Seattle-Everett Refugee Encampment Number Three, more popularly known as "Camp Nowhere",[1] was a refugee camp established by the National Guard in the weeks after the Soviet Union dropped an atomic bomb between Seattle and Everett, Washington.[2]
Conditions in the camp were hard. Refugees subsisted on rations provided by the National Guard. Most people lived in tents. The National Guard and police patrolled and maintained order in the camp.[3] They even established a school for the children in the camp.[4] Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the government, the death toll at the camp was quite high; people who survived the initial atomic blast but still close succumbed to radiation poisoning, and even healthy people committed suicide out of despair. Mass graves around the camp filled up rather quickly.[5]
While the National Guard attempted to maintain semblances of normality, establishing schools for the children in the camp, for example,[6] people left as soon as they were able.[7]
References[]
|