I’m from York and lived in York County in 1979. My husband (who is now deceased) was a Yorker, born-and-bred.
My husband and I saw “China Syndrome” the Sunday before the TMI accident. One benefit: we talked about what to do if we ever faced something like this, re: Peach Bottom or TMI.
we converged at my sister’s home in NJ and settled in for a few days away.
I was in Kutztown for my work, as the problems unfolded. My husband, who had covered the hearings to authorize opening Peach Bottom as a journalist and student, advised me not to come home that night. With the confusion from GPU, he decided to check his younger brother out of the high school and drive to Washington, DC where he had been on the staff of Senator John Culver of Iowa until summer of 1976. He was able to touch base with the staff and hear about the hydrogen bubble from the science advisor to Sen. Culver, before it was reported in central PA. The staff encouraged him to stay away until more was known. So, as we had planned after the movie Sunday, we converged at my sister’s home in NJ and settled in for a few days away.
As a bank trainer, I was hearing that the Middletown branch was overwhelmed with folks closing their safe deposit boxes, out of concern that they would not be able to return and get the contents.
the mass evacuation plans were crazily unrealistic.
My husband and I had just applied for a mortgage to purchase our first home (through my bank employer) in York, and as I was working in the Kutztown area branches to help with their changeover to the bank’s procedures after a recent merger, I received a call from the Mortgage Dept. declining our mortgage based on price comparisons in the neighborhood. We put things on hold, trying to decide if the York area was still going to be habitable. (We ultimately bought that home, where I still live.)
My husband’s knowledge of the nuclear power industry was extensive due to his studies as a journalist and science-savvy reader, so we had more insight into the meaning of the events as they were disclosed. That didn’t change the anxiety of phone calls with my boss and co-workers who chose not to evacuate. As we discussed with some of those who were also friends, the mass evacuation plans were crazily unrealistic. If they didn’t make a move early, there was little likelihood of anything like an orderly mass evacuation.