Early morning March 28 1979 my son was delivered at home by midwives. We lived in my great grandparents former house about 35 miles down river from TMI on the banks of the Susquehanna in York County. This house dated from the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition having never been updated with either indoor plumbing or electricity. As adherents to the modern homesteading movement these conditions suited our belief in environmental stewardship as well as forgoing conveniences. Coincidentally I had recently been circulating a national petition against the use of nuclear power as a dangerous source of electric production. I was also keenly aware of the York Daily Record’s prescient article by Jim Hill about a potential local nuclear catastrophe published shortly before the real event. That fateful morning
About 10 am our neighbor, Jay who was working then at TMI stopped by to tell us about what had happened upon his arrival at work. I talked to him from the second floor bedroom window as he came down the long driveway. I asked him not to come in to see the new baby fearing he may have been contaminated by as yet unknown amounts of radiation. Later he told me that workers who had just arrived at TMI had been ordered into a large meeting room and told to wait there until further instructions were given as more information became available. Jay was looking for a seat when he happened to notice a technician’s geiger counter with the needle “going totally off-scale”. He told the tech who hurriedly informed one the “suits” present. The order was then given for all the contract workers to leave immediately and not return until further notice.
“an area the size of Pennsylvania could be left uninhabitable”
Back at the homestead we kept an ear on the radio for any new developments up river.Local news reports were sketchy about what was going on. When we heard 2 days later the governor had expanded the evacuation zone for young children and pregnant women from a 5 to 10 mile radius from the plant we knew it was time to leave. An ever increasing wider evacuation could lead to widespread panic and jammed roads. My family’s safety was imminently in danger. Time blurred as my wife and I grabbed a few essentials for us and our other two kids 4 and 2 staying at Grandma’s in Lancaster. Like a whirlwind we gathered up those two, briefly explaining we going to visit Aunt Kathy and Uncle Paul north of New York City for awhile. In our haste I had not bothered to call my sister to assure she was home and willing to take us in. Didn’t matter we were part of the TMI refugee asylum seekers. Fate didn’t count, only safety and survival. This is not an exaggeration. On that 5 hour drive we had a realization if the accident degenerated to meltdown conditions and as the 1975 NRC WASH 1400 Report stated “an area the size of Pennsylvania could be left uninhabitable” in a breach of containment accident we may never be able to return home. The car radio picked up Philly and New York stations that provided more information than we received locally adding to our relief we were making the right decision to leave.
Looking back I have to contrast those feelings of dread and fear to now when I blithely drive by the thousands of benign solar and wind installations without a single assault style armed security force needed to produce power cleanly and safely.
We showed up at Kathy and Paul’s with a most welcome greeting from them of “We thought we might see you. Stay as long as you need to.” The new baby was a hit with their neighbors and friends as were the rest of us TMI refugees now collectively known to a worldwide television audience. Our stay was for 10 days as events escalated and then de-escalated to a point we could return to the ongoing worst nuclear accident in America.
Today my son and his wife are proud public school teachers with 2 children of their own and share a passion for the environment.
Kip