Modern Threat

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  Today's threat of attack on the United States and other Western nations comes not as much from nation-states but from terrorist organizations with no alliance to any country. These organizations are not capable of launching air attacks but instead use suicide bombers and car bombers to inflict damage.
  
  

Nature of Warfare

• The changing nature of warfare, which is now focused against terrorism, has meant that air raid procedures are sometimes ineffective. For instance, the London subway, once a haven against German bombers during World War II, was in 2005 the scene of a suicide bombing that killed 56 people.
  
  

Procedure Origins

• Many Britons and Americans remember the German bombing raids on British cities and the threat of Japanese attacks on California during World War II. After the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1939, air raid procedures were created.
  
  

Early Basic Plan

• Certain British school air-raid procedures remained in effect through World War II. Children were never to leave home without a gas mask. A child always had to have an identification label attached to clothing. If a child was on the way to school when an air raid sounded, the child was to seek a public shelter. Each school was required to have a shelter. Parents were discouraged from collecting children from school during a raid.
  
  

Extension of Plan

• Cold War-era fallout shelter symbols are still posted on buildings in U.S. cities.
  
  A variation of World War II-era air raid procedures was established during the Cold War. Schoolchildren were trained in "duck and cover" procedures: the school's air raid bell would ring and children would scramble underneath their desks in a crouching position with their hands clasped over their heads. This would have had little effect in the event of a nuclear attack.
  
  

Lessons Learned

• As the civilian populations of Afghanistan and Iraq have learned since 2001, few precautions can be taken in the event of a lightning strike missile attack of today's fighter planes. Drone missile attacks are becoming more common, particularly in Afghanistan, and casualties have been high. Yet duck and cover procedures, even with only minutes or seconds to prepare, can be an effective form of protection.
  
  

Today

• Most urban centers today have blast shelters and underground emergency operations centers to allow governments to continue operations in the event of an emergency. Water purification equipment, mobile decontamination facilities, temporary housing units and collapsible bridges are part of the emergency preparedness operations. Individuals can prepare against nuclear fallout by using potassium iodide tablets to help protect against radiation and by covering their mouth, nose and eyes.