Very much red scare era. People were scared that Russia was going to attack at any moment.
What’s silly is that due the horrific nature of nuclear weapons you probably would not survive no matter what you did. The only chance would be if you were on the edge of the blast radius.
it’s all about damage mitigation. you want to be away from the worst overpressure and glass, then, in a part of the structure likely to remain standing. you’ll probably still be thrown around and hurt, but reducing the kids who died from flying glass and covering their head will mitigate a lot of potential trauma.
now, depending on the winds and what kind of weapon was employed, mitigation may be silly, but you always train to do as much as is practical.
Also I think these drills - growing up - were actually smoke breaks for the teachers.
Very much red scare era. People were scared that Russia was going to attack at any moment.
What’s silly is that due the horrific nature of nuclear weapons you probably would not survive no matter what you did. The only chance would be if you were on the edge of the blast radius.
Gives people a sense of control over something uncontrollable.
it’s all about damage mitigation. you want to be away from the worst overpressure and glass, then, in a part of the structure likely to remain standing. you’ll probably still be thrown around and hurt, but reducing the kids who died from flying glass and covering their head will mitigate a lot of potential trauma.
now, depending on the winds and what kind of weapon was employed, mitigation may be silly, but you always train to do as much as is practical.
Also I think these drills - growing up - were actually smoke breaks for the teachers.