From the June 11, 1980 edition of the Smoky Lake Signal. Used with Permission.

The Nuclear Threat

It will be the siren that tells you the end of our way of life has come. Wailing on and on to the point where everyone knows it's not the noon whistle, or a fire - but war.

Depending on the world situation, according to a document "The Nuclear Threat to Alberta," warning could give you as little as 15 minutes to prepare for the big boom.

More than likely the international situation leading to nuclear war will develop over a period of time and Alberta would have time to prepare.

If Admiral Robert Falls, Chief of Defense, staff of the Canadian Armed Forces is right - now is the time to prepare. He says, "we are entering, in my view the most dangerous decade since the 1930's."

The enemy is Russia. The reason - as US Defensive Secretary Harold Bruan recently said to Congress, "When an aging revolutionary movement sees its' economic system rapidly declining in rate of growth, its ideological appeal gone, and when it fears internal stresses, then the ability to bully its neighbours or others may seem to its leaders the best defense of that system."

The result could be a big bang over Edmonton. The government of Canada has listed 10 potential areas of risk from nuclear bombs. Edmonton is forecasted to be attacked by one or more weapons with a total explosive force equal to 10 megatonnes of TNT.

Ironically Calgary which was on previous lists of targets has in 1979 been removed.

From the centre of Edmonton the first 7 miles would be totally destroyed by the blast. The next 3 kilometers in a circle of destruction would be moderately to severely damaged. After that 16 kilometres from the centre (near Devon or Namo) damage would be light.

Seconds before the blast that would rip apart buildings and push telephone poles around like match sticks, the flash of the ball of fire would be seen.

From the centre to 15 kilometers away every house would catch fire and burn. By Devon (24 kilometeres) only tinder rubbish, easily ignited would catch and burn. Cleanliness could save your house at that range - but probably not your life. Anyone exposed to the blaze of light produced by the nuclear explosion would be blinded - if shielded, the blindness would be temporary, for others permanent.

The heat rays traveling at 186,000 miles per second will produce second degree burns on to 30 kilometers away, and first up to 38 kilometers. Somewhere near Elk Island Park the damage to skin will be reduced to a bad sunburn.

Then comes the fallout. It's impossible to tell which areas will be affected most. The speed and direction of the winds have led to the assumption that it would blow east. As you travel east the Delta like shaped fallout clouds gradually weakens. In the city and suburbs more than a 5,000 Roentgen dose would be accumulated over 7 days exposure. By Camrose and Smoky Lake the dose is down to between 200 & 750 Roentgen's. By Vilna and St. Paul the does is reduced to between 100 and 200. Fort McMurray and the Peace River country is down to less than 25 Roentgen's.

Before the blast, the government Disaster Services plans to appoint special emergency officials and review the shelter spaces available. They'll hold alerting practices and exercises. - If there's time. If a surprise attack hits, they'll crowd as many as they can in to available shelters and make sure that the most essential items are given priority.

They hope to get information out to the public alerting them on the way to find the safest locations for protection. They want business and industry to protect vital records and machinery and move them away from Edmonton to whatever extent possible.

Then in gentile terms the government report says, "The movement of pre-attack and post-attack evacuees from Edmonton must be balanced with the capability of roads to cope with traffic and the reception committees to receive evacuees and provide adequate fallout protection for them."

But how will they stop the panic? Are there fallout shelters in Smoky? St. Paul? Disperse is the word they use for run. For shelters, they suggest individuals study the "11 Steps to Survival" a federal booklet produced 10 years ago. It shows you how to pile your bureaus, dressers, and sad bags in your cellar to form a crude shelter in which to hide for 2 weeks."

Hospital facilities in the Edmonton target area should not be relied on is the euphonistic disception for totally destroyed. Sites such as Smoky lake's 28 bed hospital are designated as "advanced treatment centres."

Water, electricity, telephone, gas will no longer work. Food processing and distribution plants in Edmonton would be gone.

But you can survive if you know how. Alberta Disaster Services in St. Paul have pamphlets and shelter designs. Food can be bought and stored ahead of time.  Water can be bottled, routes plotted, decisions made. - But only now - not in the last 20 minutes.

The Blast.

