OCR Text |
Show This means that there is an urgent ur-gent need to continue to build civil defense readiness and capability into existing governments at all levels. ' In this respect, the 1957 theme j of National Civil Defense Week-Government Week-Government in Emergency is! most appropriate. Sept. 15 thru 21 Set as Civil Defense Week The White House has designated I " September 15-21 as the second annual an-nual National Civil Defense Week. In last year's observance, every State and Territory participated. Federal departments. State and municipal governments took the opportunity to show their state of civil defense readiness. The 1957 observance, with the theme "Government in Emergencies Emergen-cies a chance for self - evaluation, a period of determining just how much progress has been made in a year's time in their preparedness prepared-ness for disaster. In the past 12 months, there have been great advancements in weapons wea-pons development. It is no secret that an all-out attack on the United States would: destroy not only a great number of cities, but also inflict heavy damage on rural areas, and spread radioactive fallout fall-out to contaminate thousands of square miles While 'this is a most gruesome picture, it is' not complete unless one were to consider the natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes and tornadoes which occur almost daily to tax fhe resources of government. gov-ernment. Each year about 400 small and large disasters are reported re-ported in the United State. Man-made disasters and natural natur-al disasters are fundamentally alike. al-ike. And basically, they can best bet met by strengthening the organizations or-ganizations we now have on hand. |