LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — When a flash of light beamed from the arid New Mexico desert early on July 16, 1945, residents of the historic Hispanic village of Tularosa felt windows shake and heard dishes fall. Some in the largely Catholic town fell to their knees and prayed.
The end of the world is here, they thought.
What villagers didn’t know was that just before 5:30 a.m., scientists from the then-secret city of Los Alamos successfully exploded the first atomic bomb at the nearby Trinity Site. Left in its place was a crater that stretched a half-mile wide and several feet deep.
Thursday marks 70 years since Trinity Test took place as part of the Manhattan Project, a top-secret World War II nuclear development program. It comes as Tularosa residents say they were permanently affected by the test and want acknowledgement and compensation from the U.S. government.
Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders, said the aftermath caused rare forms of cancer for many of the 30,000 residents in the area surrounding Trinity. She said residents weren’t told about the site’s dangers and often picnicked there and took artifacts, including the radioactive green glass known as “trinitite.”