Replies

Thanks.. didn't have an internet address for it.

Train derails -- sulfuric acid forces evacuation
By Don Jacobs and J.J. Stambaugh, News-Sentinel staff writers
September 15, 2002

Authorities are evacuating hundreds of people from Farragut and West Knox County today after a railroad tanker car carrying about 95,000 gallons of sulfuric acid derailed, ruptured and sendt plumes of corrosive gas into the air.

The wreck, which left several tanker cars twisted and stacked upon each other, occurred about 11:30 a.m. near Anchor Park off Turkey Creek Road. Columns of gas were shooting hundreds of feet into the air after the wreck.

"Right now, TEMA (Tennessee Emergency Management Agency) is telling us to evacuate people for a three-mile radius," said Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison.

Familes in a 1.3-mile radius of Brixworth and Turkey Creek already are being evacuated.

An evacuation center will open at 2 p.m. at Bearden High School, according to the Red Cross. Most residents were being told by authorities to leave before any relocation site had been established.

"We're just packing all of our clothes for overnight," said Gary Strand, an evacuated resident of Brixworth subdivision. "I don't expect we'll be coming back today."

Strand, his wife Barbara, and their two children, Garrett, 13, and Anika, 11, live in the subdivision closest to the wreck. Strand said he at first ignored sirens from sheriff's deputies cars until he looked out a window and "saw this huge cloud of smoke."

The cloud of toxic gas, which is injurious to the lungs, also was drifting across Fort Loudoun Lake and into Blount County, Hutchison said. Blount County residents were being warned at 1 p.m. of the possible need to evacuate their homes.

Hutchison said more than 100 deputies were joining the effort to evacuate residents. Rural/Metro's hazardous materials team was on the scene and the Tennessee Highway Patrol was deploying troopers to aid in traffic control as a stream of vehicles were leaving subdivisions.

"Thanks.. didn't have an internet address for it.

Glad to help, of course if you had not done the leg work I would never have seen the article. From the write-up it sounds pretty bad. Getting too coincidental though, just yesterday another taker exploded, at a chemical plant in Texas. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/750063/posts