I lived in Middletown from 2 months old & I’m again a resident of Middletown. My entire family lived in Middletown then & still today.
During childhood I canoed the Susquehanna River & before the nuclear power plant construction we would stop on the island.
They went around town with loud speakers telling people to leave if they could
After high school my brother was a concrete inspector hired by TMI during its construction. It was his job to assure the concrete met construction standards for the job, but he was fired when he rejected a load not meeting specifications—so much for quality control.
I was living in Iowa City at the time of the accident, but my entire family was in Middletown. One sister went to her spouses’ family in Pittsburgh; brother went to northern PA, & other sister went to Iowa to stay with me. My parents stayed in Middletown.
When I called them to see how they were doing, my Mother said, “They went around town with loud speakers telling people to leave if they could; those who could not leave were asked to stay & help prevent looting. “We have pillows & blankets on the bed.” When I asked why, her answer was,”Just in case…”
I used the plan later developed by the area as a result of the “accident”.
One sister worked as a secretary at TMI, & my niece & her now husband also worked there after the accident. My tiny (4’10”) niece was employed to “clean up” & she was actually lowered into the chamber to obtain samples during post incident.
We, the family, were quite concerned about her reproductive health. (She did conceive 2 healthy children since). That nieces’ now husband also worked at TMI. He is now the administrator at a New York nuclear power plant.
When I taught at the University of Iowa nursing program Disaster Nursing, I used the plan later developed by the area as a result of the “accident”.
I am unsure if the town continues to distribute iodine doses to residents of Middletown, but they did so after the incident.
-C Gale