![]() The men were restricted to one quart of water a day and were fed the simplest food that would allow people to survive in underground shelters for three weeks. Twenty-four prisoners were selected from a group of volunteers to participate in a fallout shelter diet test conducted by University of Iowa staff. The Civil Defense Administration of Iowa conducted experiments involving inmates at the state penitentiary at Fort Madison. It was used to store items that could be moved out quickly during an emergency. The shelter accommodated 200 people who would alternate between the 100 cots and 100 chairs. There were cooking and sanitation facilities and decontamination showers. ![]() It had baffles and sealed doors, a 195-foot well, and a generator to operate lights, ventilation and pumps. The walls were 8-inch reinforced concrete with the portion above ground protected by a planter. Its difference from ordinary construction was that its ceiling was reinforced 16-inch thick concrete, supported by six 12-inch square concrete pillars on footings about five feet square and 14 inches thick. The 50x70 shelter was an addition to the company's original building. The first one in Iowa was built in 1961 in the basement of Concrete Materials and Construction Co. ![]() ![]() That may have been one of the reasons the Kennedy administration advocated large-scale, community shelters over backyard bunkers. There were others, but the owners didn't want the existence of their shelters to be known by the public. By October 1961, Eastern Iowa had approximately one known shelter for every 7,000 people. Larger population centers and military installations were considered to be the most likely enemy targets, so rural construction of fallout shelters was encouraged. Civil defense efforts went into high gear after the Cuban missile crisis in 1961. ![]()
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