The fallout shelters, marked with metal signs featuring the symbol for radiation, three joined triangles inside a circle, were set up in tens of thousands of buildings nationwide in the early 1960s amid the nuclear arms race. Source: Max Becherer / The Advocate via AP

Aging fallout shelters leftover from the Cold War have not been maintained in the decades following their construction, which begs the question: Where do we go in the event of a nuclear attack or other such disaster?

This question was forced on residents of Hawaii last weekend when the missile warning infrastructure, which had been set up in response to North Korea demonstrating that its missiles were capable of reaching the islands, mistakenly sent a cellphone alert that there was an incoming ballistic missile. For forty minutes, residents scrambled, seeking safety in nearby structures.

Many of the fallout shelter signs that once adorned schools, churches and courthouses are in the process of being removed from these structures as they no longer direct people to a viable place of refuge. Originally set up in anticipation of a nuclear attack during the nuclear arms race, the shelters became neglected when the focus shifted to concern for attacks from terrorist groups rather than from a superpower.

"We're not in a Cold War scenario. We are in 2018," said Dr. Irwin Redlener, head of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Earth Institute. "We're not facing what we were facing 50 years ago, when the Soviet Union and the U.S. had nuclear warheads pointed at each other that would devastate the world. There's a threat, but it's a different type of threat today."

The original fallout shelter locations were selected based on how well they could block radioactive material. As long as the shelter was constructed with concrete, brick or cinder block and no windows and equipped with supplies, potable water and an air filtration system, any space could be turned into a shelter.

Because such an attack today is likely to be from just one bomb, one small device or just one missile, the likelihood of surviving a nuclear attack is greater. Yet, in light of what recently happened in Hawaii, emergency management officials recommend taking shelter in a space with as few windows and as many walls as possible.