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The neighborhood had been evacuated. There were no cars on the road and no boys on bicycles terrorizing the sidewalk. The mail truck did not come down 175th Street or the surrounding blocks. Electric and heating oil service had been shut off in the area. Whether through leaks or outright observation, the media now knew the contamination was from nuclear material, not chemicals. In order to keep the media’s low-flying helicopters away, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission pressured the FAA to clear the airspace above. The media were told there was a danger in spreading the nuclear material that had been found at the house.
From the air, it looked like a scene out of the movie E.T. Old Mrs. Neebody’s house was shrouded in a dome of thick, milky plastic. Decontamination trucks lined the str
