A Day Called X: Film depicts Portland preparing for H-bomb attack in 1957 (video)
Portland took the wraps off its
$19.8 million emergency coordination center in Southeast Portland last week
. The new building will serve as the nerve center for city, state and federal emergency managers during times of emergency and disasters—be it floods, windstorm, snowstorm or earthquakes.
In the mid-1950s the major threat to the Portland and the U.S. was nuclear war. CBS Television took a look at Portland’s preparations in 1957 with a 27-minute long mini-documentary narrated by the actor Glenn Ford.
The film, ominously titled "A Day Called X," opens with an overhead shot of then-mayor Terry Schrunk striding purposefully into the old underground Kelly Butte Civil Defense Center—a bunker-like structure built into a hillside.
The center remained active up until the mid-1990s and was shut down and filled with dirt in 1999.
Above a bold-type disclaimer that “An Attack is Not Taking Place,” Schrunk says “Ladies and gentleman, you’ve heard the reports that enemy planes are approaching. In less than 3 hours, an H-bomb may fall over Portland.”
Despite being nearly 60 years, much of the coordination pieces that are in place now—weather experts, the American Red Cross, utilities, police, fire and medical representatives—were in place then.
In addition to detailing a city-wide evacuation (accomplished in 34 minutes!), the film is a great time capsule of the city in 1955. See if you can spot your neighborhood or street.