Original subtitles

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 witness

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 surest way to

invite disaster is to do nothing to

avoid it you'll give this film your

closest attention

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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 crises 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 apt 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

them 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 along is 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 among the

strategists called 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 attacked ever threatened

there'd be help available from many

sources you would not be alone but a

life 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 with emergency comes

and blend do it one two three 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 and

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 they

breathe before it but even under heavy

enemy attack only four or five percent

of our land one twentieth of the country

would be affected at all by blast and

heat all the rest and all the tens of

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 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 fifteen

to thirty minutes in the area nearest

the explosion the lighter ones later

perhaps hours or days later and hundreds

of miles away 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 Fline 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 pullout arrives but

fortunately radiation decays very

rapidly it's like an elevator going down

fast for example if all the fallout

we're down on the ground one hour after

the burst then by seven hours the

radiation would have dropped to just 10%

of that one hour level by the end of two

days it would be down to 1% and in two

weeks it would be just 1/10 of 1% in

short with shelter you can wait 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 further you are

from the source of the radiation floor

allowed 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 all flow out

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 bare your breast

radiation that happens to be your

privilege but as we all found out at a

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 hundred thousand 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 there's

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 tell again 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 has well

usually all it takes to improve it to

build a home shelter in your basement is

do-it-yourself effort plus a couple of

hundred dollars 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 their

wallet 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 flag stones firewood then

once your family is all inside lock 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 the storm

cellar 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 ovary 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 three feet

wide make the longer side of the L big

enough

to accommodate your family the other leg

will serve as an entranceway and help

reduce the amount of radiation getting

into the shelter area sure 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 cellar available you

could get some limited Qalat protection

by improvising a shelter on the ground

floor of your home use a hallway an

inner room or a large closed closet away

from outside walls and windows with

doors chess Trump's 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 at a

Dietetic foods or special medicines your

family may need for reasons of health

like insulin heart tablets antihistamine

if you have a baby don't forget bottles

disposable diapers cans of formula and

special baby foods and of course if your

neighborhood shelters not

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 - for here you'd be on your

own so keep a two-week reserve of

supplies around the house for use and

emergency for shelter use canned goods

are best soups canned meats all the

precooked foods and packaged goods like

crackers and wafers that don't need

refrigeration and water that's even more

important where you can't live 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

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soft drinks milk and ice cubes from the

refrigerator the twenty to sixty 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

drained 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 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 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'd be like trying to swallow

sand

of course we've only skimmed the surface

here of things you need to know would 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 flashlights blankets and if you

are planning to use a home shelter don't

overlook the problem of sanitation lay

in a metal container with a

tight-fitting lid some plastic liners

and household disinfectants you'll need

them for disposal of wastes and

prevention of disease to keep your

family healthy through a shelter stay if

attack seems imminent take precautions

against fire closed doors windows

venetian blinds if you don't have the

nation 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 wave could ignite trash and dry

wood set fire to your home 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 three to five

minutes or a series of short blasts 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 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 home presidential messages

civil defense instructions you would not

be alone in many shelters you'd find

friends and neighbors who have 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

conditioners 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 a 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

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