Læg mærke til gamle læskilte? Hvis nuke virkelig kommer, måske ikke

En generation af amerikanere vidste lige, hvad de skulle gøre i tilfælde af et atomangreb - eller under en større falsk alarm, som den i weekenden på Hawaii. Tag dækning i en bygning med et gult nedfaldssymbol.

Men i disse dage, det er måske ikke den bedste løsning, eller overhovedet en mulighed.

Minder fra den kolde krig, de aldrende krisecentre, der engang talte i tusinder på skoler, domstole og kirker er ikke blevet vedligeholdt. Og konventionel visdom har ændret sig om, hvorvidt et sådant beskyttelsessystem er nødvendigt i en tid, hvor et angreb mere sandsynligt kommer fra en svag skurkagtig stat eller terrorgruppe frem for en supermagt.

"Vi befinder os ikke i et scenario med den kolde krig. Vi er i 2018, "sagde Dr. Irwin Redlener, leder af National Center for Disaster Preparedness ved Columbia University's Earth Institute. ”Vi står ikke over for det, vi stod overfor for 50 år siden, da Sovjetunionen og USA havde atomsprænghoveder peget på hinanden, der ville ødelægge verden. Der er en trussel, men det er en anden form for trussel i dag. "

Folk var ikke sikre på, hvad de skulle gøre lørdag, da Hawaii fejlagtigt sendte en mobiltelefon -advarsel om et indkommende ballistisk missil og ikke trak det tilbage i 38 minutter. Staten havde oprettet missilvarselinfrastrukturen, efter at Nordkorea demonstrerede, at dens missiler havde rækkevidde til at nå øerne. Chauffører opgav biler på en motorvej og tog ly i en tunnel. Forældre lagde sig i badekar med deres børn. Studerende boltede sig over University of Hawaii campus for at tage dækning i bygninger.

Den falske alarm er det perfekte tidspunkt at tale om, hvad man skal gøre i sådan en nødsituation, Redlener sagde, fordi det meste af tiden ikke vil tale om det. Overhovedet.

"Men det er en reel mulighed, "sagde han." Byens embedsmænd burde tale om, hvad deres borgere skal gøre, hvis der skete et angreb. Og det er en nødvendighed for enkeltpersoner og familier at tale om og udvikle deres egen plan for, hvad de ville gøre. "

New Yorkere, der i denne uge blev spurgt om, hvor de ville søge ly under et missilangreb, sagde, at de ikke anede det.

”Det eneste jeg kan tænke er, Jeg ville løbe, sagde Sabrina Shephard, 45, af Manhattan. "Hvor vi ville løbe, Jeg ved ikke, fordi jeg ikke ved, om New York har bombehuse eller noget. "

Nedfaldsrummene, marked with metal signs featuring the symbol for radiation—three joined triangles inside a circle—were set up in tens of thousands of buildings nationwide in the early 1960s amid the nuclear arms race. In New York City alone there were believed to be about 18, 000.

The locations were chosen because they could best block radioactive material. Anything could be a shelter as long as it was built with concrete, cinder blocks or brick, had no windows, and could be retrofitted quickly with supplies, an air filtration system and potable water.

But the idea was controversial from the start, especially since one of the scenarios at the time, a full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, would have left few survivors. By the 1970s, the concept was abandoned. A FEMA spokeswoman said the agency doesn't even have current information on where the shelters are located.

New York City education officials announced last month they are taking down the fallout shelter signs at schools. In Minot, North Dakota, just a few miles from the base where dozens of U.S. missiles are at the ready, a few fallout shelter signs remain, but their status as viable refuges isn't known.

So what should you do if there is a nuclear attack now?

The good news:You may actually survive, because a nuclear attack today is more likely to be just one bomb—perhaps a small device, smuggled into a city inside a truck, or a single missile lobbed by North Korea that actually makes it across the water. The bad news:You have between 15 and 20 minutes to get to a safe space.

Eliot Calhoun, a disaster planner for New York's Emergency Management Department, said the smartest thing to do is stay put in a spot with as few windows and as many walls as possible.

"Don't go outside unless you absolutely must, " han sagde.

Subterranean subway stations might be a good place to shelter if you happen to be in one when an attack happens, but experts say tunnels could also be dangerous if they are structurally compromised by a blast.

New Yorker Joe Carpenter emerged from a post office with a faded fallout shelter sign this week and admitted that he had never thought about what to do in the event of an incoming missile.

"I probably would just huddle with the masses and go along with the crowd, because I've never really considered it, " he said. "It's like everything else:Do we really ponder what's at the end of the road?"

© 2018 Associated Press. Alle rettigheder forbeholdes.