![]() ![]() “In school, we practiced bomb drills where we would kneel underneath our desks and cover our heads.”Īccording to, the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency procured 165,000 tons of food for the stocking of fallout shelters in the early 1960s. “My parents kept extra canned goods in the house in case of emergency,” Rutstein said. Martin Rutstein, a geology professor at SUNY New Paltz for 42 years, described what it was like as a teenager in the cold war era. This booklet and other DoD materials are found on the Civil Defense Museum website,, a comprehensive curated online museum of artifacts and memorabilia from that era.Īlthough artifacts are scarce, people still recall the events. A fallout shelter program is one of these.” Fallout would be a potential killer of millions of unprotected persons, but it also is a hazard that individuals and communities can prepare for through reasonable programs and actions. But radioactive fallout could spread over thousands of square miles, covering a much greater area than the area endangered by fire and blast. It also sheds light on what would happen in the event of nuclear attack.Īccording to the booklet, “The blast, heat, and fire of a nuclear explosion are appallingly destructive. In the 1961 Department of Defense (DoD) booklet, “Fallout Protection – What to know and do about nuclear attacks”, instructions are given about how to create, stock and maintain a personal shelter in the case of nuclear fallout. “There was a great fear of the unknown,” Roper said. Both sides possessed nuclear weapons and, if conflict arose, could have started a devastating war. Neither side followed through with direct military action on the other. ![]() From 1945-1991, during the Cold War, there was great tension between the West and Communist countries, primarily between the United States and the USSR. It was part of the effort to protect America in case of nuclear warfare brought on by the Cold War. Louis Roper, a history professor at SUNY New Paltz, explained how important disaster preparedness was in the 1950s. The shelter would be designed to hold approximately 2580 people. In February 1963, the plans for Fallout Protection Building No.7 were drawn up for SUNY New Paltz. Beneath College Hall, the almost untouched Rooms 45 and 46 were once a part of SUNY New Paltz’s fallout shelter. ![]()
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