Surveying Buildings to Become Atomic Bomb Fallout Shelters in the ’80’s

I was a FEMA Shelter Survey Technician for the summers of 1981 and 1982, as a college engineering major at ages 18 and 19, “surveying commercial and public buildings for their applicability as a fallout shelter in case of a natural or manmade disaster.”

That was how I introduced myself at each commercial or public building I stopped in at.

It was the “manmade” part of the intro that some of the people were taken aback by — such as — in my case — Abbie Hoffman the famed hippie leader, when I stumbled into his Save the River office in Clayton, NY one day thinking it was a real estate office. More on that later.

The Work

You got the job as a Shelter Survey Technician by getting a high score on a finals test after taking a self-study course that FEMA orchestrated. You had to be an engineering or architect major to take the course.

In the summer of 1981 I was assigned, along with 5 other guys, to NY State in the towns of Horseheads, Ithaca, Cortland, and Olean. In the summer of 1982 I was part of a different 6-person team, which included one gal, assigned to the Adirondacks, including the Thousand Islands area towns of Clayton NY and Alexandria Bay. There was another 6-person team assigned to western NY state. And there were other teams assigned to 6 or so other regions of the country — including California, etc.

Each Shelter Survey Technician was assigned a different section of the area, and we went out on our own each day in our General Services Administration (GSA) auto. We lived together, and made a GS 4 pay scale, which was almost doubled by a $23 a day per-diem sum to allow us to pay for lodging and food.

We would visit every public and commercial building in the area, introduce ourselves, show our ID card, examine the building, take a picture of it, then go back to the local Civil Defense office and write up a report on the buildings we’d surveyed.

The work we did was to augment the original work done in the early 1960’s, when Fallout Shelters were identified, and all Fallout Shelter signs were put up.

The Training Materials & Exam

The training materials consisted of several manuals that were mailed to you for self-paced, at-home study. Each manual contained material on how to survey a building to determine its construction design, size, and importantly — how much air flow it could support in its basement.

There were self-study tests for each of 10 sections. You filled in these tests and mailed them in. At the end there was a final. The final exam was all that really mattered — there were about 40 questions as I recall, and it was later revealed that you pretty much had to get a 100 on the final test to get the job.

The GSA Auto

The job started on June 1st. I had requested NY area and got NY area — so I was told to report to the Jacob Javits Federal Building in downtown Manhattan. I lived on Staten Island so it was a quick commute over — but most of the 11 other kids came in from all over; many from Long Island or New Jersey but also many from other states — from Pennsylvania to Colorado to North Dakota or California.

The first week was spent in NYC where the regional FEMA management team — two guys, Michael Dabney and another fellow — an Irish guy in his 60’s I think his name was Roger — went over in detail what we had to do on the job.

We got badges and were assigned a General Services Administration (GSA) Auto. Most were AMC Concords or AMC Hornets.

Imagine being an 18-year-old college kid, and being given a car and per diem living expenses.

The AMC Concords and Hornets we were given were light (2000 lbs) cars with a 6-cylindar engine which made them pretty quick.

During summer #2, we all had Concords except for John Pytel, who had a pickup truck — I forget which make and model.

The Black & White Polaroid Camera

We were also outfitted with a Polaroid land camera that took black & white pictures. We also were given capsules of a chemical ‘finisher’ that had to be spread over the photo after it came out of the camera to protect it. That chemical did a good job — as the pictures in this article attest (except for the next one which shows the camera itself).

One of the most impressive photographs I have ever taken in my life was with the Polaroid — in Summer # 2 as a Shelter Survey Technician (1982), riding with a girlfriend Lori in the passenger seat — we saw a guy on a wacky hi-seat bicycle on the streets of Watertown NY — I drove past him at about 30 MPH, yanked out the bulky Polaroid, and in one motion took a picture of him with one hand pointed at the passenger side window as we drove past — absolutely nailing it. She was impressed.

What a camera.

The Survey Reports

It didn’t take too long before everyone realized that there were 3 or 4 typical building types in the area — and that once you surveyed one, the others of that type would yield an extremely similar result. You would just need to figure out air to the basement, which would vary based on how many basement windows the building had.

And so 2 months or so into the job some of the Shelter Survey Technicians started doing “drive by’s” on some of the buildings. All you really needed was the photo of the building — and you could survey it to a pretty accurate degree. It was important to know how many toilets it had, because that might vary and you wouldn’t know that from the picture. But you could guestimate.

Working Out of the Local Civil Defense Office

We would develop the survey’s for each building in the local Civil Defense headquarters — which was our main station. And of course there were no computers, so everything was done with written hand, rulers, and white out.

 

 

Working Virtually

As Shelter Survey Technicians we took pride in the surveys we did, and put in much precise detail — even with the occasional “driveby’s” that some did later on.

There was a pressure to complete the surveys of buildings in our area by a certain time frame, so that the group could move to another area. We were allowed to do survey’s at ‘home’ — where ‘home’ meant whatever living quarters the 6-person team had secured. For me and the teams I was on, ‘home’ was several places my first summer (see below), and for the entirety of the second summer — a cabin in the Adirondacks (also below).

