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e. iY the city most of the soft packages “Burst and their contents had been badly contamina -d by fallout. Some cans had come apart at the seams too, but on the whole the canned stuff came through rather well, ® Our diet got to be pretty peculiar, but we got along. It was the babies who were worst affected, since milk became all but unobtainable. Occasionally people did manage to get milk from places where a few dairy cows, liad survived, but the consequences were some- times disastrous. | heard that for a time milk in the Jocal area conta ined so much radioiodine that a pint would destroy a baby’s thyroid pland. 78 Food Supplies Give Out M was in late November that things became terribly bad. The local food supplies were exhausted by then. The year’s crops had been mostly harvested before That Day, and a good deal of the food was still suit- able for human consumption. But the trouble was in transportation. The railroads had been knocked out althogether, and all the highways were interrupted by tortuous detours. Many a time we walked to the old supermarket, only to find nothing in stock. Our shoes went through before long, and there was no get- ting them fixed. Our car had been requisitioned during the second week, As the weather grew colder, more and more people fell ill. The situation was aggravated by the poor sanitary Conditions. There was almost no Soap. New and troublesome insects began to appear, despite the weather, Before long we were fighting off rats too. The advance of winter made it clear that we had al] Jost our resistance to physical stress.2? With even the commonest antiseptics unobtainable a cut finger became a matter of grave concern. A bad cold was often a sentence of death. That’s how I Jost Johnny. | knew 1 shouldn’t have allowed him to play outdoors the day we had that heavy snow; but there's a limit to how long you can keep a ten-year-old boy in a dark basement. The day they came to take Johnny’s body away | thought it was the end of the road for me — ] could see the others going one by one -- but actually it was Helen who cracked up, Like a Jot of other adults, she sank into an apathetic state and kept repeating that it was no use to po on. On the way to South Dakota she wandered off from the convoy and disappeared. She wasn't the only one. Education Plans When the news came that we were to be evacuated it was almost a relief. When our turn came, at the end of February, 1] packed whst clothing } could, gave each of the bigger kids a bundje to carry, loaded Davey and some blankets into Johnny’s old express wagon, and started off for the assemb}y center. We waited in the open most of a day before the trucks picked us up. There were 160 of us that day, the tatlered remnants of 82 familics, We were twelve days on the road, sleeping at night on the floors of churches or schools or stores. The 1200 calories a day they allowed us was a poor defense apaiast the cold, but providentially it turned warm the third day out, Around the mins of Kansus City we could see fire-blackened fields beinp eroded by the melting, snow? Life in camp is not so bad, if you can foryet your hunger and don’t think wbout the past or future. The important thine is that this is a low fallout area !7, so we learning at first-h: “swat our basic needs really .are food clothing, and shelt.. -- they take up almost all our time. Whatever we have, we make ourselves, when we get some materials, Those of us who are physically and mentally able’to work have jobs of some sort. Caring for the sick is the comnonest occupation, | teach in the improvised school. Sometimes we’re so busy that we forget what has hap- pened. But then there are the times when you wake up at night, and you can’t help‘thinking. You wonder if there will ever be anything to life again beyond this struggle to exist. You try to recall what a piece of fresh meat looked like. You ask yourself what your children wil] do when they grow up -- or if they’ll grow up -- or if they will ever have children of their own. You wonder if you’ve fought your way this far, only to be cut down by cancer, You ask if the landscape wil] ever be clothed in green fields and forests again. There's a biologist here who claims to know the answer to that one. He says the fields and forests will come back. Only it will take hundreds of years.9 Copyright 1959, Greater St. Louis Citizens Commitiee for Nuclear Information. Al) rights reserved, REFERENCES The basic general source of information now available is the Sumn.a Analysis of Hearings, June 22-26, 1959, Bicloyicul & Environmental Ef of Nuclear War, Joint Congressional Commitier on Atomic Energy, U.S. Government Printing Office, August, 1959, Copies can be obtained (ro: Joint Committee or through your own Congressman. The complete transc of the Hearings will be available soon, I. 2. 3, 4. o> tk 12. 13. ts. 15. 16. 17. 18. 1g, 20. 21 22 23. 24. 25. 2h. 27. 24- 24. Summary-Analysis of Hearings, p. 4. Summary-Analysis of Hearings, table V-2,p. 19. This table Jists th numbers and types of bombs which the Consressional Commitice as would strike various U.S. cities, including St. Louis, in the first du @ nuclear war, : Summary Analysis of Hearings, p. 17, Osjusted trom 1950 census. This is the point chosen as ground zero in St. Louis Civilian Defer exercises, + Summary Analysis of Hearings, table IV-{, p. 15. A 10 megaton bom makes @ crater 2500 feel in diameter end 240 fort deep and collass even brick appartment houses out to a radius of seven miles. Big 13 ds 6.8 miles from Lith and Pine. "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons," U.S. Atomic Energy Commi:sioz June 1957, pp. 305-38. “The Effects of Nuclear Weapons,” p. 299, » Summary Analysis of Heerings, y. 12. Fire storms were also discus in more detail at the hearings by W. T. Hen:, Jr., Ph. D.; Georpe Mixter, Jr., M.D.; and C. H. Fugit, Ph. D, See pp. @ 11 of their tes From testimony on the ecological effects of a nuclear attack given the hearings by Dr. }. N. Wolfc, Chief of the Environmental Science Board of the Division of Biology and Medicine of the AEC, . The hearings allotted one & Bnd one 10 menaton weopon ta St. Lou specified that they be 50% fifrion and $0", lusion weapons, See pu fable V-2 of Summary Analysis. Surface bursts are assunied to deposit 80:, of their fallout in Jue al f oul and only 20%, in the stratosphere, See Figure V-2 of Summary Anulysis which gives size and rhape of local fallout area, Summaury-Anatysis of Heutings, p. 28. Summary Analysis of Heurings, p. 47. Summary-Ana lysis of Hearings, p. a7. * Suiamary-Analysis of Hewrings, p. 3s. Testimony and maps by lr. L. Machtu of the U.S. Weather Bureau. $ Sumrmury-Anatysis figure Vey. The fission debris has ite intensity reduced by a very large quotie i one your, Powill be ater t/50,uu0d of the value it had 1 hour after 4 explosion bat the lonver lived isotopes, such asx stmeadiund Qe sit cesium 137 (he half life of both is wbout gu yrurs) cominue t give radicuctivity for many yours, Summary-Analysis of Hecwings p. 22. Stsmasry-Analysis of Hearings p. 24. Mensurement taken i October 1958 in Colsnibia, Mo. Presented at } §-8 Causressional Hearings on Nuclear Testing by Lyle LT. Ale aiid of the US,D,A, The hatf-lite of strontium 8g is 30 years Rein one hundred years th levels wonld have falten bo fp ’“gth thes wartince Velues, From plearingas, testimony on flash burns by Dra. Leem, Mixter tyit Foaeatt. bron Heweitks, festimony an tlast affects by Dr. C. S. White, ttused an discussion of te (ug2 Coceanst Grove Disaster in Pbieute am! Jtiroshims experserae by Ters. Mian, Meater and Furatt ar Heasen Sampnwary Atily ors of alenrituas, yp. dB. Heoroys, testimony on tie wevte effects of nuclear radiations by Dro PS. Harti. Pion. Vlearinas testonony of G. MM. Duunioy, on Haotogiou! Effects of Nib tear Altuak, The (ocitior ef Wee county wster pant in such ee to perindt the