My parents had vivid memories of the Texas City disaster. They lived in Southeast Houston, where I grew up, and said that not only could you hear the huge explosion, which shattered windows in the area, but that you could feel it. Almost 600 were killed and around 5,000 injured, with about 3,000 needing to be hosptalized. Many think the death toll was higher. Two aircraft observing the burning ship were blown out of the sky. I read somewhere that it registered 3.5 on the Richter scale in Colorado. There was a 15 foot tidal wave. Just horrific. I recall my father saying that there was a piece of debris found in the far Southeast part of Houston, but I couldn't find confirmation of that online. I hope things aren't as bad as they sound today outside of Waco. Texas City led to big changes in industrial safety in the US. One would think that this couldn't happen today, yet it did, if on a smaller scale. What a terrible thing.
Yeah, that video of the family and the child saying "daddy, I can't hear. Please get out of here. Daddy..." And the dad saying, "OMERGOD" was chilling. But the fact they got away being apparently very close, hopefully is a good sign. I don't know how they survived. I will never laugh at people making fun of "OMERGOD" again. In fact, I will go out of my way to show that video and say, "do you want to make fun of this family's accent." I was at a tennis match as a youth in Decatur, IL when an equal explosion happened from a train yard, in the middle of the night. Many of us were sleeping in a hotel room probably 2 miles from the explosion, and our hotel door was locked and latched. I was sleeping on the floor close to the door. The shock wave blew the door clean open. I remember waking up in a daze and walking outside, not quite lucid, yet, and thinking, why is the sky so bright. Here's a story I found of that explosion. http://www.lib.niu.edu/2004/ih090804.html
british newsreel on the texas city disaster. <h2>STOP PRESS</h2><a href="http://www.britishpathe.com/video/stop-press-1/query/Texas+City+fire"><img src="http://images.britishpathe.com/?id=40714&num=10&size=thumb" title="STOP PRESS" width="352" height="264" /></a> http://www.britishpathe.com/video/stop-press-1/query/Texas+City+fire
I heard on the news this morning that in the Murry Building bombing 1 ton of ammonium nitrate was used. This explosion had 25 tons so it was roughly 25 times as powerful as OKC.
Wow, that blast was MASSIVE. I think the death toll will be much higher. God, what a crazy week. Thoughts & prayers to the affected of the blast.
Great f******* call dad. This dudes already uploaded the video to YouTube. Our viral culture is strange
