What to do BEFORE a Nuclear or Radiological Attack:

1. 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.

2. 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. (See the "Emergency Planning and Disaster Supplies" chapter for more information).

3. 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.
       o Call your local emergency management office.
       o Look for yellow and black fallout shelter signs on public buildings. Note: With the end of the Cold War, many of the signs have been removed from the buildings previously designated.
       o If no noticeable or official designations have been made, make your own list of potential shelters near your home, workplace and school: basements, or the windowless center area of middle floors in high-rise buildings, as well as subways and  tunnels.
       o Give your household clear instructions about where fallout shelters are located and what actions to take in case of attack.

4. 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.

5. There are few public shelters in many suburban and rural areas. If you are considering building a fallout shelter at home, keep the following in mind.
       o A basement, or any underground area, is the best place to shelter from fallout. Often, few major changes are needed, especially if the structure has two or more stories and its basement-or one corner of it-is below ground.
       o Fallout shelters can be used for storage during non-emergency periods, but only store things there that can be very quickly removed. (When they are removed, dense, heavy items may be used to add to the shielding.)
       o All the items you will need for your stay need not be stocked inside the shelter itself but can be stored elsewhere, as long as you can move them quickly to the shelter.

6. Learn about your community's evacuation plans. Such plans may include evacuation routes, relocation sites, how the public will be notified and transportation options for people who do not own cars and those who have special needs.

7. Acquire other emergency preparedness booklets that you may need.

What to do During a Nuclear or Radiological Attack:

1. Do not look at the flash or fireball-it can blind you.

2. If you hear an attack warning:
       o Take cover as quickly as you can, BELOW GROUND IF POSSIBLE, and stay there unless instructed to do otherwise.
       o If you are caught outside, unable to get inside immediately, take cover behind anything that might offer protection. Lie flat on the ground and cover your head.
       o If the explosion is some distance away, it could take 30 seconds or more for the blast wave to hit.

3. Protect yourself from radioactive fallout. If you are close enough to see the brilliant flash of a nuclear explosion, the fallout will arrive in about 20 minutes. Take shelter, even if you are many miles from ground zero-radioactive fallout can be carried by the winds for hundreds of miles. Remember the three protective factors: shielding, distance and time.

4. Keep a battery-powered radio with you, and listen for official information. Follow the instructions given. Local instructions should always take precedence: officials on the ground know the local situation best.

What to do After a Nuclear or Radiological Attack:

In a public or home shelter:
1. Do not leave the shelter until officials say it is safe. Follow their instructions when leaving.

2. If in a fallout shelter, stay in your shelter until local authorities tell you it is permissible or advisable to leave. The length of your stay can range from a day or two to four weeks.
      o Contamination from a radiological dispersion device could affect a wide area, depending on the amount of conventional explosives used, the quantity of radioactive material and atmospheric conditions.
      o A "suitcase" terrorist nuclear device detonated at or near ground level would produce heavy fallout from the dirt and debris sucked up into the mushroom cloud.
      o A missile-delivered nuclear weapon from a hostile nation would probably cause an explosion many times more powerful than a suitcase bomb, and provide a greater
         cloud of radioactive fallout.
      o The decay rate of the radioactive fallout would be the same, making it necessary for those in the areas with highest radiation levels to remain in shelter for up to a month.
      o The heaviest fallout would be limited to the area at or downwind from the explosion,
        and 80% of the fallout would occur during the first 24 hours.
      o Because of these facts and the very limited number of weapons terrorists could detonate, most of the country would not be affected by fallout.
      o People in most of the areas that would be affected could be allowed to come out of  shelter and, if necessary, evacuate to unaffected areas within a few days.

3. Although it may be difficult, make every effort to maintain sanitary conditions in your shelter space.

4. Water and food may be scarce. Use them prudently but do not impose severe rationing, especially for children, the ill or elderly.

5. Cooperate with shelter managers. Living with many people in confined space can be difficult and unpleasant.

Returning to your home
1. Keep listening to the radio for news about what to do, where to go, and places to avoid.

2. If your home was within the range of a bomb's shock wave, or you live in a high-rise or other apartment building that experienced a non-nuclear explosion, check first for any sign of collapse or damage, such as:
        o toppling chimneys, falling bricks, collapsing walls, plaster falling from ceilings.
        o fallen light fixtures, pictures and mirrors.
        o broken glass from windows.
        o overturned bookcases, wall units or other fixtures.
        o fires from broken chimneys.
        o ruptured gas and electric lines.

3. Immediately clean up spilled medicines, drugs, flammable liquids, and other potentially hazardous materials.

4. Listen to your battery-powered radio for instructions and information about community services.

5. Monitor the radio and your television for information on assistance that may be provided. Local, state and federal governments and other organizations will help meet emergency needs and help you recover from damage and losses.

6. The danger may be aggravated by broken water mains and fallen power lines.

7. If you turned gas, water and electricity off at the main valves and switch before you went to shelter:
      o Do not turn the gas back on. The gas company will turn it back on for you or you will receive other instructions.
      o Turn the water back on at the main valve only after you know the water system is working and water is not contaminated.
      o Turn electricity back on at the main switch only after you know the wiring is undamaged in your home and the community electrical system is functioning.
      o Check to see that sewage lines are intact before using sanitary facilities.

8. Stay away from damaged areas.

9. Stay away from areas marked "radiation hazard" or "HAZMAT."


                                       
                                          All information from this page obtained from FEMA