Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 18 January 2018
Heed old shelter signs? If nuke is REALLY coming, maybe not

By COLLEEN LONG scale nuclear war between
Associated Press the U.S. and the Soviet
NEW YORK (AP) — A gen- Union, would have left few
eration of Americans knew survivors. By the 1970s, the
just what to do in the event concept was abandoned.
of a nuclear attack — or A FEMA spokeswoman said
during a major false alarm, the agency doesn’t even
like the one over the week- have current information
end in Hawaii. Take cover on where the shelters are
in a building bearing a yel- located. New York City
low fallout shelter symbol. education officials an-
But these days, that might nounced last month they
not be the best option, or are taking down the fallout
even an option at all. shelter signs at schools. In
Relics from the Cold War, Minot, North Dakota, just
the aging shelters that once a few miles from the base
numbered in the thousands where dozens of U.S. mis-
in schools, courthouses and siles are at the ready, a few
churches haven’t been fallout shelter signs remain,
maintained. And conven- but their status as viable
tional wisdom has changed refuges isn’t known.
about whether such a shel- So what should you do if
ter system is necessary in there is a nuclear attack
an age when an attack is now?
more likely to come from a In this Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018 photo, a fallout shelter sign hangs on a building on East 9th Street The good news: You may
weak rogue state or terror- in New York. actually survive, because
ist group rather than a su- Associated Press a nuclear attack today is
perpower. should be talking about tan. “Where we would run, were believed to be about more likely to be just one
“We’re not in a Cold War what their citizens should I don’t know, because I 18,000. bomb — perhaps a small
scenario. We are in 2018,” do if an attack happened. don’t know if New York has The locations were chosen device, smuggled into a
said Dr. Irwin Redlener, And it’s a necessity for in- any bomb shelters or any- because they could best city inside a truck, or a sin-
head of the National Cen- dividuals and families to thing.” block radioactive material. gle missile lobbed by North
ter for Disaster Prepared- talk about and develop The fallout shelters, marked Anything could be a shelter Korea that actually makes
ness at Columbia Univer- their own plan of what they with metal signs bearing a as long as it was built with it across the water. The bad
sity’s Earth Institute. “We’re would do.” logo similar to, but slightly concrete, cinder blocks or news: You have between
not facing what we were New Yorkers who were different from the symbol brick, had no windows, and 15 and 20 minutes to get to
facing 50 years ago, when asked this week about for radiation — three joined could be retrofitted quickly a safe space.
the Soviet Union and the where they would seek triangles inside a circle — with supplies, an air filtration Eliot Calhoun, a disaster
U.S. had nuclear warheads shelter during a missile at- were set up in tens of thou- system and potable water. planner for New York’s
pointed at each other that tack said they had no idea. sands of buildings nation- But the idea was contro- Emergency Management
would devastate the world. “The only thing I can think wide in the early 1960s amid versial from the start, es- Department, said the
There’s a threat, but it’s a is, I would run,” said Sabrina the nuclear arms race. In pecially since one of the smartest thing to do is stay
different type of threat to- Shephard, 45, of Manhat- New York City alone there scenarios at the time, a full- put in a spot with as few
day.” windows and as many walls
People weren’t sure what as possible.
to do Saturday when Ha- “Don’t go outside unless
waii mistakenly sent a cell- you absolutely must,” he
phone alert warning of an said. Subterranean subway
incoming ballistic missile stations might be a good
and didn’t retract it for 38 place to shelter if you hap-
minutes. The state had set pen to be in one when an
up the missile warning infra- attack happens, but ex-
structure after North Korea perts say tunnels could also
demonstrated its missiles be dangerous if they are
had the range to reach the structurally compromised
islands. Drivers abandoned by a blast.
cars on a highway and New Yorker Joe Carpen-
took shelter in a tunnel. Par- ter emerged from a post
ents huddled in bathtubs office with a faded fall-
with their children. Students out shelter sign this week
bolted across the University and admitted that he had
of Hawaii campus to take never thought about what
cover in buildings. to do in the event of an in-
The false alarm is the per- coming missile. “I probably
fect time to talk about would just huddle with the
what to do in such an masses and go along with
emergency, Redlener said, the crowd, because I’ve
because most of the time never really considered it,”
people don’t want to talk he said. “It’s like everything
about it. At all. else: Do we really ponder
“But it’s a real possibil- In this Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017 photo, a bay of bunkbeds can be seen in a crescent shaped room what’s at the end of the
ity,” he said. “City officials inside a Cold War era Civil Defense bunker in New Orleans. road?”q
Associated Press