Emergencies
Emergency Planning Guide

Information About Nuclear Attack

• Learn the warning signals and all sources of warning used in your community. Make sure you know what the signals are, what they mean, how they will be used, and what you should do if you hear them.
• Assemble and maintain a disaster supply kit with food, water, medications, fuel and personal items adequate for up to 2 weeks-the more the better.
• Find out what public buildings in your community may have been designated as fallout shelters. It may have been years ago, but start there, and learn which buildings are still in use and could be designated as shelters again.
  • Call your local emergency management office.
  • Look for yellow and black fallout shelter signs on public buildings.
  • Make your own list of potential shelters near your home, workplace, or school.
  • Give family members clear information about actions to take in case of attack.
  • Talk to apartment or office building management about the safest place in the building for shelter and provisions for occupants until it is safe to go out.
• Learn about community evacuation plans, routes, relocations sites, notification and transportation options.
• If you live in an apartment building or high-rise, talk to the manager about the safest place in the building for sheltering, and about providing for building occupants until it is safe to go out.

Responding to Nuclear Attack

• If you hear an attack warning:
  • Do not look at the flash or fireball-it can blind you.
  • Take cover as quickly as you can, below ground if possible, and stay there unless instructed to do otherwise
  • If you are caught outside, take cover behind anything that might offer protection. Lie flat on the ground and cover your head.
  • Protect yourself from radioactive fallout. Take shelter even if you are many miles from the center of the explosion.
  • Listen to radio broadcasts for official information and follow instructions.

Recovery from Nuclear or Radiological Attack

• Do not leave shelter until officials say it is safe. Follow instructions when leaving.
• Make every effort to maintain sanitary conditions in shelter space
• Use water and food sparingly
• Cooperate with shelter officials and others in the shelter. Living with many people in confined space can be difficult and unpleasant. Look for ways to maintain a positive attitude, morale, and interpersonal relations with others.
• When returning to your residence, check for any sign of collapse, damage, or structural weakness.
• Immediately clean up spilled medicines, flammable liquids, and other potentially hazardous materials.
• Wait for utility companies to restore water, electricity, gas and sewage service. Turn utilities on only and use them only after you have confirmed that water, electrical, gas, and sewage service lines are intact.
• Stay away from areas marked “radiation hazard” or “HAZMAT.”