The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1960-01-15
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NucIeur War In ST. Louis One Year LATER

to mention food. Well, we did what
we could.
was at County Hospital when the
moment came. County and ST. Vim
cents were the only hospitals in the
entire ST. Louis area that remained
in action. All other hospitals includ-
ing our two great medical centers
were in the zone of total destruction.
st. Joseph's in Kirkwood stood up,
but was heavily damaged in the fire
that ragged through the area. don't
remember when the first casualties
began to arrive-we were too busy
moving patients downstairs and try
ing to cover the broken windows. We
were handicapped by lack of light.
There was an auxiliary power supply,
of course, but we hesitated to draw
ON it because we suspected, right
away, that Union Electric wasn't
likely to operate again in our time.
The first victims to arrive were
some youngsters from Clayton High
School. Caught out of doors, they had
sustained terrible burns. Three of
them who had been standing near a
wall had been hit by the bouncing
back" of the pressure wave from the
wall; they were already bleeding
from the lungs. In few minutes
more, people were pouring in-more
burns, injuries from flying glass and
falling masonry, even broken heads
and limbs from the powerful wind
that had picked people up and
smashed them against walls and trees.
SUPPLIES GIVING OUT
We worked feverishly, but it was
like trying to bail out lake with a
teacup. Our supplies gave out in a
matter of hours. The phones were
dead, but from what we could learn
from those victims who were able to
talk coherently, we knew that we
could expect no help from outside. By
evening we couldn't even get any
more people indoors, where they
would have had some protection from
The lethal fallout. In the ST. Louis
area. more than half million people
lied that first day.
The next two days were more hor-
'ible than anything. any novelist has
ever imagined. Our supplies of OPT
ties exhausted, we could do nothing |
20 quiet the screams of the burned |
md mangled patients who lay all
lround us. We didn't even have dress
ngs to cover their torn and scared |
lesh. The piles of bodies rose higher
for a while it seemed that we
hould all be buried under the heaps
f dead.
On the fourth day detail of sol
iers arrived, equipped with special
uits to protect them from fallout.
somehow they managed to dispose
f the corpses. A little later the state
olice brought US two truckloads of
AIMED food, though we were not to
ee anything like bread or fresh milk
or months. Actually demands on our
God stores were not very heavy, be-
ause so many of our patients were
nable to eat. We had little chance
f feeding them intravenously.
SICKNESS
Cases of radiation sickness were
in by the second day. We
aw very few victims of massive ex-
osure-5, 700 RAIDS or more-because
ley didn't live long enough to be
rought in. Very quickly however we
ere getting people who had been
Sposed to 1,000-1,50O RAIDS. Such /.
eople suffered severe gastrointestin-
damage. After day or so, their {
ausea, vomiting, and fever subsidized.
ut then returned with greater in
.nsity, and death followed within
bout week. Together with the vic !
ms of burns, whom we were just :
1able to deal with, the victims of :,
sdiation sickness made up the great :
part of the more than 100000 in
re greater ST. Louis area who sur !
we'd the attack but succumbed not :,
ng afterwards.
In another day or SO we were see F
G the largest group of people hurt h
: radiation, people who had absorbed n
)O-1, 900 RAIDS. Such patients showed b
r.io11s oa strointacfina1 diSorda,e OF