Mead & Hunt – Fallout Frenzy

As a first step in establishing its National Fallout Shelter Program, the Office of Civil Defense (redesignated in 1972 as the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency), instituted the National Fallout Shelter Survey in late 1961.  The survey’s purpose was to identify large buildings and other facilities – such as mines, caves and tunnels – that would protect citizens from fallout radiation in case of a nuclear disaster.  These areas were licensed and posted as public fallout shelters and many were stocked with federally procured supplies of water, food and medical, sanitation, and radiation-monitoring kits.

Mead & Hunt was hired to conduct the surveys in southern Wisconsin.  According to former Mead & Hunt president Leo Bussan, the fallout shelter surveys began during a significant economic lull.  John Korfmacher and Kenneth Tuhus were selected by Mead & Hunt to attend the First Training Course (Indoctrination) for Fallout Protection at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, and a two-week Shelter Survey Technical Training course at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Any company wanting to use its building as a fallout shelter needed to apply to the government for a permit.  Mead & Hunt’s job was to investigate the proposed sites to determine if they met the requirements of such a shelter.  Under contract with the U.S. Navy, 9th Naval District, Mead & Hunt surveyed nine counties in southwest and south-central Wisconsin in early 1962.  The staff selected 1,700 masonry and concrete buildings and other facilities, including service tunnels, mines, and root cellars, as potential shelters.  With its relatively large population, Dane County had nearly 50 percent (845) of the potential shelters.