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The Houston Press
VOL. 50 NO. 276
II
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THE WEATHER: Partly cloudy and warm. High today 92, low tonight 74, high tomorrow 94.
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DELIVERED TO YOUR HOMI
35c WeeklY-$1.45 Per Month
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HOUSTON, TEXAS, SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 1961
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Phones Claaalfltd Adi - CA 6-3111
All Other Dept.a. - 'l'A 3-1111
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II
* * * * 150,000 Would Be Protected in Stadium
By GENE WILBURN
Press Staff Writer
Harris County today asked the federal
government to finance an $8.7 million
super-bomb shelter in Houston.
Believed to be the largest such shelter
yet proposed in the world, the facility
would protect some 150,000 persons from
radiation fallout in a thermonuclear war.
The proposed bomb shelter would be
located beneath the $18 million sports
1;tadium scheduled for completion in
April, 1963.
Presented by County Judge Bill Elliott,
the Harris County proposal seeks total
federal financing of the $8,740,000 project.
Plans for the project include among its
potential peacetime uses that of a fat
stock show, leading veteran courthouse
observers to believe the Houston Fat
Stock Show yet may join the Houston
Sports Association-sponsor of Houston's
1962 National League baseball entry-in
the use of the facility.
Fat Stock Show officials previously had
rejected a proposal that they join with
HSA in occupying the South Main stadium
in favor of constructing their own
showcase across town.
The first sketch of the Harris County
reque·st was made in Washington today
by Roy Hofheinz, former Houston mayor
and chairman of the HSA executive com-mittee,
to Rep. Albert Thomas.
The formal presentation of the proposal
will be made to Civil Defense officials
in Washington Wednesday by
County Judge Bill Elliott.
Said Judge Elliott:
"Construction of thls fallout shelter
would not delay the completion of the stadium
a single day.
"To my knowledge, there h~ been no
proposal of this magnitude for a similar
fallout shelter."
The proposed Houston shelter would:
1. Extend in a 300-foot-wide circfo (20
acres) nine feet beneath the surface of
the new stadium's parking lot.
2. Contain a split-level reinforced con-crete
haven 25 feet beneath the stands
of the stadium.
3. Include secondary and t:erciary prot:
ection from fallout radiation in . the stadium's
stands.
Judge Elliott said 85,030 persons could
receive "maximum" protection in the underground
portions.
The "Category B'' facility, above
ground but within the concret~ enclosed
and plastic-domed stadium, would shelter
41,981.
Another 22,195 persons would receive
varying lesser degrees of protection-also
within the stadium and above the surface.
Th~ maximum protection for the 64,·
176 persons above ground at the facility
would hinge on the ability of the stadium's
plastic dome roof to withstand
the shock of a bomb.
In peacetime, Judge Elliott said the
shelter could be used to:
1. Park some 20,000 cars.
2. House giant expositions.
3. Accommodate "A" fat stock show.
A key to the shelter's protection
would be a sprinkler-like water system
on the stadium's dome to wash off radi•
ation particles.
Judge Elliott said he hoped to carry
the Harris County fallout shelter proposal
to Defense Secretary Robert Mc·
Namara and President Kennedy.
