The alarm sounds. First responders in Johnson County jump into action. They know one of the two people being rushed into a building have been exposed to radiation from the meltdown at the Duane Arnold Energy Center's nuclear reactor. Untreated, that radiation could spread and cause radiation poisoning or death.

Johnson County Emergency Management Director Dave Wilson explains, "[We bring them into the building] run them through what looks much like TSA at the airport. Portal monitors. They would get hand wanded as well. [We] determine if they are clean or dirty, if they were dirty or have some type of contamination, we would decontaminate them. And then we would send them off the Salvation Army or Red Cross to be registered, and determine what they needs have for sheltering."

That scenario was just a drill. It’s held annually at the Johnson County Fairgrounds. That's one of the four evacuation centers for a nuclear event in Palo. Up to 40,000 people could fit in the reception center, and it's easy to get to.

Wilson explains, "We normally are a commuter town. We've got great traffic ways and arterial. So it just makes a lot of sense for us to host anyone that would have to relocate out of Linn County to Johnson.”

But do people know to go there? I took to the streets of Cedar Rapids to ask, and many of them did not know where to go if there were a nuclear event. Some also did not know where to find the information.

The information is located in the phone book. That’s a tool some call a thing of the past. Cedar Rapids resident Mike Lathrop says, "I wouldn't even know that. Phone books are almost obsolete nowadays.”

It's also sent to every hotel and motel within the emergency planning zone, and it's on the Linn County Emergency Management website. That's the Agency in charge if something happens at Duane Arnold.

Spokesperson Peter Robbins representing the Duane Arnold Energy Center says, “We work very closely with them and we provide recommendations about what we think should happen and we update them on plant conditions. But actual decisions about populations of people evacuating and where they should go are made by Linn County."

The county must have an evacuation plan for an area within 10-miles of the plant. Linn County Emergency Management Director Mike Goldberg says the entire zone may not be asked to leave at one time.

He explains, "It's determined by wind meteorology information. Because it would be from the area around the Duane Arnold Energy Center. And then down wind. Those would be the potentially affected sub-areas."

That's why it's so important for people to know where to go, and a note in a phone book or a not-often visited web page may not be enough.

Goldberg says, "We are looking at all sorts of ways of doing mailings maybe to replace the phone books. As the phone books become more antiquated in people's minds.”

Robbins says they will use every outlet possible to notify people if there were a nuclear event happening at Duane Arnold. It's important to note, the likelihood of that happening is rare. In fact, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's annual inspection declared the plant is as safe as it can be.

The other reception centers are the Independence Mental Health Institute in Buchanan County, Marshalltown Central Fairgrounds in Marshall County, and Eldridge North Scott High school in Scott County.