(Johnson County Emergency Management)
Posted on 11/30/2013 9:27:16 PM PST by My Favorite Headache
I beg to differ...
I live in San Antonio and I have a basement!
Admittedly they are rare due to the difficulty of digging one out and building a house on top, but there are a few.
Most Texas houses are built on concrete pads...
The local soils are not conducive to basements in general.
Heh.
I am in Texas and a landowner. Family came here in the 1870s and the homestead is still with us and that’s 1000 acres.
I was trying to figure out the OP’s definition of landowner and their relation to the potential blast sight.
;^)
Good to read it neighbor.
Born and bred Texan, but out west for now.
Family homestead was 20 sections, but on the wrong side of the caprock. He should’ve moved further south for the same terrain to keep the cattle safe in the winter. That would’ve been the Permian Basin.
I guess they got their little cabin in the sky. Sorry to read the report.
(Johnson County Emergency Management)
Large house w/ multiple gables and dormers set way back from the road, on a low rise (as shown by mowing pattern), can't even see the house except maaaayyyybe way off in the distance from the highway, have to move along the road away from the end of the drive to have a chance to look over that way. Overhead is about the only view.
Developers in Houston are trying to fix that. We're down to our last 1.5 million square miles of coastal plain, something like that, gotta think ahead. </s>
They want to get people used to living in 400 sq ft. rat cages and paying a thousand a month, like Tokyo and San FranCrisco and Noo Yoakk. ("But .... it has amenities .... and New York living isn't Oshkosh!" [/snile])
While basement homes are not common, I know of two different subdivisions between Dallas and Ft. Worth which have houses with basements.
WHOA
For the people who felt the blast- A mile from my house, right off of highway 916 by CR 418, a new, large 2 story log cabin with a basement exploded and was heard/felt up to 90 miles away! After the explosion area was FINALLY found, the neighbor of the house was nice enough to let me and my brother stand in his field- about 150 yards away- with the camera men from the major news channels (Watch the news- they interviewed us! Channels 4, 5, 8, and 11!). The neighbor said there was no fire. Ever... After the blast, which put a crack in their ceiling, they drove miles around trying to figure out where it was. When they got back, a while after the explosion, they realized it was dang near in their backyard... By the time we got there it was completely lit up with huge lights- with investigators, cops, and even the feds everywhere. The huge, new, nice house is now literally a pile of rubble, with no burn marks anywhere. The neighbor said the people who owned the house were home occasionally (their car is in the driveway tonight) and they were older- around 60s. The smoke that filled the air right afterwards was STRAIGHT gun powder smelling, and the house looked like it was a planned demolition. By no means am I saying it was planned, but a pretty interesting and weird situation without a doubt! It sounds like a perfect meth lab blew up in a basement scenario, but why would it smell like gunpowder? Not a gas explosion (no fire). I’m pretty clueless and curious about what happened! And it sure is darn eerie to think about.
Unless the guy was one of the world's most serious reloaders.
“...reloaders”
Everyone in the local area: Start recording everything you see on the local news. Every station you can.
I have a hunch where this could go.
Had?
In the North East they are being buried at new construction sites frequently.
Hate to see industrial accidents/failures like this. Get into the habit of looking behind the curtain first before you settle into a failure or accident
More likely some thing that smells close but isn't or there were some pounds of it the burnt off causing the smell.
But then I suppose the owner could have had a couple hundred pounds of it in a solid steel welded case unlikely.
Waking up here on the East Coast. Absolutely no news coverage of this explosion. None whatsoever. Total news blackout. Even went to Google and searched for “Texas Explosion.”
“It’s Texas, When it rains it rains a lot and would flood a basement. Besides, This ain’t the Northeast where space is expensive. Most Texas homes don’t need the extra space for a basement or for a second floor, for that matter. We have plenty of room to build one story on a cement slab.”
Add to the fact there is a very large seam of limestone running through parts of Texas,,makes digging a basement very expensive.
Drone Strike?
Obama’s Fault
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