ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | MAY 1955 | BETTER FARMING
The hydrogen bomb has moved the dangers of war right out to your farm doorstep. It also has given you - the farmer - a new and grave responsibility in the defense of your nation.
We don’t want to alarm you, but you should understand the sobering facts recently revealed by the Atomic Energy Commission and how they affect you. First, distance from city targets no longer is a guarantee of safety for the farm family, even though a superbomb might explode hundreds of miles away. Recent revelation of the lethal effects of H-bomb “fallout” shows that every farm is a potential victim of enemy attack.
Second, should such an attack occur, you and your neighbours would become a first line of civilian defense, the rallying point around which the nation must be prepared to absorb the shock to begin to fight back.
To get the full story for you, the Washington staff of Better Farming talked with Val Peterson, Administrator of the Federal Civil Defense Administration, with USDA officials, and others concerned with planning civilian defense.
Peterson is disturbed and grimly earnest about the need for your understanding of H-bomb dangers and the urgency of beginning now on serious preparedness work in rural areas. We are, he says, woefully unprepared - not only in cities but on farms as well. At the same time, there is much you can do now - and more that you will be able to do in months ahead - for your own safety and that of your community.
"There is no need to feel helpless," Peterson told us. "Nobody need be lost through 'fallout' if he knows what to do about it - and does it."
We now know what to expect when an H-bomb falls. That was learned more than two years ago when the first hydrogen device was exploded in the Pacific - and when an island, Elugelab, was blasted from the face of the ocean. More was learned, but not revealed publicly, over a year ago when a 14-megaton bomb - the equivalent of 14 million tons of TNT - was set off at Bikini. The fallout killed or injured Japanese fishermen scores of miles from the blast and indicated this bomb’s far reaching effects.
Now, how dangerous is fallout and what can you do about it? We asked that of Peterson and others.
Full exposure to fallout is deadly serious. Billions of radioactive particles produced by the blast are picked up by air currents and dropped over the countryside. These particles are tiny, often invisible, and can contaminate areas up to 14,000 square miles or more.
The particles normally move downwind from the point of explosion, to "fallout" over a cigar-shaped area maybe 40 miles wide and 200 or more miles long. Actual size of the area depends on the wind, intensity of the explosion, and other factors.
Repeated or lengthy exposure to heavy doses of fallout can be fatal. Smaller doses can cause nausea, vomiting, and a wretched sickness. In very small quantities, however, there are no bad effects.
There are effective preparations you can make now to protect yourself, your family, and your livestock. At the time of attack, however, a lot would depend on how much advance warning you get.
Chances are you will get adequate warning - but no time for loitering. We are setting up an extensive radar warning system that should give you from two to six hours' advance notice than an enemy attack force is on the way to the U.S.
Three widely separated radar detection and warning lines, combining ground stations and radar air patrols, are being established in great semicircles to the west, north and east of us. The outermost or Distant Early Warning line, describing a huge horseshoe shape up the Atlantic Ocean area, across the North Pole region, and down the Pacific, could give you up to six hours’ notice. The second line could give up to three hours' warning and the innermost line up to an hour, depending on where you are.
You would have most warning of an air attack across the Arctic, probably shortest notice of a trans-Pacific attack.
Our planes and guided missiles would knock down some of the enemy planes, but in a mass attack perhaps one third or more would get through. The current "attack assumption" at the Pentagon is that the enemy would attempt a saturation attack on most or all of our 70 critical target areas, and that bombers would penetrate our defenses simultaneously at several points.
Beginning with the first warning, every effort would be made to evacuate cities that are potential targets. Radio stations, broadcasting on the "Conelrad" frequencies of 640 and 1240 on your standard AM radio, would issues instructions and official information about evacuation and fallout.
Roads out of cities would be patrolled to direct refugees out of the path of H-bomb fallout. The main danger area, remember, would be downwind from the point of blast. You would be told whether or not you were in the probable path of fallout.
Very likely, unless there is a shift in wind direction, you would not have both fallout and refugees descending on your farm at the same time. Refugees would be directed away from the fallout zone.
Evacuation plans for most cities are still in the very early stages. As they are developed, they will include preparations in rural areas to feed, clothe, shelter and, if necessary, give medical treatment to the millions who would crowd out of the cities.
Whether you are to receive evacuees or fallout, you will have at least one hour of warning, perhaps five or six. If you’re to be subjected to fallout, you’ll probably have time to get your livestock into barns or under sheds. If possible, they should be given enough feed and water to last at least three days.
We suggest that you plan in advance for your own safety. Choose a cyclone or root cellar if one is available. If not, the basement of your house is next best. But even the first floor of your home can be used effectively if windows and doors are kept closed.
The place of refuge should be discussed by the family and all members should know the decision.
Remember, you may have to stay there for several days, until civil authorities advise you it is safe to go into the open. It would be wise to make up a list now of the things you might need.
CD officials recommend at least a gallon of bottled water per person. Keep a supply of canned and tightly packaged foods. Soups, vegetables, fruit juices, raisins, chocolate, meat and milk are suitable canned foods. Provided some means for heating the food.
Also essential are two 10-gallon garbage cans, with tight-fitting lids, to take care of garbage and human wastes. Don’t forget a flashlight, can and bottle openers, matches, cooking and eating utensils, and soap. A battery-powered radio is essential. Be certain that enough bedding and clothing are available.
"Any farm family that gets under good cover, preferably with two or three feet of earth overhead, can safely survive the risks of fallout," Peterson tells us. If you are caught in a fallout, get out of the contaminated clothing as quickly as possible. Wash all exposed parts of the body thoroughly. Clothing can usually be made safe again by laundering.
Civil-defense problems and needs will seldom be the same for any two communities. We suggest that you - through your own local farm organizations - participate in developing plans that best fit your capabilities and meet the needs of your community.
Sometime before the end of this year, county agents and county civil-defense workers are expected to be ready to hold meetings to discuss community defense plans and pass out printed suggestions on what you will be called on to do in event of an H-bombing. Drills probably will be held to acquaint everyone with their part.
If an attack comes, it will be vitally important to keep your farm producing. Warehouse stocks would go fast in an emergency. Transportation and power systems would be badly crippled. People would have to be fed and clothed from local supplies.
Another big job will be to help get your produce - especially dairy products, poultry and eggs - to where it’s needed. In an emergency, local food "assembly centers" are likely to be set up.
Refugees, unable to return to bombed out or contaminated homes and factories, may have to remain for days or weeks on farms. You may have part of the job of caring for them.
When the immediate emergency is over, the job of relocating refugees, assisting in reconstruction of essential factories, and repair of roads, telephone and power facilities, will require organized efforts. You and your farm would become not only the survival line of defense but the hub and strength of the country’s future.