At ten o’clock on Sunday morning, a full thirty-two hours after the catastrophe had begun, Boris Scherbina gathered the Soviet and local Party staff in the gorkom offices of the White House. At last, he gave the order to evacuate Pripyat. At 1:10 p.m., the radio-tochki in kitchens across the city finally broke their silence. In a strident, confident voice, a young woman read aloud the announcement drafted that morning by a gaggle of senior officials and approved by Scherbina:
