Publisher Description

DIVCultural history of the nuclear civil defense excercises in the US, Canada, and the UK, which emphasizes the performative aspect of the staged drills and evacuations./div

According to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security in 2017, millions of Americans-perhaps the majority of the population-would die if the electrical grid went down for a significant period of time. Not only is this disturbing fact is well known to Congress, it is also well known to America's enemies. The United States today remains extremely vulnerable to a wide variety of man-made and natural threats, such as electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, cyber-attack, geomagnetic disturbance (GMD), terrorism, weather and many other threats. In November of 2017, the FEMA Administrator noted in his testimony to Congress that "we do not have a culture of preparedness in this country." The majority of Americans are unaware of the magnitude of the threats to the electric grid and our communities are completely unprepared. We have seen from recent disasters such as hurricanes Katrina, Maria, Harvey and Irma that communities can be on their own for a long period of time until help arrives - and these are regional disasters where massive outside resources are still available. Here is the fatal flaw of the emergency management system in the United States: it depends on our ability to bring outside resources into a disaster area. But what if the majority of the country was the disaster area? What if cities and towns across the country were on their own for a long period of time? Survival will be a local issue. The cavalry will not be coming. The real key to having prepared and resilient communities lies in the communities having a civil defense plan and being prepared for a worst-case scenario, such as a national-scale power outage. This book is about taking pre-disaster mitigation to the next level, so that your town can be ready for any disaster, large or small. It is possible for a town to survive if the grid goes down long term. But only if a few of its citizens act now. This book takes you through the steps to prepare your town for a worst-case national disaster. And in being prepared for a worst-case scenario, you and your town can be prepared for anything from a minor power outage to a hurricane to an electromagnetic pulse, solar flare or cyber-attack taking out the entire power grid. This is the Civil Defense Book!

Tracing the partnership between architects and American civil defense officials during the Cold War.

What do you do when a nuclear weapon detonates nearby? During the early Cold War years of 1945-63, Civil Defence Canada and the Emergency Measures Organization planned for just such a disaster and encouraged citizens to prepare their families and their cities for nuclear war. By the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the civil defence program was widely mocked, and the public was vastly unprepared for nuclear war. Canada’s civil defence program was born in the early Cold War, when fears of conflict between the superpowers ran high. Give Me Shelter features previously unreleased documents detailing Canada’s nuclear survival plans. Andrew Burtch reveals how the organization publicly appealed to citizens to prepare for disaster themselves -- from volunteering as air-raid wardens to building fallout shelters. This tactic ultimately failed, however, due to a skeptical populace, chronic underfunding, and repeated bureaucratic fumbling. Give Me Shelter exposes the challenges of educating the public in the face of the looming threat of nuclear annihilation. Give Me Shelter explains how governments and the public prepared for the unexpected. It is essential reading for historians, policymakers, and anybody interested in Canada’s Cold War home front.

Millions of Americans—perhaps the majority of the population—would die if the electrical grid went down for a significant period of time. And while this disturbing fact is well-known to Congress, it is also well-known to America's enemies. Little has been done to mitigate the threat. Iran, North Korea, terrorist groups, and others move forward in their capabilities to attack the power grid, and the United States today remains extremely vulnerable. Some individual Americans, known as preppers, have taken steps to prepare their families for such a disaster, but the real key to survival lies in small communities having a civil defense plan. A prepared community has a better chance of survival than a prepared individual. This book is about taking prepping to the next level, so that your town can be ready for any disaster, large or small. It is possible for a town to survive if the grid goes down long term. But only if a few of its citizens act now.This book is different from other books on prepping and emergency preparedness. Rather than focusing on individual survival, this book takes you through the steps to create a nonprofit civil defense organization which can help prepare your town for a worst-case national disaster. And in being prepared for a worst-case scenario, you and your town can be prepared for anything from a minor power outage to a hurricane to an electromagnetic pulse attack taking out the entire power grid.