In Time Of Emergency (1970)

over 19,000 disasters strike somewhere in our country every year that's more than 50 disasters every day some are major like Hurricane Camille I witnessed this awesome destruction but Hurricane Camille and even the greatest natural disaster we could imagine would be dwarfed by the loss of lives and property in a nuclear attack I'm saying this because I have good reason to be concerned my name is John Davis and I am the national director of civil defense in Washington DC our purpose in civil defense is to protect you and to help you protect yourself in time of emergency that's the reason we have prepared this special film to tell you what actions you should take to help protect yourself and your family in case of a nuclear attack the protective actions you take today would not be wasted if a nuclear attack did not occur experience tells us that these actions save many lives in natural disasters and other emergencies the shest way to invite disaster is to do nothing to avoid it you'll give this film your closest attention [Music] most likely the most important fact in the world today is this we've been living in the atomic age since 1945 it's a long time now and none of the catastrophes so freely predicted so honestly feared have come to pass true there have been dangerous moments like the Berlin and Cuban crisis but so far sanity has prevailed and hopefully it always will and yet there's no point in looking away from reality we live in a troubled and uncertain world and it's up to go on being troubled for a long time to come the nuclear Genie is out of the bottle and until the world finds a way to clap him back in and then put a lock on the stopper there'll always remain the outside chance that what our nation and a great many others have been working so hard to avoid could conceivably happen after all and of course so long as even the slightest possibility exists it's something we must reckon with guard against prepare for just as a common sense precaution so let's talk a little about these things about what's being done to protect you and about what you can do to protect yourself in time of emergency of course our first and strongest line of defense lies in what the strategists call the power of deterrence in our InterContinental missiles our nuclear submarine Fleet Strategic Air Command in the ability of all our military forces to retaliate even after a surprise attack and do it with such enormous force that the aggressor would be defeated most likely destroyed and in that fact that knowledge alone lies the strongest incentive any enemy could have to avoid launching a nuclear war but behind the sword there's also a shield very quietly but steadily over the years we've been building a nationwide system of civil defense designed to save lives to protect as many of our people as possible it consists of many things the national warning system tied in with NORAD the North American Air Defense command able to alert the whole nation in a matter of minutes a monitoring network with more than 65,000 locations to measure and Report Fallout radiation and most important a very large and growing public shelter system to protect us from that radiation local governments have been making detailed plans to deal with all kinds of disasters an emergency broadcast system organized to keep you informed and thousands of special emergency control centers to direct life-saving and Recovery operations in short if attack ever threatened there'd be help available from many sources you would not be alone but a lot inevitably would depend on you there's no point in denying or Trying to minimize the Grim fact that a nuclear attack would take a heavy toll of lives but in all the defense department studies and there have been many of them two things come clear even under heaviest attack our nation could in fact would survive and our losses would be much less your own chances of survival much greater if each of us would take time to do just three things first understand the dangers you'd face second make some fairly simple preparations to meet them and third learn exactly what to do if emergency comes and then do it 1 2 3 now about those dangers there are some you can't do much about but others you can and knowing the distinction between the two could very well mean the difference between staying alive or dying in utterly useless death when a thermonuclear weapon explodes four things happen first a brilliant white flash of light then a searing wave of heat shooting out from the nuclear Fireball the blast wave hurling debris before it but even under heavy enemy attack only four or 5% of our land 1 12th of the country would be affected At All by blast and heat all the rest and all the tens of M millions of people in it would Escape untouched except by radioactive fallout it could spread on the winds to cover not just 5% but 80 or 90% of our country but that's one danger you can do something about if you know a few facts about Fallout when a nuclear weapon explodes anywhere near the ground tons of dirt and debris are pulverized IED into millions of tiny particles swept up into the fireball turned dangerously radioactive they drift down wind in the mushroom cloud then start slowly falling back to Earth the heaviest and most dangerous particles first after 15 to 30 minutes in the area nearest the explosion the lighter ones later perhaps hours or days later and hundreds of miles away where wherever the winds may take them but wherever they fall in fields and streams on rooftops or in the streets they spell danger each one of these Fallout particles no larger than grains of salt or fine sand is like a tiny x-ray machine shooting out deadly invisible gamma rays that can damage or destroy the cells of your body too large a dose in Too Short a time means sickness or death but it's a useless way to die useless because it's unnecessary if you use the three defenses you have against it one is time the most dangerous period would be the first 24 hours after Fallout arrives but