I was attending college at Penn State Harrisburg right across the river in Middletown during the meltdown.
My parents lived within 5 miles.
Scary time for those of us living nearby. If I remember correctly, the city of Harrisburg sounded the civil defense sirens which we thought was the signal to evacuate the area.
Pregnant women were being told to evacuate within a couple mile radius. Lots of misinformation.
I remember president Carter visited the reactor control center and I guess since he had a nuclear engineering degree that was supposed to project calm to the nearby residents.
Scary time.
David