Map of Ground Burst at 63rd and Kedzie Ave
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This is Only a Test
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The city imagined and rehearsed for atomic destruction.
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"You have heard the sirens...enemy planes are on their way to attack American cities, including Chicago.” This message from Mayor Richard J. Daley to Chicagoans was the beginning of one of many rehearsals civil defense officials held to imagine and plan for the destruction of the city.
State and local planners wrote detailed scenarios for atomic attacks that included initial warning, shelter and evacuation protocols, rescue and medical responses, casualty counts, travel and food distribution for survivors, and finally “restitution of normal conditions.”
Operation Alert was an annual event that saw mock air raids in metropolitan areas nationwide. In Chicago’s 1958 drill a 10 megaton bomb hit the ground at 63rd and Kedzie Ave, leveling much of the south and west sides of the city. These reenactments were often upbeat, praising preparedness and predicting survival even as they acknowledged the potential for the total annihilation of Chicago and its inhabitants. Documents from Operation Alert 1958 show portions of the city unaffected by a direct hit even as they laid out plans for special elections to replace officials who were expected to die.
