If you didn’t live through the ’50s and ’60s, you probably don’t understand what it was like to live in constant fear of nuclear weapons. Schools had drills, families made emergency plans, and some businesses and communities built fallout shelters to help people survive a nuclear attack and its aftereffects.

The Roberts Dairy plant at 29th and Cuming streets in Omaha was one such business. These photographs from 1968 show the facility as it was then.
US Army via Civil Defense Museum
They built an underground fallout bunker beneath the streets of Omaha to keep employees safe in the event of a nuclear attack. The city is known to have several such shelters beneath various buildings.
Bunks and bedding were set up in the shelter for employees to wait out the radiation effects of an atomic bomb.
US Army via Civil Defense Museum
The shelter was stocked with supplies to keep up to 36 employees alive and nourished.
US Army via Civil Defense Museum

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There were even recreational items to keep employees occupied during their long stay in the bunker.
US Army via Civil Defense Museum
An emergency generator would have kept the ventilation system and emergency lights running as employees hunkered down.
US Army via Civil Defense Museum
But while they were preparing to keep their own people safe, the company was also helping other people prepare for the possibility of a nuclear event.
US Army via Civil Defense Museum
They dedicated some of their equipment to the packaging of emergency water. Here, they are packaging water for a small Iowa town.
US Army via Civil Defense Museum
The emergency water was packed into these cardboard cartons, making it easy to transport and store in shelters much like the one beneath the Roberts plant.

Thankfully, nuclear war never broke out and this underground bunker was never put to use. Although we don’t have any current photos, the bunker is said to still exist below the plant (now Hiland Dairy). Have you ever seen it? We would love to hear your stories in the comments.

There’s another amazing underground space in Nebraska that a lot of people didn’t know existed – and it’s out in the middle of a field.

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