Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1961-10-15
SHELTERS
Caves, Vaults Safeguard Records
Of Areas Wor-Worried Companies

breaks out, but so far hasn't
decided which one.
One Of the most novel APP
peoaches is being used BY
Washington Gas Light Co.,
which maintains a mobile
trailer to house some records.
In an attack, the trailer could
double as an emergency COM
pany headquarters, officials
say. Duplicates of other rec
ords are kept in homes Of COM
,pany executives living at re-
mote corners Of Maryland and
Virginia, a policy dating from
World War II.
Acacia Mutual Life Insur-
ance Co., with home offices
here, sends vital records to a
Marshall (Va0 bank. Poto-
mac Electric Power Co. uses
its own branch offices in q IS
mile radius around Washington
to store central records.
Stored Underground
Capital City Savings Il Loan
Association at 2010 Rhode Is
land avenue NE. has been
storing many records under
gound TO the last yea.
ave realized that if anything
happened, Washington would
be hit first" Jack Riley, execu-
tive vice president and treasur-
err explained. But we could put
records back together very
easily with our present arrange
ment."
Capital City stores the micro
filmed records at a limestone
cave operated by National Stor-
age Corp. in a non-target area
in the northern Pennsylvania :.
hills. Every four to six weeks
National Capital takes a new
bundle of film to the cave to
keep records current.
The National Storage cave
is located some 225 feet below
the earth's surface. The sole
entrance is through a three
ton steel gate guarded "a hours
a day. Dehumidifiers assure
climate control underground.
Cave Man-Made
The cave is man-made. 1t
was slowly carved out during
a 50-year period by the U. S.
Steel Corp. which used the
limestone in steelmaking. Ac-
tually the huge cavity extends
for 1000 acres below ground.
National Storage bought 80
acres, according to Henry F.
Hurley, local representative.
You can put anything there
from an envelope q cents per
day. to your own company
president. For special rates. an
emergency operational head
quarters" with complete living
facilities is available for what ;
National Storage calls key I
MANAGEMENT personnel"
Other Washington customers
of the cave include the Eastern
Building and Loan Association |
and the Civil Service Commits /
sion. ID
Civil Service estimates about
Is million records on personnel
are in the cave. A staff of As /
employees work full time at the ,
site keeping them in order. To -,
retrieve a record, the Commits ,
sion operates a teletype to the /
cave, and box loads are sent
to Washington daily. Il
Other Facilities
Uncle Sam has other facili-
ties, of course, for squirreling ;
away important papers. The
Defense Department spent an
estimated $22 million digging
an underground Pentagon in
northern Maryland to store {
records. Il
Underground Vaults & Stor-
age, Inc, which operates a 128-
acre cavern in mined-out por-
tons of a salt mine in Kansas,
says it has had half a dozen
enquiries from Washington
savings institutions. John B.
Fisher, local representative, ad-
mits business was slow in July
and August, but in the last ,
six weeks interest has jumped ,
sharply"
Local firms admit the con-
Germ over civil defense prompt
ed them to 60 underground.
Capital City Savings and Loan,
for example, had been putting
its records on microfilm for a
decade, but until 1860 was con-
tent to store them in an above
ground vault in Washington.
Even If the city got hit by
ordinary bombs, instead Of
nuclear one, the papers might
have been destroyed" Mr..
Riley said.
Savings officials visiting the
Pennsylvania cave may find
some attractive women custo-
mers there bent on a similar
mission. The Business and Pro-
fessional Women's Federation
at 20l2 Massachusetts, avenue
NV, also keeps documents
concerning its $500 clubs
safely underground.