Civil defense

Attn: Your Phone Might Start Screaming Today and That’s Okay

FEMA and the FCC are doing a test of emergency alert systems on TVs, radios, and cellphones.

The West’s Water Restriction Nightmare Is Just Beginning

Oakley, Utah placed a moratorium on any new construction projects that would tap into the city's water system.

California’s Drought Is So Bad, Farmers Are Ripping Up Almond Trees

The megadrought is taking its toll on farmers, and could change what they grow in California.

The Entire State of California Is in Drought—But the Impacts Are Just Beginning

California is in trouble. Drought has returned to the state in a major way, and bone-dry docks are just the tip of the devastating problems facing the state. Currently, 41 of California’s 58 counties are in a drought state of emergency, affecting approximately 30% of the state’s population. As we move into the summer, experts…

How Americans of the 1960s Really Felt About Nuclear Fallout Shelters

If you had to guess the percentage of American households that had a fallout shelter in the 1960s, what would you say? Fifty percent? Twenty-five percent? As low as 10 percent? In reality, just 1.4 percent of Americans had a nuclear fallout shelter in 1962. And the study that gave us that figure provides a…

Duck and Cover Chic: The 1956 Uniform For the End of the World

I was flipping through some old copies of the Sunday newspaper insert American Weekly (as one does) when I came across these amazing images from 1956. New uniforms for the ladies of civil defense! TV actress Harriet Hilliaird, best known for her role on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, is seen modeling the latest…

Civil Defense Window Display at Sage Allen Department Store in Hartford, Connecticut, 1956 [National Archives via National Archives Tumblr]

Dubai’s Turning Drones into Firefighters

It makes perfect sense. Burning buildings are very dangerous places for people to enter, so when there’s a fire that needs to be put out, why not recruit robots to do the dirty work? That’s exactly what Dubai Civil Defense is doing this year. The emergency management organization just bought 15 quadcopters that it plans…