In an effort to see how quickly El Paso could be evacuated in the event of an enemy air raid, On June 14, 1955, El Pasoans fled the city in a mass evacuation under a "simulated enemy attack." The evacuation was carried out without a major accident, and "without a traffic bottleneck."

June 15, 1955, El Paso Times

About 5000 El Pasoans In 1000 motor vehicles fled into the desert today in a mass evacuation after sirens sounded a make-believe enemy air raid.

The fleeing civilians moved north from the City along Dyer street and Highway 54 in what Civil Defense officials described as "an absolute success" in El Paso's first major test of wholesale evacuation under simulated enemy attack.

"The evacuation was a complete success from every standpoint," said Charles C. Bowman Jr., Civil Defense

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