Hundreds are said to be injured. A nursing home has collapsed, and several buildings are damaged and on fire. Explosion around 0:27 in this video:
I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe even something to do with the anniversary of the Branch Davidian compound siege.
Was it chicken? Boston Market is a well known chicken restaurant, and if that were true it would be pretty hard to convince me this wasn't somehow connected to the bombings in Boston.
Sooooo, I totally agree with you guys re: Ghost's behavior in the other thread, but maybe looking back at this thread a few days from now, some of us might feel a little silly with jokes being our first posts in response to an incident where 60-70 people died? Just a thought.
When I first saw this on TV I had no idea how big it was. 60 dead? This is the worst disaster this country has had in years.
Oh my God. I started watching that video expecting to see an explosion going upward in the air. I didn't expect that the blast would seem to send debris right out to the camera which seems to be a good third of a mile away at least. Yikes
They had the mayor of West, TX on Piers Morgan and the mayor stated that there were about 50-80 homes destroyed/damaged, but didn't know for sure. I certainly hope the mayor was way over on that estimate.
The plant was that collection of round buildings just off the center of the picture, labeled "West Fertilizer." I'm trying to figure out why there's a school so close by.
Based on the time between the explosion and the sound of it, they appeared to have been only 300-400 ft away.
I don't know, Cor. At least it wasn't during the school day, my God. On CNN they just said the US geological survey says they registered a 2.1 seismic event at their site 25 miles away and even though the explosion was above ground.
Red Cross has set up a hot line for anyone who wants information about loved ones living in the area. Phone number is 254-202-1100.
That middle school was destroyed. Also, a geological station in Amarillo (hundreds of miles away) registered a spike.
The USGS has a note about that 2.1 shockwave on their site: "Explosion at fertilizer factory at West, TX. The magnitude measures only the ground motion, not the air wave, so is substantially less than the true size of the event." So it was really much more powerful than that on the surface. Great.