Ten miles from the centre of the explosion you have 35 seconds to duck before the blast hits - Keep low. - Flying glass, bricks and debris can kill. Crawl into a ditch, a culbert, a car or into your cellar. Concrete buildings are more blast resistant than wood frame - but don't be choosey. You haven't the time. Up to 25 miles away windows are going to be blown in, so watch for flying glass.

Fallout

Like the recent eruption of Mount Helen in Washington State, there is going to be a lot of dust thrown around by a nuclear blast.  Millions of tons of pulverized earth, stones, buildings and people will be drawn into the fireball of an atomic explosion and become radioactive in teh great mushroom shaped cloud.

The dust is carried by the wind until it settles to the earth as "Fallout". The radioactiveity it gives off can't be seen, felt or smelt, but it's not like a gas that seeps into everything. It's more like a fine coarse sand carried by the winds. You can wash it off.

The radioactivity in fallout weakens rapidly in the first hours after an explosion. After 7 hours it has decayed to 90% of the strength it had one hour after the explosion. After two days it has lost 99%. In two weeks, 99.9% of its killing strength is gone.

If your stay in a shelter the first days following an explosion, you escape the strongest radiation, but it still cold be high enough to kill you. Trained Radiological Defense Officers, such as in the County of Smoky Lake John Jusypink, the Agricultural Field man, will monitor the radiation. So radio reports can tell you when its safe to leave your shelter.

KNOW THE FACTS ABOUT RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT

An explosion of any kind produces fallout as soil, dust and junk is sucked up and carried on the wind. But in a nuclear explosion radioactive elements are produced that condenses on the dust. The gamma and beta radiation that's produced is deadly.

You would see it coming, like a dark cloud. It would feel like blowing sand and spread downwind from the blast.

In Canada with the winds usually blowing from west to east the fallout patterns extend in that direction. But it could go anywhere the wind blows. 

At an average wind speed of 25 miles an hour it would take 4 hours for the radioactive dust to travel 100 miles downwind.

The cloud of dust would extend several hundred miles downwind, a few miles up wind and tens of miles across.

Think of it like fine sand. Winds would sweep it from the streets and blow it in heaps against curbs and buildings. Little of it would drift or be carried into a properly designed shelter. that which did could be swept up or thrown out. If it landed on food or your skin you'd feel the grittiness and wash it off. No special detergent or other agents are needed.

A hat would keep it off your hair, any cover would keep it out of food.

Fallout is also relatively insoluble. It wouldn't dissolve in a water reservoir so the hazards of drinking from the taps, if they're still working, would be less than leaving the house to search for water. It beats dying of thirst. Remember your hot water heater has 40 gallons of water stored.

Think of each fallout dust particle as a tiny flashlight. You can't turn it off, but the battery does run down. The radiation, like a beam of light, gets weaker and weaker as time passes.

There are 200 individual types of radioactive isotopes produced in the split second bang of a nuclear explosion. Each has it's own "half-life" or time period in which it's radioactive intensity decrease to 1/2 the initial amount. Some have a half life of seconds, some years. Radio iodine 131 loses half its radioactivity in 8 days and becomes unimportant in a few weeks. But Caesium 137 and Strontium 90 takes 30 years to decay to half their power.

Most decay quickly. After 7 days fallout has lost 90% of the strength it had one hour after the explosion. After 2 days 99% has decayed. In two weeks 99.9% of its strength has gone.

Fallout only hurts living things. It doesn't pass on its radiation. Once cleaned the fallout contaminated thing is not radioactive.

How and if you die from radiation sickness depends on the total dose of radiation received and over what length of time it was received. The longer you can keep away from it the better your chances of survival. It gives your body time to repair the damages. Too much radiation is judged to be 450 rems received within a few days. that's the median lethal radiation does as calculated by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Death from radiation sickness would be neither quick nor painless. The initial symptoms are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite and malaise. Beginning 2 or 3 weeks after exposure there is a tendency to bleed into various organs. Small hemorrhages appear under the skin.

Spontaneous bleeding from the mouth an intestinal tract is common. Loss of hair starts after 2 weeks. Eventually the radiation having killed many of the white cells of the blood and decreasing the body's natural resistance allows an overwhelming infection to develop and you die of it. It cannot be spread to other people. It's not contagious. Provide rest, food and encouragement. Swab the mouth gently with mile warm salt and water if it becomes sore - keep wounds clean and protect against infection. That's all the advice the government can give on radiation sickness. That's all there is.

