Nuclear Attack

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During Nuclear Attack

If you have advanced warning, take your 72-Hour Kit and go to an approved shelter or your basement. Huddle close to the floor and as near to the south wall as possible. Get under a table for protection from falling objects.
DO NOT attempt to evacuate your shelter until advised.
If you see a nuclear flash and feel sudden heat, take cover INSTANTLY, withing one or two seconds. Drop to the ground and curl up tightly, covering as many parts of your body as possible.
Never look at the light of a nuclear explosion.
Go to a shelter once the heat and blast effects have cleared.

After Nuclear Attack

Take cover in an underground shelter, basement, etc.
Remove contaminated clothing.
Wash yourself thoroughly with soap and water. Wash your head and nose hairs especially well.
If the source of radiation is known and travel advisable, travel in the opposite direction and go up wind from radiation.
Remain in protective shelter for three days. Limit your exposure to contaminated areas.
If someone needs radiation sickness treatment, keep the victim calm, give emotional support, and give plenty of fluids.
Wipe food and water containers with a clean cloth to remove particles of fallout, which resemble sand or salt.
Stay calm; don't panic.

Fallout

When a nuclear weapon explodes near the ground, great quantities of pulverized earth and other debris are sucked up in to the nuclear cloud.
The radioactive gasses produced by the explosion condense on and into this debris, producing radioactive fallout particles.
Within a short time, these particles fall back to earth--the larger ones first--which give off invisible gamma rays (like X-rays).
Generally, the first 24 hours after fallout began to settle would be the most dangerous period to a community's residents.
The heavier particles falling during that time sould still be highly radioactive and give off strong rays.
The lighter particles falling later would have lost much of their radiation high in the atmosphere.
Fallout is not a mysterious, invisible, or unrecognizable substance that strikes without warning--fallout particles range in size from those like grains of sand, which can be seen easily, to very small particles that appear as fine dust.
The distribution of fallout particles after an nuclear attack would depend on wind currents, weather conditions, and other factors.
No area in the United States could be sure of not getting fallout, and it is probable that some fallout particles would be deposited on most of the country.
Areas close to a nuclear explosion might receive fallout within 15 to 30 minutes, but it might take 5 to 10 hours or more for the particles to drift down on a community 100 or 200 miles away.

Protection from Fallout

The more distance between you and the fallout particles, the less radiation you will recieve.
The more heavy, dense materials between you and the fallout particles, the better. Materials such as concrete, bricks, and earth will absorb many of the gamma rays and help keep them from reaching you.
Fallout radiation decays fairly rapidly. As time passes, the radioactivity in fallout loses its strength. In most cases, the radiation level would decrease enough to permit people to leave their shelter within a few days for short periods of time, although unusual weather conditions or an extended period of attack dould requre a longer shelter stay.

Concerns

Fallout arriving within a few hours after a nuclear explosion is highly radioactive. If it collects on the skin in large enough quantities, it can cause burns.
Gamma radiation is the most dangerous kind of fallout radiation because it can penetrate the entire body and cause cell damage to the organs, blood, and bones. Enough gamma radiation damage to your body can cause illness or death.
People exposed to fallout radiation do not become radioactive and thereby dangerous to other people.
Radiation sickness is not contagious or infectious; one person cannot "catch it" from another.

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