Chapter 628, Laws of 1959, placed the former Office of Civil Defense within the Executive Office as the Bureau of Civil Defense. In 1967, the Bureau was incorporated into the Department of Local Affairs and Development as the Division of Emergency Government. The bureau coordinated state and local emergency response plans for natural and man-made disasters, including floods, tornadoes, drought, nuclear power plant accidents and nuclear attack.
In June 1964 the federal Office of Emergency Planning awarded a contract to the Bureau of Civil Defense to produce an “Emergency Management of Resources Plan.” The plan was to serve as a resource management guide for the state in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. The contract further specified that the bureau was to maintain the plan in a condition of operational readiness through continued planning and revision.
In 1965, the bureau recruited individuals from private industry and state government to form an Emergency Planning Committee (EPC) and several “Task Groups” to write portions of the plan dealing with food, water, gas, electric power, telecommunications, solid fuels, manpower, health resources and economic stabilization. The bureau also created an Office of Emergency Planning and Resource Management to coordinate the activities of the EPC and Task Groups. Drafts of the plans were submitted to the federal Office of Emergency Planning for evaluation and underwent several revisions between 1966 and 1967. Final plans were printed and distributed in 1968.
Directors of the Emergency Resource Management Planning Project included Harold Hasfjord (1964-1966) and Blake Smith (1966-?).
