At the time the accident at TMI occurred, I was a 9 year old living in Mechanicsburg, PA – but on that VERY day I was on an educational trip with my parents to Ocean City, NJ to collect seashells for a 3rd grade project.
“Where are you from in PA, they’ve got a big problem up that way.”
We began the trip home that afternoon by stopping at a gas station to fuel up for the trip. It was actually the gas station attendant making small talk that was our first exposure to the accident. We had been on the beach for hours so had seen no TV or heard any radio.
The attendant saw we had PA plates and said, “Where are you from in PA, they’ve got a big problem up that way.” He proceeded to tell us that there had been an accident at Three Mile Island. It was early news, they didn’t know how bad it was but this guy was definitely thinking the worst.
I do remember my mother starting to cry. My Dad quickly answered him, “My parents are in Middletown. We live about 20 miles from the Island” The attendant just shook his head.
I don’t think my Dad has ever driven faster in his whole life. We were scared at his speed but more scared that we’d be too late to help if they were evacuating.
As we got closer to PA the radio started sending emergency messages that scared me to death. We couldn’t get anywhere near my grandparents home in Middletown so we went back to our home. Thankfully phone lines were working and we discovered they were fine – at least as far as they knew. I remember them saying there were all kinds of sirens and emergency crews, but nobody really knew what to tell them. They also refused to leave. They figured if damage was done, it was too late anyway.
nobody knew exactly what was safe and what wasn’t
That night, and for several nights afterward, the Harrisburg stations carried updates late into the evening. My parents knew I was afraid but I guess they thought knowing the facts would help my fear and they let me stay up. It probably wasn’t the best choice.
Holding my cat and staring without blinking to WGAL I heard about something called a meltdown, they showed a map with circles on it. My grandparents were in the innermost circle. They talked about evacuations, radiation exposure and cooling towers. I didn’t sleep for days.
During the accident schools in the outer zones had very lenient leave policies but were still open. I went to Hampden Elementary in Mechanicsburg and a few of my friends had gone to stay with relatives but mostly everyone was there.
Because I continued to be fearful, and since nobody knew exactly what was safe and what wasn’t, my parents made the decision to pull me out of school. My mother drove me and my cat to live with my maternal grandparents in Pine Grove PA. They were not in the evacuation zone. My father opted to stay behind with our St. Bernard in case his parents needed to evacuate and he promised me they would make it out safely if needed.
a cat stuck in the glove compartment and me in the passenger’s seat crying
My poor mother, who hated interstate driving, made the long trip on I-81 to Schuylkill County with a cat stuck in the glove compartment and me in the passenger’s seat crying about my Dad, my dog and my best friend who had stayed behind. I was sure they would all die.
For ten days we lived in a 3 bedroom house with my 2 cousins, their parents, their cat and their dog plus my grandparents and their dog. My cousins lived in Linglestown so they too were in an evacuation ring.
You might have thought that would have been fun times – kids out of school in the middle of the year, but it wasn’t. Local news in Pine Grove wasn’t close enough to carry the detailed coverage from home and National News was just scary, they made it sound like the TMI area was another Hiroshima. We had no idea what was going on unless someone called and Grandma had a party line so it was often busy. We stayed for 10 days and then came home when things appeared to be OK.
For years afterward I cringed each time a “special news report” came on the TV
Problem was I wasn’t OK. Maybe they would call it PTSD these days, I don’t know. For years afterward I cringed each time a “special news report” came on the TV. Anytime I saw the steam rising from the cooling towers in the distance, it took me right back to those late night news sessions where people talked about what could happen if the thing didn’t stay contained.
I also have maintained a distrust of nuclear energy since that time. During college I had to face my fear to pass a science class which required a field trip to the Peach Bottom plant.
We had to go inside and see how the thing was set up. Nobody else in the class went through what I went through and they thought the Geiger counters and hazmat gear was funny.
As I stared into that cooling pool with those eerie blue rods all I could think was we had created a monster. Spent fuel rods we couldn’t dispose of, reactors that broke down, radiation that can maim and kill. I lived through that terror at the age of 9 all because of rods just like that.
I’m 49 now and I drive by TMI several times a year. My palms have stopped sweating but I still feel like I’m seeing a ghost of destruction. One time I circled the island while I was on a plane waiting to land at HIA. I wondered why in the world a nuclear power plant was so close to an airport. A plane crash isn’t likely to happen, but neither is a partial nuclear meltdown and we saw that.
So one day in 1979 did make a huge difference in this girl’s life. I do have to say though when that unforgettable day in September 2001 came I was prepared. I was a mother then with a 7 year old daughter. I did NOT let her sit in front of the TV watching “Special News Reports” or any of the all day coverage. I shared with her what she needed to know and that was it. That was the ONE good thing that came out of my experience.
Shawn