I saw this on CNN a day or so ago and found it tonight on You Tube. Just....Wow. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Ba8jTkRWiwI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Oh yeah that happened. A bunch of people died because there is nothing stopping companies from massive quantities of explosives carelessly. But this is Texas, so you know whatever. $
I met someone who was a few miles away from Texas City 67 years ago. She lost her hearing for several days and had cuts on her arms from the windows of her home exploding from the force of the blast. Because of my morbid curioity, I wish there were more pictures, videos, and audio recordings of the Texas City disaster. I can't imagine what it must have felt like. I think someone mentioned they were living in Houston during 1947 too. Perhaps it was Deckard or some of the older CF posters?
My parents had vivid memories of it. My father said that he saw not only some debris in far Southeast Houston, but some poor soul's arm. The sound was deafening, and they were several miles from Texas City. It really was similar to a tactical nuclear weapon going off, the kind they had for artillery pieces during the Cold War. Simply stunning. Texas City was on an entirely different scale compared to West. West was bad enough, though.
Think it was scary enough that he won't stop, with a child, for the next attraction like that he sees? It probably was for the kid. Lifelong lesson.
I was reading up on the Texas City explosion and the mass of the explosion was incredible. Ship anchors flying over 1.5 miles? Absolutely ridiculous. I had always heard about the incident, but had no idea it was that massive.