PROTECTION FACTOR 100

[Music] this is a Department of Defense form 1356 recorded on it on the vital statistics of one building in one American Community the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City calculations based on these recorded statistics show that in the event of a nuclear attack this one building could provide shelter for 30,000 people about 500,000 of these forms are being used to record the results of a national fallout shelter survey this Unique Kind of inventory is designed to survey every building every school and hospital every major structure in America which could protect 50 or more people from the threat of radioactive fallout the immediate goal of the National Shelter survey is to locate and make available ad shelter space for tens of millions of people here is the assistant secretary of defense for civil defense Mr Stuart L Pitman the shelter survey is the first step in a nationwide effort to assure that every American will have a place to go in the event of a nuclear attack extensive studies of many different types of simulated nuclear attacks have established quite clearly that tens of millions of lives will be saved if shelter space for the entire population is made available Fallout radiation could spread over most of the country it would reach very much further than the blast and fire in the vicinity of an explosion there's only one protection from radioactive fallout shielding provided by bricks concrete Earth whatever material will stop the penetrating gamma rays the building you live and work in May provide some of this shielding we plan to make the most of those buildings which can cut off harmful doses of radiation for example the central core of many of the buildings in your community schools Office Buildings hospitals could offer the best protection against Fallout some of this shelter space can be in the upper floors of high buildings shelters are not all underground the search for this protected space will reach your community we want you to know how this is being done and why I urge you to cooperate with your local civil defense officials on this survey and in the development of a plan to complete the task of Sheltering your entire Community from Fallout radiation the shelter service survey began in August 1961 special training courses for civilian architect Engineers from all over the country were set up by the office of civil defense with a cooperation of the US Army Corp of Engineers and the Navy's Bureau of yards and docks at the army engineer School in Fort belar Virginia the architect Engineers were taught how to determine a shelter protection factor for example if a shelter has a protection factor of 100 a person in that shelter would be 100 times safer from Fallout radiation than someone outside the unique course in shelter analysis was also conducted in eight universities throughout the country like the Polytechnic Institute at wer Massachusetts at the naval School in Port wiimi California Navy personnel trained 300 architect Engineers by December 1st 1961 over 1200 men were ready to begin the specialized job of surveying space for naal shelter purposes on completion of the course the architect Engineers would conduct surveys in their own areas under contracts with the United States government these Kansas City architect Engineers now trained in the survey procedure met with local officials and the Army District engineer by studying special sandborn Maps construction records and blueprints of buildings they were able to locate structures to be surveyed before starting the actual survey The Architects reviewed their assignment in detail with other members of their firm next they met with Kansas City civil defense director as in every Community survey the civil defense director has the responsibility of explaining the purpose of the shelter survey to local building owners and to the citizens of his community after this meeting teams of Architects began the survey field work each team's immediate objective was to locate and identify all buildings capable of providing suitable shelter space an acceptable shelter would be one in which a minimum of 50 people could live and which could keep the radiation dose in the area within safe limits most Americans will be surprised to learn that many of the buildings in their own communities could serve as shelters during an emergency because they already meet these minimum requirements these shelter areas could be above or below ground this school basement is typical of one kind of suitable shelter space being located and identified by architects in every section of the country one of the Kansas City teams of Architects surveyed the Municipal Auditorium in the spacious underground garage behind the auditorium between them the two structures were found to have over 600,000 ft of usable shelter space here over 30,000 people could receive more than adequate protection information on on the Underground garage alone is even more impressive with an 8 in thick concrete ceiling located under 3 ft of Earth the garage has a protection factor of 1,000 or 10 times the federal minimum requirement the Kansas City Architects also surveyed a number of less conventional structures like this underground Factory on the outskirts of the city they discovered that this Subterranean location with its ideal condition for the manufacturer of Precision Instruments could provide plenty of shelter space as well the owner showed them an unused area of the plant and stated his willingness to make this area available for shelter purposes elsewhere in the Kansas City area the team surveyed This Modern church building first inspecting all outer corridors walls and stairwells and finally the area which could serve as the logical place of shelter the church Auditorium when a local survey has been completed each team of Architects carefully rechecks the comprehensive structural information on every form 1356 each form covers the dimensions of one specific building it records the density and thickness of every wall the location of every passageway and accessway the age of the building number of building Parts physical vulnerability and a wealth of other statistics this nationwide inventory of available shelter space is by no means confined to Metropolitan communities is being carried out in thousands of smaller communities as well here in vickburg Mississippi a local architectural firm was employed to conduct the survey after the initial conference with City officials members of the business community and the Army District engineer The Architects coordinated their plan with the Vicksburg civil defense director later when the survey has been completed the job of posting signs and stocking shelter space will be in the hand of the civil defense director one final step remained to be taken before the survey began at the office of the City Assessor The Architects were given access to the city's building files by studying these construction records and blueprints beforehand they were able to save themselves valuable time on the actual fieldwork itself the first Vicksburg location to be surveyed was a department store in the heart of the town's business district after the building owner had granted the necessary Mission The Architects began the job of recording structural information for all structures that meet Federal requirements a license permitting their use as public shelters will later be signed by the assistant secretary of defense for civil defense and co-signed by the owner of the facility and the local government concerned while the primary objective of the survey is to locate and identify structures with a protection factor of 100 surveying teams in every Community are also recording information on buildings which have a protection factor of between 20 and 100 with certain structural changes some buildings could in the future be brought up to Federal requirements when a community survey has been completed all 1356 forms for that Community are shipped to the Bureau of census office at Jeffersonville Indiana the forms are transferred to microfilm which after being developed is ultimately converted to Magnetic Tape and sent to the Bureau of standards in Washington the tape is then fed into these electronic computers the nationwide inventory is expected to cover close to 500,000 buildings the recorded information on one building which would take a professional architect engineer about 5 hours to compute can be processed by an electronic computer in less than 1 second the computer produces a printout showing the shelter capacity and the protection factor for each floor of every structure surveyed by using these electronic computers the time required for the national fallout shelter survey will be cut by several months the next step in the program is to stock all shelter facilities with equipment necessary for survival in each individual Community this phase of the program will be under the direction of the local civil defense officials who will receive supplies from the federal government along with a twoe supply of survival rations each shelter will be provided with sanitation and medical supplies it will also be stocked with radiation detection equipment the provisions shown here are being stored in Washington's Union Station one of the pilot stocking programs established in 14 cities throughout the country finally every Community shelter like the one located in this school building will be marked with these yellow and black signs these signs will be posted outside inside and on access routes of every building that has met the federal requirements for providing protection from radioactive fallout this nationwide inventory of existing shelter space will form the basis for all future shelter planning it represents a realistic step in a program designed to ultimately make Fallout protection available to every individual in every Community throughout the nation it is a program committed to the principle that the safety of the individual and his community is a national concern and that the national welfare is a concern of every [Music] community for