You don't have to die. If you prepare ahead or know what to do, even the basement of your house can provide shelter.

Fallout Shelters

Since fallout is a gritty dust, most of it would fall on your roof so head for the cellar. That provides distance between you and it. The other protection is dense weight. Two feet of packed dirt or 16 inches of concrete between you or the fallout gives good protection. It will stop 99% of the outside radiation from reaching you. 5 inches of steel or 3 inches of lead also gives the same high level of protection.

The Emergency Measures Department has blueprints for building fallout shelters, either in your old home, a new one you plan to build or outside of your home.

If you don't have a shelter you can increase your protection by improvising one in your basement. It depends on how long the fallout takes to arrive. in Smoky Lake you could have 3 to 4 hours.

Select a corner of the basement away from windows. Preferably on the east side. Remove inside doors from their hinges and use them as a roof over a hut built of cabinets, chests of drawers, work benches - anything that will support the weight. Load the top of the doors with bricks or concrete blocks or sand filled drawers or boxes, books, paper - any dense thing that will help reduce radiation penetration.

Around the sides and front of your shelter build walls of dense materials to provide vertical shielding - a small cabinet or dirt filled box may be used as a crawl in entrance which can be closed behind you.

Block basement windows with earth, bricks, concrete blocks, books or even bundles of newspaper. In winter used packed snow.

On the floor above the corner of the basement where you've got your shelter pile furniture, trucks filled with clothes, dirt filled boxes, books, paper - 12 inches of dirt would be good.

Now the hard part. Try living in your cubby whole for 14 days. Everyone should have 2 weeks worth of emergency supplies in your home - and don't plan on stopping at 7-11 on the way out of town. Buy them now, store it ahead of time.

Food and Water

Since most food is in covered containers (cans, bottles and boxes) it will be safe to eat after the war, if you dust the containers, and if food is free of grit or dust - eat it.

Water in covered containers or from covered wells is safe.

But food will be in short supply because all the main processing and distribution plans are in target areas.

Food, water, battery powered radio first aid kits, medical supplies, and winter clothing especially socks and underwear are a must.

Stock up

The Emergency Welfare pamphlet "Your Emergency Pack" lists the minimum food and water needs for an adult for 7 days. These are items that should be bought and stored ahead of time ready to use in your shelter or to take with you, if you have to evacuate your area.

Radio

Stick close to the radio. Take a battery powered one into your shelter. The government will be telling you what happened and what to do. What supplies to take, advice on conserving food, fuel and water, how to keep warm when the power is off, whether it's safe to stay in your community or go to other areas.

Cleanliness

Water could be limited. If you have time fill your bath tub, buckets and pans with water.

Keep a 14 day supply of plastic bags handy. After using your emergency toilet inside your shelter, tie the waste in the waterproof polyethylene bags and store in a tightly covered garbage pail.

After the second day in the shelter you may risk leaving it for a few minutes for essential tasks - taking out he garbage may be one of them.

If people and animals can be kept in good shelter for the first 2 or 3 days death from radiation can be reduced. The longer the better.

Contaminated Soils.

The most effective way to decontaminate soil is to scrape 2 inches off with a road grader. But the soil would have to be dumped in pits in the centre of small fields or in ditches across the field. It's expensive and time consuming.

The danger is strontium 90. Most radioactive materials will decay quickly, but strontium 90 has a half life of 28 years. For its strength to drop to 15 would take 180 years.

Because strontium 90 is similar to calcium, any plant that has high calcium requirements will absorb strontum 90 instead of calcium. Radiation emitted internally by contaminated food or water is just as dangerous as the original fallout.

Adding lime to low calcium soils would help. So would gyseum on soils containing large quantities of sodium. Adding crop residues and manure would reduce the uptake of strontum 90 by 1/3.

Some crops such as potatoes would be more suitable. Any grain, potatoes or root crop stored in weather proof buildings before fallout would be safe to eat. Hay or straw stacked before fallout would be safe if the outside bales were removed.

Livestock

A good tight barn would reduce the radiation level to 1/2 for livestock. The best is a 2 storey barn with the loft full of hay.

