13 when the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency accidentally issued a false cell alarm that sent people scrambling, even putting their children in storm drains for protection. Hawaiians thought doomsday had arrived Jan. And one of Lafayette’s few remaining bomb shelters - restored by its owner - is more of an attraction for party guests than a place to ride out an attack. Unlike the 1960s, when Americans built fallout shelters and staged nuclear safety drills, Louisiana has no strategy to respond to a nuclear attack. It might be far-fetched for 2018, but with tensions between the United States and North Korea, the possible launch of nuclear weapons, intentionally or by accident, has been back in the news.

This hypothetical scenario was played out during Operation Alert 1961, an exercise to test civil defense readiness of state, parish and local governments and emergency agencies during the 1960s nuclear crisis with the Soviet Union. In less than 24 hours, radioactive fallout covers the entire state.

Survivors flee toward places such as Lafayette, untouched by the attacks. Watch Video: Backyard bomb shelter in LafayetteĪ series of bombs, most of them small nuclear weapons, detonate over Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport and England Air Force Base in Alexandria, as well as Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Lake Charles.

BOMB SHELTER FALLOUT SYMBOL