The Reactions of Locals to Fallout Shelter Surveying

In my first summer as a Shelter Survey Technician, we started out in Horseheads, NY — and the local TV station did a report on us and how we — a team from FEMA — would be surveying all the commercial and public buildings in the area for their applicability as fallout shelters in case of a nuclear disaster.

And if such an occurrence happened, a few hundred thousand people from NYC would be relocated to the area and they needed to know what buildings to put them in.

The 3-Mile Island accident near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania had just happened 2 years earlier and was a fresh reality in everyone’s mind.

So you can imagine the news report alarmed many in town — and some people didn’t give us the warmest reception that summer of 1981 in Horseheads, NY.

Getting on TV

The TV reporter interviewed our manager in front of a building that we were surveying — and for benefit of the camera, we were asked to use a tape measurer to show some sort of action. So me and another guy — I think it was Bob Noelsch — held either end of a long tape measurer and measured the building — the most retarded thing ever. But it was my first time on TV — and last — I’ve not been on TV again ’til this day.

Positive & Negative Reactions

By the first week of the first summer my intro became automatic, “I’m with the Federal Emergency Management Agency working in conjunction with the local Department of Civil Defense to survey all commercial and public buildings in the area for their applicability as a fallout shelter in case of a natural or manmade disaster.”

Most people were fine with that, and helpfully allowed us to survey the building. Some got hyped up by the spiel — in fact one guy asked me if he could get more Federal money to build another fallout shelter as he’d done in the early 1960’s, the last time the program was run.

Meeting Abbie Hoffman — & Getting Thrown Out of Save the River Office

In my second summer as a Shelter Survey Technician, based in Watertown NY and surveying the town of Clayton, NY — I stumbled into Abbie Hoffman’s “Save the River” office in Clayton, NY one summer morning thinking it was a real estate office.

As I went thru my introduction my eyes glanced up at the big map of the St Lawrence River on the wall behind the main counter, with the big words “SAVE THE RIVER” when I instantly realized I’d made a mistake.

The fellow behind the counter – a pretty angry young man of about 30 with jet black hair – looked at me in disbelief and asked “What did you just say?! Could you repeat that? Abbie – Abbie – come up here and listen to this.”

I had just learned about Abbie Hoffman in about June of that year – by happenstance. I read an article in the newspaper about how he was a leader in the hippie movement, an anti-war enthusiast who had been on the lam for years and turned up leading a charge to stop the shipment via truck of nuclear waste across bridges over the St Lawrence River. He seemed like an ok guy to me. A heroic figure even.

And so here came my new hero from the back of the office – a ruffled looking guy in loose shirt and blue jeans in his 40’s.

“Repeat what you just said to me,” demanded the angry young man. Now I was getting really nervous, but managed to get thru my intro again.

Abbie took it with a grain of salt. He asked me how old I was. I said 19. He said, “19 – you see what they’re doing, brainwashing these kids?”

As angry as the angry young man was, Abbie was super nice and friendly. What a nice friendly guy. They told me to read this book, which they had on the counter – which wasn’t “Steal this Book” – Abbie’s seminal book, but his second book, they told me.

Any case I left – I kept eyeing the back of the store to figure out how many toilets they might have – because my job was of course to survey the building, and I had a job to do. That meant plotting down if it had a basement, what type of walls the foundation was made of, what kind of ventilation there was in the basement, and of course, how many toilets the building offered.

I left without asking them this important question – and as I stopped by my car across the street — I pulled out my Polaroid and turned around — only to see them standing in front of the office side-by-side with arms folded. I took the picture anyway.

I WISH I STILL HAD THAT PICTURE.

Several years later — in the late 1980’s — Abbie became a regular call-in interview on the Howard Stern show on the radio, where he revealed he was gay. I wondered if that had something to do with his kindness toward me. But I didn’t get that vibe, and maybe he was pulling Howard’s leg as he was married twice. He generally seemed to be a really friendly guy and I was really saddened when I learned of his death some years later, of suicide — although I’ve read there are some who are very suspicious of that ending.

In digging for a picture of Abbie Hoffman in the early 1980’s — I found the ‘angry young man’ that I encountered — Rick Spencer — co-founder of Save the River. Of course! Rick was probably not an ‘angry young man’ — I just made him so that morning.

Rick is in this video — he looks exactly as I remember him, except his black hair of 1982 has been replaced by grey hair of 40 years later — as has mine!

Fallout Shelters from the 1960’s Program

We occasionally ran into — aka had to survey — existing Fallout Shelters from the early 1960’s — like the one at the Watertown High School. One of the guys on our team — I think it was Thomas Beck — surveyed it, and the big thing was how to replace/replenish the food supplies that had been sitting there for 20 years. I forget what the resolution was.

The Living Conditions

So imagine a group of 6 college-age kids spending the summer together as a team, living together to keep down costs, and each one going out individually each day with their GSA auto to survey buildings in their area.

We all ate dinner together. We were a family.

