Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Literally. It says "I survived the Texas City Disaster, April 16, 1947." There was not one person in Texas City who wasn't profoundly affected by that devastating event.
I was told that ship was carrying fertilizer, but was also told that there is very little of public records about the incident.
That is accurate. It was carrying the same substance that was used at OKC and Bali and was found by the authorities in London a day or two ago. That is, ammonium nitrate. If you do a search on "Texas City" and "ammonium nitrate" you'll get plenty of information.
The news of this explosion coming as it did was a little eerie for me. I was at the feed store just about 5 blocks from the plant on Saturday. I ran into a friend and while we were catching up with each other, we noticed a plane that was circling all around that area. It was a different looking plane. Not a twin-engine type. Not a helicopter. Not a jet. Just different from what we were used to looking at. It made a few passes right over the plant. We didn't know what to make of it, but it did cause us to remember the threats we'd heard about in the news. Then last night... KA-BOOM!!