Evacuating the 'likeliest' targets

Category I is the designation for the likeliest targets in any nuclear attack on the US. With Minuteman III bases at Minot and Grand Forks, N. D., state officials must plan the evacuation of two of these top-priority targets.

Ten square feet per person is what Harold Narum, program specialist with the North Dakota disaster emergency services, is planning in the shelters for evacuees of these two communities. He says residents near the bases will find ''very austere living conditions once they get to the host areas'' in more densely populated parts of the state, including the capital of Bismarck. While those who live in host communities will need to protect their homes at their own expense, they will be ''a lot better off in their own homes'' than if they go to public shelters, Mr. Narum says.

Narum is relying on ''a good highway system throughout the state.'' Civilian traffic will precede bulldozers on evacuation routes, but there is ''a lot of material in the host communities'' with which evacuees could ''shovel dirt on the roof'' or ''use some boards'' to guard against radioactive fallout, Narum says.