The first summer, there were two older guys in the group — Bob Noelsch from Long Island, who was 29, and another guy who was 27 and married and sending home the money from the job. He lived away from us. But Bob Noelsch was our leader, and arranged our rental locations.

Living in the Back of a Red Cross Building in Horseheads, NY

The first place we stayed was in the back of wooden colonial building in the heart of suburban Elmira, NY — which had been converted into a Red Cross Facility. There were about 4 women in their 3o’s or 40’s that worked there — and we slept in a back room on cots.

That was crazy; we did it for a few weeks and then Bob found out about a cabin that we could rent in nearby Newtown Battlefield State Park — up on a big hill.

Living in a Cabin in Newtown Battlefield State Park

So the 5 of us lived in the cabin most of the summer — Bob, Harold Faulkner from Long Island, Martin with a long Polish last name, a kid from Colorado who used to spend his time back home on the mountains drinking Coors — I forget his first name — and me.

We had a phenomenal time. It was barbeque and beer every night. The cabin had bunk beds and cots — just enough room to house 5 guys. There were common showers in a building in the park.

There was also a phone booth in the park that I would walk to once a week to call home with a pocketful of change. One time I was sprayed by a skunk walking over to the phone, and when I got back to the cabin everyone bailed.

Living on a Farm in Cortland, NY

Then we spent a couple of weeks surveying buildings in Cortland NY, and we rented a farm house. One time I stayed at the farm house instead of going into the office — I may have been sick — and learned first hand that roosters don’t just crow one time in the morning to wake everyone up — they crow all fucking morning long until about midday.

Living in a Frat House at Cornell, University

Then we spent two nights at a Frat House at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. That was my first time in a Frat House — a very foreign experience for me as a student at a City University commuter school (College of Staten Island). Was wonderful.

Living Above a Bar in Olean, NY

And then we finished the summer surveying buildings out by Olean, NY — and Bob got us two apartments on the 2nd floor over a bar in Olean. Bob, Martin and I were in one room; Harold and the kid from Colorado in the other.

Now that was a crazy experience because there was a young couple renting the room next to us, and the walls were paper thin — so we heard her orgasms loud and clear on many a night — and also their crazy, crazy fights, where she would be begging at the door for an hour to come back into the room. Imagine 3 young guys in a tight hotel room trying to sleep with a woman having loud orgasms next door. And of course the bar had live bands so it was noisy as shit until 1 or 2am on Friday’s and Saturday’s.

Living in a Cabin in the Adirondacks by Croghan, NY

And then came summer #2 — 1982 — a team of 6 of us assigned to the Adirondacks based out of Watertown NY. We had a great team, and lived like a family: Arne Moilan from South Dakota; John Pytel from Pennsylvania; Sharon Stroker from Seneca Falls, NY; Thomas Beck an architecture major from New Jersey; Rick — I forget his last name — from Arkansas, and me, from Staten Island.

I believe it was Tom and Rick who found the cabin — way out in the Adirondack woods an hour east of Watertown, near the town of Croghan, NY.

You had to go thru a maze of a dirt road through the forest to get to it. It was on a lake. The people who owned the cabin next door owned it, and rented it. They were a family — a man and woman in their 50’s, and their 20-year old son. They said that in the wintertime they would use snowshoes to get to the cabin — a mile walk from the main road (through the maze).

The cabin was rustic as rustic can be. It had one bedroom, and two lofts. It was on a lake. Sharon got the bedroom; we guys slept in the lofts. There was a kitchen area, and a fireplace.

Rick was a great cook — and introduced us to his Cajun spices and Jalapeno sauces.

It was a wonderful summer with 5 great people — we were family.

Making Friends with Locals

And we made friends with the locals. John Pytel and I kind of dated two girls from the Civil Defense office — the gal on the left I forget her name, and to the right is Lori.

And then in the town of Croghan — where we played pickup basketball on the outdoor court — we made friends with all the local kids, including Kelly, who wanted out of Croghan so bad.

 

Visits

At one point in the summer of 1982 some of the team went out West one weekend to visit the team in Buffalo.

On another weekend my sister came up from NYC to visit.

The End of the Summer

When the job ended at the end of August, we drove our GSA autos back to NYC to return them at the Jacob Javits Building. In summer #2, 1982 — John Pytel, who had a GSA pickup truck — and I drove back together and he stayed at my house for a day before heading back to Pennsylvania.

Unused Pictures of Surveyed Buildings in Watertown NY

Epilog

I was happy to find Arne Moilan on Facebook a bunch of years ago. I’ve not been able to find any of the other people mentioned above — except — while writing this article found out that our old manager Michael Dabney owns and runs a BMW Forum since 2001 — bully for him!

One of these days I plan to drive up to Croghan, NY and see if I can navigate the maze and find that cabin.

Several years ago I bought on ebay an original, lead-paint Fallout Shelter sign and have it afixed to a basement office wall in our house.

Feedback

Finding FEMA Shelter Survey Technicians on the internet is a very hard thing to do. You would think there would be a bigger community. I can’t find anybody — maybe one person has it on their resume on LinkedIn.

If you were a FEMA Shelter Survey Technician — please provide feedback and experiences below!