with local architect engineering companies throughout [music] the country and supervised these commercial firms in compiling their basic information. This data on each building meeting certain basic standards was then forwarded to the Bureau of Census where it was converted by [music] film optical sensing device and fed into a computer. When the results of this computation were returned to the local director, we were able in February 1962 to hold a meeting of building owners to [music] explain the workings of the program. In Mayor Hayden Burns office, Mr. Weatherford with Mr. Ellie McDown, [music] president of the Jacksonville Cartage Household Movers Association, and Mr. Marian J. Dross, a representative from the regional office of civil defense, continues by [music] explaining that in the local civil defense office in order to receive a three-way [music] license agreement between the local government, the federal government, and the building owner began personally contacting building owners to obtain [music] their permission to make use of shelter areas as discovered by the computer analysis. In Jacksonville, we signed our first formal agreement on May 31st, 1962. Simultaneously, the architect engineers were revisiting [music] these same individual buildings to manually refigure and verify the shelter capability factors and to draw sketches of precise protective areas within these [music] buildings. Our agreement forms were forwarded as they were signed so that preparation for the provisioning [music] phase could start immediately. While contracts for food in the form of high calorie crackers, water containers, and the associated sanitation supplies along with medical [music] kits and radiological equipment were being negotiated. Our local office was arranging for specific [music] storage areas within a few selected locations in order to begin the provisioning operations. With materials now on the way to us, we were able to meet with building representatives and to outline procedures that might, [music] if successful, be used as a pattern throughout the entire nation. Representing the Office of Civil Defense of the Department of Defense were Mr. Robert Morgan, Mr. Donna Hanks, and Mr. Dross. Also, Mr. George Dwelly representing the warehousing facility at the Navy. Agents for building owners and movers association representatives were also present. The surprise of the day came when it was announced that our movement of supplies for 50,000 shelter spaces [music] would be made in one working day. Complete cooperation of the city officials, the household movers association, the warehousing officials, and the building owners themselves guaranteed that our mission [music] would be successful. During this time, the architect engineers [music] were completing their phase of the program and the core of engineers [music] were posting signs on various buildings that would be used in our stocking operations. The signs indicated the [music] capacity of the shelter area and it was our responsibility to place sufficient supplies in each of these locations to permit the shelter [music] inhabitants to survive for a full 14-day period. [music] Arrangements were made to assemble early Tuesday morning, October 9th, 1962. The Movers Association gathered their equipment at the famous Gator Bowl in Jacksonville [music] to do the impossible. It had been estimated that this movement [music] would require more than 29 full truckloads. use was made of car cards previously distributed by the Department of Defense by taping them to the bodies of trucks. It was our thought that these signs could have been more effective had they been larger, but of course they were not designed for this specific purpose. We did finally settle by using [music] several 24 sheet poster signs at the last minute, but taping these sheets together was not too practical. [music] On hand to observe our test were members of the regional office of the department of defense, office of civil defense, Mr. Dial Sweeney, Mr. Morgan, Mr. Hanks, and Mr. Pete Craig. Also representing the Florida State Civil Defense Agency were Colonel HW Tarington, Mr. George Kurlin, and of course, 22 drivers with other executive representatives from the movers association. Inspector E. E. Allen had arranged for the city police department to escort our convoy as far as the city limits. It is noteworthy to observe that not [music] one accident to personnel or equipment occurred throughout the entire exercise. At precisely 7:30 on this Tuesday morning, our police escort led the convoy out onto our fine new expressway, [music] which had recently been completed, and our operation was literally on the road. We were [music] accused by some of those who saw this array of trucks that we might be attempting to [music] move the entire city of Jacksonville to an alternate location. The movement of supplies proved to be a large [music] enough undertaking to satisfy us all. [music] At the Jacksonville city limits, the city policemen were relieved by the Duval County Patrol in their area of jurisdiction. The convoy of 22 trucks transversed the 17 mi to the Naval Air Station without incident or even the