fortunately radiation decays very rapidly it's like an elevator going down fast for example if all the Fallout were down on the ground 1 hour after the burst then by 7 hours the radiation would have dropped to just 10% of that 1H hour level by the end of 2 days it would be down to 1% and in 2 weeks it would be just 1/10th of 1% in short with shelter you can weight it out but while you're waiting you'll need protection and that comes from two things mass and distance Mass meaning thick heavy dense materials concrete steel even ordinary Earth to absorb or deflect those deadly gamma rays reduce the amount of radiation reaching you and distance because the farther you are from the source of the radiation Fallout particles settled on the roof or on the ground outside the safer you'll be put those two together mass and distance and you've got a fallout shelter you'll find it wherever you see this sign the black and yellow sign that marks our community Fallout shelters and they could mean the difference between life and death in time of emergency of course if you're convinced of the futility of it all and you want to just stand out there and bear your breast of radiation that happens to be your privilege but as we all found out in the Cuban crisis that kind of talk becomes just talk as the real danger mounted so did our will for survival we all discovered a reason for living ourselves our families our children and we were all looking for shelter well it's there now ready for use a nationwide system of more than a 100,000 large public Fallout shelters located in Office Buildings Apartments schools factories stores and it's a good idea to look around to know at all times where the nearest ones are just in case they ever prove needed of course of course there is still not enough and they're not everywhere usually there's plenty of fallout shelter downtown where most people work but less in the suburbs where a lot of us live and not nearly enough out in the country where there aren't enough buildings of heavy construction if that's the problem if you're just too far away from the nearest community shelter to reach it in time then you'd better do something about it one answer May lie in your own home if the house has a basement Earth and concrete may give you some shielding already built in and to help fill in the gaps the office of civil defense has been conducting home surveys in many of our states asking each homeowner to fill out a questionnaire then telling him by means of computer exactly how much Fallout protection is already there if you've already taken part in one of these surveys you already know if your house has enough and if it hasn't well usually all it takes to improve it to build a home shelter in your basement is some do-it-yourself effort plus a couple of hundred at most for concrete block and other materials and in extreme emergency if crisis seems imminent and no shelters available it's still possible to improvise some last minute protection against Fallout not as good as you'd find in a regular shelter but any protections better than none and it could be enough to save your life remember use mass and distance to reduce radiation choose the corner of your basement that's most below ground level set up a sturdy table or workbench there wall it in with the heaviest materials you can find bookcases chests of drawers appliances trunks then fill the drawers with Earth or sand to give added Protection cover the top with as much heavy shielding as it will hold house doors bricks flagstones firewood then once your family is all inside block up the entrance leaving an opening at the top just large enough to let air in of course if you live in the country and your home lacks a basement a storm Celler outside can serve just as well if the existing roof is made of light wood put in extra posts and braces to support the added weight then cover the roof with a foot or more of Earth to give you solid protection after everyone's inside use bricks sandbags or heavy concrete blocks to wall up the entrance leaving just a few inches open at the top again for ventilation or you can improvise a shelter in your yard dig an L-shaped trench four feet deep and 3 feet wide make the longer side of the L big enough to accommodate your family the other leg will serve as an entrance way and help reduce the amount of radiation getting into the shelter area Shore up the sides of the trench for safety then cover it with house doors and heavy Timbers then pile on a foot of Earth for protection as a last resort even if there's no basement or storm Celler a available you could get some limited Fallout protection by improvising a shelter on the ground floor of your home use a hallway an inner room or large cloth closet away from outside walls and windows with doors chests Trunks and boxes filled with Earth or sand you can create an enclosure large enough to live in for the short time of that first Peak period of danger if the Inner Space you've chosen is too small to allow room inside for all these shielding materials place them against the other side of the walls in the surrounding rooms all these are last minute measures of course for use only an extreme emergency if you just can't reach a regular fallout shelter but it's better not to wait that long to make some preparations particularly when it comes to supplies most Community shelters though not all of them yet have been stocked with the basic requirements emergency food rations water containers sanitation equipment medical kits radiation detection equipment but even so in a time of Crisis shelter living would be Spartan none of the Comforts of home and there are things you'd better plan to take along to help ease that shelter stay a battery powered radio flashlight and extra batteries a blanket for each member of the family any dietetic foods or special medicines your family may need for reasons of Health like insulin heart tablets antihistamines if you have a baby don't forget bottles disposable diapers cans of formula and special baby