![]() ![]() They were mostly in basements, although a few buildings had shelters on higher floors. In downtown Dallas, about 100 buildings were identified as approved shelters. With minor modifications, an additional 132 would meet the requirements. Scientists at the time said people would need to stay in a shelter for two weeks before the radiation would decrease enough to make a safe exit.īy May 1962, the survey was completed, finding 381 buildings in Dallas County eligible to serve as public fallout shelters. The idea was that after people were alerted to an imminent attack, they would have just enough time to get to a shelter, where they would be protected from the cloud of nuclear fallout arising from a bomb blast nearby. ![]() The shelters were not intended for people to survive a direct hit from a bomb but rather as a place to escape to in case of a blast. ![]() Army Corps of Engineers, to receive federal designation as a fallout shelter, a building had to provide at least 100 more times protection for a person than being out in the open and have enough space for 50 people. Dahl was in charge of the buildings in the downtown area, which had 200 of the estimated 350 buildings eligible for the survey in the county.Īccording to the U.S. The firms hired to complete the building survey were Forest and Cotton Hennison, Durham, and Richardson and George L. Photo-sensitive cards recorded 128 items of information, then were sent to Washington, D.C. A 90-day survey of buildings, conducted by three companies, began in January 1962 in Dallas County. Those that qualified for shelter status would be marked and stocked with food and medical supplies in case of a nuclear attack.ĭallas joined the survey effort under the auspices of the Dallas Civil Defense Office. That letter was an ominous one in response to the escalating tensions in the world, warning, “Nuclear weapons and the possibility of nuclear war are facts of life we cannot ignore today.” It said the government was working to improve protections for Americans by surveying all public buildings for fallout shelter potential. 15, 1961, issue showing a startling cover picture of a man in a “civilian fallout suit.” Headlined “How You Can Survive Fallout,” it also touted a letter from President John F. Subscribers to Life magazine received their Sept. Dallas Goes Underground: Fallout Shelters for Survival ![]()
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