delay of a single stoplight. Prior arrangements had been made with the Navy to permit quick passage through the marine guarded gates where the station police immediately [music] relieved the county patrolman and led us to the warehouse area. At the warehouse, we felt the Navy should be awarded a big E for the preparations they had already accomplished. More than 100 Navy and civilian employees were on hand, ready to fill our trucks. The tremendous mountains of material were all inspiring. [music] It however seemed to be all in a routine day's work for these logistic-minded people. As these supplies had been [music] received from the manufacturers by Defense Supply Agency contract, the Navy had prudently offloaded them to specific station destinations. By using eight specific loading docks, eight crews and some relief teams, our first increment of eight trucks was released in slightly more than an hour. Tests were conducted with regard to various types of loading, conveyors, pallets, and lift trucks, and the old-fashioned hand loading methods. The method was finally determined by the type of truck involved, [music] and no general rule of thumb could be drawn from this phase of the operation. [music] We commend the Navy personnel highly. Lieutenant Commander WH Barnett proved his command to be most capable of handling this part of the operation easily. Representatives of the movers association remained at the warehouse area throughout the day and supervised [music] the loading and dispatch of each truck. As the truck would leave the area, a telephone call was placed to the owner of that piece of equipment [music] to advise him of its destination. The moving company owner, in turn, would dispatch unloading helpers to the scene to assist in offloading at the shelter. More than 100 moving company employees devoted their entire day to this exercise. The first load was dispatched to our largest [music] shelter, the Southeast District Office of Credential Insurance Company of America. at Credential. We had discovered 15,000 [music] shelter spaces. Previously, a representative of the movers association has visited each of the unloading sites to uncover any peculiarities. [music] In this instance, the loading dock required a truck with a particular bed height. We also tested [music] feasibility of lift truck offloading conditions. However, space restrictions proved to be [music] too severe to make this practical. Our next largest location was the Duval County Courthouse. Problems here seemed almost insurmountable. Since, as in most government buildings, [music] no unloading facilities existed. Parking arrangements had to [music] be pre-arranged. The thousands of packages had to be hand carried or moved by hand truck through the front door down the spacious lobby up one restricted elevator to the sixth floor. [music] Protection to the marble floor had to be provided. The experience of the movers proved to be of inestimable value since there were no reports of damage anywhere [music] at any of the unloading locations. In most instances, [music] uniformed building guards or policemen kept confusion to a minimum. [music] [music] [music] The entire movement was proceeding according [music] to plan. At the federal post office, storage was critical. Closets and record rooms already bulging were further crammed with our supplies. Other commercial buildings provided [music] space willingly by clearing stock rooms of slowmoving items and even in some cases affording us the use of space which they normally could expect [music] to be revenue producing areas. In some locations it was impossible to store supplies within the exact [music] shelter area. However, we decided that if placed within the shelter building, it would be acceptable. In the Robert Meyer Hotel, for instance, the materials were offloaded into the garage for later dispersal throughout the building. It might be noted here that on [music] the next day, following the movement of supplies, a number of building owners called the civil defense office and volunteered to fill their own water drums. We quickly provided them with the necessary instructions [music] and staff supervision. At Cunninghams and Hies, temporary storage was provided and again [music] final disposition was made by company employees. One half million pounds occupying 75,000 cubic feet, more than 25,000 individual packages or at commercial rates. More than 10,000 worth of moving services had been donated. Items were closely inventoried as they arrived at the scene. So with Navy station type [music] storage, loading checks, and destination inventories, every package was accounted for. By 3:57 in the afternoon, when the last truck left the warehouse area, it [music] was apparent that our project would be successfully completed. As reports filtered into our civil defense office, the tally of stock shelters climbed steadily upward. The job was almost done. A tremendous step had been taken. 50,000 more people [music] could reasonably expect to survive a nuclear holocaust that Tuesday night than would have had little more than a prayer of surviving had the attack been launched 12 hours before. [music] [music]