The Impact of Disasters on Readiness for War

The Office of Defense Mobilization is essentially a planning and co-ordinating agency in the Executive Office of the President. Its chief purpose is to organize and focus governmental activity at all levels to the end that production in an area struck by disaster-natural or man-made-can be quickly restored. This requires techniques for assessing damage and facilities for promoting a rapid resumption of production. The 1955 floods in the northeastern states and California provided a test of the effectiveness of civil defense preparations and caused them to work out new procedures. The author discusses the specific actions taken at that time, the Disaster Readiness Plan since prepared, and the relation of that plan to planning against the disaster of thermonuclear attack.