Conducting a Neighborhood Civil Defense Meeting Pt 1

[Petemonster62]

Also I read somewhere that the Civilan Observer Corps who watched the skies & reported sitings of aircraft by hotline phone to a military base starting in 1950 also started watching & reporting tornadoes & other severe weather around 1955 until 1959 when the program was cancelled because the aircraft radar warning system was considered complete.

[Petemonster62]

One isoated exception; there is a film on YOUTUBE " Tornado " from 1956 with a classroom scene of weather spotters receiving training. One of the spotters is sporting a CD arm band.

[atomicfilmsite]

@Petemonster62

Well I certainly must thank you for tipping me off to that clip, it was an interesting film. All it would take to make the transition to a nuclear civil defense film would be to change the word tornado to bomb, every other element was identical. Fascinating Stuff!

[Petemonster62]

Ah yes, the combination filmstrip projector/phonograph that was a classroom fixture for Baby Boomers! Originally trained to help in the event of an atomic attack, the civil defense volunteer proved invaluable during natural disasters; WCCO-AM radio's recorded account of the tornadoes that struck the Minneapolis/St.Paul area on 5/06/1965 have pleas for civil defense volunteers to meet & mobilize at fire stations. Many volunteer fire fighters also did double duty as civil defense members.

[atomicfilmsite]

@Petemonster62

That's very true.  It's interesting that, except for a few notable exceptions, most civil defense films didn't really exploit the similarities between preparedness for an atomic attack and a natural disaster until the late 1960's and early 1970's at which point it became the focus of most plots.