Editing Protect and Survive (section)

====Warnings and actions on warning====
The various warning signals were explained (and, in the films, were accompanied by recordings of how they would sound). An [[Four-minute warning|attack warning]] would involve sirens sounding a rising and falling note as well as warnings delivered via radio. A fallout warning would involve three loud bangs (from [[Maroon (rocket)|maroon rockets]]) or whistles in quick succession. When the immediate danger had passed, sirens would sound the all-clear with a steady note.

On hearing the attack warning, people who were already at home (or could reach it within "a couple of minutes") were to send any children to the fallout room first, turn off gas, electricity, and oil supplies as described earlier, close stoves and damp down other fires, shut their windows and draw the curtains, and finally go to the fallout room. Those who could not reach their homes were to take cover in nearby buildings if they were not already indoors, or to take any other kind of cover if they could not reach a building in time, including lying flat in a ditch and covering up their hands and head.<ref name=grauniad160317 />

It was claimed that once an attack had ended there would be a short period before fallout started to descend; during this time, mains water was to be used for firefighting and for topping up water reserves, and then turned off. If the water supply was externally interrupted, water heaters and boilers (including hearth fires with back boilers) were to be extinguished and taps turned off. Fuel supplies were to be turned off if this had not been already done. Toilets were to be left unflushed and were to have their chains removed and their handles taped up in order to preserve the water in their cisterns.<ref name=grauniad160317 /> Any structural damage was to be countered by using curtains or sheets to cover up holes and broken windows. The survival kit was to be kept at hand if it was not already in the fallout room. Neighbours could be helped if the fallout warning had yet to be sounded.

On hearing the fallout warning, those who were outdoors were to take indoors cover as soon as possible and wipe off as much dust from themselves as they could before entering, while those at home were to go to the fallout room if they had not done so already and stay inside the inner refuge for the next forty-eight hours. After this time had elapsed, the radiation risk would have lessened, but it was stressed that exposure could still be lethal and that people should remain at home until told via radio that it was safe to leave.

Once the fallout risk was acceptably low, the house could initially be left for a few minutes to complete essential tasks (to be done by those aged over thirty if possible). To avoid bringing radioactive dust into the house, footwear was to be wiped down between excursions, and ideally separate outdoor footwear would be kept.

If there were casualties from an attack, the household would have had to provide initial medical help. The radio was to be monitored for information on such medical services and facilities as might be available and on which cases were to be treated as urgent.<ref name=cnnprotectandsurvive /> Infamously,<ref>{{cite web |title=Doomsday, Target London 13, A Set of Photomontage Posters on Civil Defence in London |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/15015 |website=[[Imperial War Museum]] |access-date=17 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ruiz |first1=Pollyanna |editor1-last=Ross |editor1-first=Karen |editor2-last=Price |editor2-first=Stuart |title=Popular Media and Communication: Essays on Publics, Practices and Processes |year=2008 |publisher=[[Cambridge Scholars Publishing]] |isbn=9781443810340 |page=178 |chapter=Walking the Net: Smooth Space and Alternative Media Forms}}</ref><ref name=gerarddegrootthebomb /> it was advised that the body of anyone who died in the fallout room was to be placed in another room and covered as securely as possible with an attached identification (in the relevant film, separate identifications were to be attached to both the body and its covering<ref name=worldend />). If no instructions were issued within five days on what to do next, the body was to be buried in a temporary grave as soon as it was safe to leave the house.<ref name=bellinirb /><ref name=cnnprotectandsurvive /><ref name=grauniad260704 />

Once the all clear had been sounded, there would no longer be any immediate danger and so normal activities could be resumed (though, as disarmament campaigners pointed out,<ref>{{cite web |title='On hearing the all-clear you may resume normal activities' |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/15038 |website=[[Imperial War Museum]] |access-date=17 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Back to Normal! Target London 12, A Set of Photomontage Posters on Civil Defence in London |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/15014 |website=[[Imperial War Museum]] |access-date=17 May 2025}}</ref> whether there would be any normal activities to be resumed was another question).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clarke |first1=Bob |title=Britain's Cold War |year=2012 |publisher=History Press |isbn=9780752488257}}</ref>