foods and of course if your neighborhood shelter is not stocked with the basic supplies you'll need to take as much water and ready to eat food as you can carry that's true of a family home shelter too for here you'd be on your own so keep a two we reserve of supplies around the house for use in emergency for shelter use canned goods are best soups canned Meats all the pre-cooked foods and packaged Goods like crackers and Wafers that don't need Refrigeration okay sty and water there you go that's even more important for you can't live with without it as a minimum three or four gallons for each member of your family and store it in tightly capped bottles or plastic containers if the Supply runs low don't overlook all the alternate sources right inside your house the canned fruit and vegetable juices on the kitchen shelf soft drinks milk and ice cubes from the refrigerator the 20 to 60 gallons in your hot water tank and of course all the water trapped in the pipes of your house plumbing system in case of attack simply turn off the main water valve in your basement to avoid having it All Drain away if there's a break in the outside Mains then turn on the faucet located at the highest point in your house probably the upstairs bathroom to let air into the system then draw the water as you need it from the faucet located at the lowest point it'll be pure drinkable and free from Fallout can eat a whole if some Fallout particles are on food that you've brought in from the outside don't worry they can't make it radioactive simply remove the particles and you remove the danger just wash or peel the fruits and vegetables wipe off the packages or cans milk honey all right for safety it's better to make sure that babies or small children aren't allowed food or liquids that might be contaminated however in extreme emergency thirsty people should not be denied water even if it contains Fallout there's little danger that any adult could swallow enough to hurt him it'll be like trying to swallow sand here honey of course we only skimmed the surface here of things you need to know and do but you'll find everything covered in fullest detail in this citizens handbook prepared by the office of civil defense it's titled in time of emergency it deals with natural disasters as well as the dangers of enemy nuclear attack and you can get a copy from the civil defense office of your own local government read it study it and above all keep this quick checklist of emergency actions in mind first know your local emergency action plan hundreds of cities and Counties have prepared and printed specific Community shelter plans complete with maps and detailed instructions telling every resident where to go for the best available protection against Fallout make sure your family knows the plan where the nearest shelters are and how to get there in time second keep a stock of emergency supplies on hand foods that require no cooking enough drinking water and other liquids special medicines radio flashlight blankets and if you're planning to use a home shelter don't overlook the problem of Sanitation lay in a metal container with a tight fitting lid some PL plastic liners and household disinfectants you'll need them for disposal of waste and prevention of disease to keep your family healthy through a shelter stay if attack seems imminent take precautions against fire close doors windows venian blinds if you don't have ventian blinds cover the windows with household cleaning powder aluminum foil whitewash for even in The Fringe areas miles away from any nuclear explosion the heat wve could ignite trash and dry wood set fire to your home out for the top have some basic firefighting tools on hand especially a good fire extinguisher and keep your garden hose connected unless your local authorities advise otherwise fill the bathtub and other containers with water for under enemy attack the fire department may not be available you'll have to help yourself above all make sure you know what your local attack warning signal is there are a few exceptions because of special local conditions but in most communities the standard attack warning is this a wavering undulating sound on the outdoor Sirens lasting 3 to 5 minutes or a series of short blast on whistles and horns and when you hear that sound believe it an actual enemy attack has been detected don't reach for the phone to find out what's happening the lines need to be kept clear for official emergency use and you need to find shelter promptly if you're caught in the open if there's a sudden Flash and you feel warmth at the same time don't look at the flash move take cover instantly behind a tree or a wall in a ditch or or a culvert curl up on the ground and cover your head with hands and arms stay there till heat and blast waves have passed then get to shelter before the Fallout starts falling then turn on the radio the emergency broadcast station serving your area will be bringing you news presidential messages civil defense instructions this is an attack warning ATT you would not be alone in many shelters you'd find friends and neighbors who've been specially trained in shelter management radiological monitoring medical self-help all across the country the civil defense monitoring Network would be measuring and Reporting Fallout conditions and from the state and Community emergency control centers your own local authorities would be directing life saving and Recovery operations keeping in close touch with each shelter just follow their official instructions and stay in the shelter till they tell you it's safe to come out all these things are easy to remember and fairly simple things to do none of them cost much in time or effort or money if nothing ever happens if the world maintains its sanity and enemy attack never comes that time and effort will still have been well spent for the better both we and the nation are prepared the less chance really that anything will happen and if they ever prove needed they could save your life in time of emergency [Music]