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the city most of the soft packapes > weet and their confents had been Ladly 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, had survived, but the consequences were some times disastrous. I heard that for a time milk in the Jocal area conta ined so much radioiodine that a pint would destroy a baby’s thyroid gland. °8 Food Supplies Give Out KM 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, J 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 ina dark basement, The day they canie to take Johnniy’s body away | thought it was the end of the road for me — I 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 go 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 what clothing I could, gave each of the bigger kids a bundle to carry, loaded Davey and some blankets into Johmy’s old express wagon, and started off for the assembly center, We waited in the open most of a day before the trucks picked us up. There were 160 of us that day, the tattered remnants of 82 fomilics, 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 apgaiil day out, Around the mins of Kansus City we could see fire-blackened field: being croded 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 i thing is that this is a low fallout area !7, so we 4 the cold, but providentially it turned warm the third learning at first-h: “zat our basic needs really, are Tood clothing, and sheltc. -- 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 commonest 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 will 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. All rights reserved, REFERENCES The basic general source of information now evaileble is the Sums.a Analysis of Heorings, June 22-26, 1959, Biological & Environment of Nuclear War, Joint Congressional Committer on Atomic Energy, Government Printing Office, August, 1958, Copiex can be obtained fro: Joint Committee or through your own Congreseman. The conplete transc Of the Hearings will be available soon, 1, Summary-Analysis of Hensines, p. 4. 2. Summary-Analysis of Hearings, table V-2, p- 19. This teble Jists th numbers and types of bombs which the Conzreusionsl Commitice ax would strike various U.S. cities, including St. Louis, in the first dy ® nuclear wer, 3, Summary-Analysis of Hearings, p. 17, ca/u sted trom 1950 census. « the point chosen #s ground zero in St, Louis Civilian Defer ad alysis of Hearings, table IV-1, p. 15. A 10 megaton bony rater 2500 feel in diameter and 240 {cei deep and coldnps: even brick appartment houses out to # radius of seven miles. Big 3 Js 6.8 miles from 1th and Pine. "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons," Uy June 1957, pp. 305-308. ‘The Effects of Nuclear Weapons,” p. 299, Summary Analysis of Heorings, 1. 12. Fire stormé were also discus in more detail at the hearings by WT. Hen: Mixter, Jr., M.D.; and C, H. Fugitt, Ph. Dy 9. From testimony on the ecological effects the hearings by Dr. }. N. Wolfe, Chief of 1 ry Atomic Energy Conumi:sior ey nvironmental Scie Beard of the Division of Liology and Medicine of the AEC. 10. The hearings allotted one & nnd one 10 menaton weapon to St specified that they be 50% fis ion and $0.5 1usion weapons, See ps table V-2 of Summary Analysis. 11. Surface bursts ere assumed to deposit 80.4 of their fallout in luc al f out and only 20% in the stratesphere. 12. See Figure V-2 of Summary Anulysin which gives size and ahnpe of Jocal fallout area. 13. Summary-Avatysie of Hearings, p. 28. t4. Summary Analysis of Heutings, p. 47. 15. Summary-Ana lysis of Hearin : 16. Sumamary-Analysis of Hearings, 17, Teatimeny end maps by Des Le auchtu of the U.S. Weather Bure ss. Sumncry-Analyais figure Vel, 18 The fission debris has ite intensity reduced ty @ very Large quot i one your, Howl be Lat the Jonver lived bem, Miter sn stimony on flash Slimeny on blast «fleets by De Cy Rion of The (W42 Corea Grave by Din. Mae, Mater and Fur White ter in Bt tam 1 24. Kren Heacings, 25. Mus. a 26. aye 18. 27. Neneva.s, testimony ont effects of nuctems radiations ty Div. 8." tar 2H. Frew. erie tipony of Gs kM. Dunning, om Hiatogion! Effects nf Nun fear ANG 24. “The (oontnan of ee cumty weston plant is seh ee to perndt the