Of course, it occurred to me that the window wasn’t normally left open. He heard the siren and warned the class, and we all headed for the shelter. Shortly before the scheduled test, she opened a window at the back of the room, and a designated student sitting near that window was tasked with listening for the siren. Undaunted, my classroom teacher had a solution to the problem. Unfortunately, the closest siren was miles away, and wasn’t very loud where we were. When we heard the siren, we were to head for the basement. Instead of heading to the designated shelter when the school’s own bells sounded the warning, each class was instead going to act when the sirens outside went off. On another occasion, the school administration was going to have an additional twist on the drill. If the power were out, we would, indeed, be cut off from the rest of the world. In other words, it wouldn’t be around in the event of an actual emergency. It was apparently his personal radio, which he brought to school in preparation for the scheduled drill.

My reassurnce was dashed that afternoon, however, when I saw that same teacher walking home, carrying his portable radio. It was rather reassuring to see it, since I knew we wouldn’t be cut off totally from the outside world in the event of an emergency, since we would still be able to receive whatever emergency instructions might be forthcoming from the radio. One year, during a tornado drill (that had been scheduled well in advance), I was quite pleased to see that one of the teachers had with him down in the basement a battery-operated radio.

When I was a student in elementary school, I noticed these gaps. When telephones are available and operable they will serve as basic communications.” The plan also stated, but apparently with no thought as to who would be responsible, “plans should be made to insure that at least one battery operated AM radio receiver plus extra batteries will be made available in the shelter for reception of emergency broadcasting information.” Paul, MN, for example, stated that “many designated shelters will be in places with access to existing telephones. One of the shortcomings of the fallout shelter program of the 1950’s- 1970’s was the lack of communications from shelters to the outside world.

Plans for 1950s fallout shelter