The Nation - News from July 9, 1986

The ability of the nation’s civil defense to deal with nuclear attack is “low and declining,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Congress. “There are critical deficiencies at both the state and local levels,” the federal agency, created to deal with disaster planning, said. Many states and hundreds of local governments lack a wide variety of the equipment and planning needed to survive an attack, the agency said in a report. The study offered no recommendations.