[Civil Defense Map of Fayette County, GA]

Civil Defense planning in Georgia shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This newspaper map of Fayette County in north central Georgia was published locally by the Fayette County News as part of the December 20th, 1962 edition. The text in the lower left states that it “shows all the new roads and all the houses throughout the county”, in addition to transportation routes, geographic features, and important buildings.

A brightly colored advertisement for Coca-Cola’s new 16 oz. bottles can be found on the verso – an unintended reflection on consumerism in the Nuclear Age. According to FEMA’s Official History;

“The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was an eye-opener in many respects. All over the country, people were asking their civil defense directors (if they had them) what they could do, where they could go, and why wasn’t more being done? On the Federal level, shortly following the crisis, Kennedy ordered a speed-up in the marking and stockpiling of shelters, and the requirements for shelter qualifications were relaxed, allowing a rapid increase in the size of the fallout shelter system.”

Source: American Civil Defense 1945-1984