If no barn - fence the cows in under trees and wash or wetbrush them when its safe out for a limited time.

Keep the animals off contaminated feeds. If there is a short supply of feed protected, save it for one or two milk cows. The milk can be safely used for the family. Milk from other cows would be contaminated with strontum 90. Store powdered milk ahead of time. It will be scarce. Meant and eggs from exposed but surviving animals will be OK. Poultry is especially resistant to radiation. External exposure contaminated only the outside of an animal. Throw out the viscera and bones but eat the rest.

Alberta Survival Plans

What kind of a world will you find. One that's pretty bleak, but not impossible.

The cities and all the support systems in them that we depend upon will be gone. Those still surviving that were on the outskirts will stream even further away. The burden will fall on the smaller untouched reception centres.

As recently as May 1979 revised "Alberta Survival Plans" have been sent to the municipalities in the province. They outline the threats and effects of an enemy nuclear attac, as well as the implications and planninguideance for civil emergency planning.

Their goal is to minimize the loss of life, injuries, property; to ensure the continuity of the government, and to make the best possible use of resources remaining after the attack. They want people to prepare when international tension signals the possibility of the attack. The Alberta disaster Services branch suggests replacement items be bought and stored outside the cities to keep essential services going. They suggest training the population on fire fighting. They suggest locating advance medical treatment centres around but not in Edmonton.

They suggest moving the government to an emergency government headquarters in an area protected against fallout.

They suggest tying in needed private broadcast (radio, TV) stations, and protecting their personnel in area emergency government headquarters.

They suggest encouraging individuals to make their own preparations to reduce their vulnerability - by first - reading 11 steps to surviving - provided by the federal government. They suggest Edmonton people may have the time to leave the city voluntarily. With the government advising the best routes, what to take and what areas have reception and billeting reception areas.

Casualties in Canada

According to the Canadian Emergency Measures Organization most of the east could be blasted. Toronto, Hamilton, Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa. In the west - Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver could also be targets.

If we were hit lightly 4.6 million Canadians will die, .5 million will be injured and 5.1 million affected.

if hit severely by 1970's estimates we lose 7.8 million Canadians, .7 million are injured and 8.5 million are directly affected.

Canada's present population is 22 million.

Megaton

The power or size of a nuclear weapon is expressed as how many tons of TNT it would take to make as big a bang.

The days of the 2 kiloton bombs such as the one dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945 are over. It killed 70,000 people, destroyed an area of 4.7 miles. It's 2 kiloton rating meant it was as if 2000 tons of TNT were exploded at once. Now bombs are bigger. They are measured in megatons or millions of TNT. A one megaton bomb therefore is 500 times as powerful as the ones dropped on Japan (1 megaton, 1000 kilotons). The bombs aimed at Canadian cities are thought to be 10 megaton bombs, or 5000 times those that ended the war with Japan.

Are the Russians Prepared

The Russians plan to have 96% of their people survive a nuclear war. At best according to the American Journal of Civil Defense the U.S. would have 55% live. Why the difference?

The Soviets have already adopted an effective civil defense plan to provide for evacuation of their city populations to outlying areas. These people then construct expedient shelters using materials at hand.

Where forests are nearby a trench is dug and lined and covered with small logs. Earth is then piled 2 feet thick, on top. It gives good blast protection, fire and fallout. They calculate they could reduce the losses in a city to 10% of the population - less than they lost fighting the Germans in World War II.

It takes 2 to 3 days for an average family to construct the Russian designed shelter. Plans have been distributed in Russia. Civil defense training is given to children in schools and adult training is mandatory.

Chinese plans are different. They have already built blast shelters in their cities in the form of tunnels. They're read and accessible within minutes.

U.S. shelter designs for expedient shelters are of houses with the main floor or roof covered with 12 inches of earth. If the basement is partly above ground, pile earth against the exposed wall. It will work to protect against fallout but not against blast or fire damage. But with any of the plans advanced planning is a must. If the city residents do reach the countryside they must know where to find food and how to build shelters. That's why the Signal staff have put together this feature. Be prepared. Hopefully it will never happen, you'll never need this information. For more information write Alberta Disaster Services, Box 10,000 Edmonton.

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