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U.S. NEWS Thursday 18 January 2018

Heed old shelter signs? If nuke is REALLY coming, maybe not

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