A long press conference just concluded and I'll type my notes here.
1. There is a missing Avondale Mill worker and a search is underway for him.
2. There are Avondale workers and their families who no one has had contact with and great concern for their welfare. It is unclear why they are not posted as missing like the guy in #1 above and the press is thinking something is up with that.
3. There are several houses with cars parked in front of them but no one answers the door and officers are going to have to find a way to break in with search warrants or something to determine of those people are alive or just got rides out of town with friends when the evacuation occurred.
4. All 8 deaths including the engineer resulted in chlorine inhalation. These are workers in the mill, someone in a truck parked outside the mill and the engineer.
5. The curfew will be in effect again tonight from 6 until 7 tomorrow morning.
6. The mandatory evacuation will remain in effect for at least 3 more days.
7. The railroad has hired a company called Hulcher. Hulcher will be working 24/7 starting this evening to apply a steel patch around the hole of the leaking tanker. It will take 24-36 hours. Approx. 60 tons of the 90 tons have leaked.
8. Hulcher will also drain off chlorine from the other two tanks which were not damaged. The chlorine will be offloaded at 20 gallons/minute and it will take 3-7 days. Workers will wear A-D protective clothing.
9. There was a fish kill in Horse Creek. There are also dead dogs, birds and cattle.
10. Air quality tests are so ridiculous that I hesitate to mention them.
10 parts per million are dangerous.
1 part per million is safe.
It took a savy reporter to make it clear that when the police tried to calm fears that the highest reading was only 1.5+ that it's really bogus because the meter they have only goes up as high as 1.5 !!!! (insert swear words here)
That's all I have and probably won't have new information this evening.
Thank you Peach for those note.
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Ping to post no. 1816 Godzilla.
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http://www.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/pressrel.htm
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143630,00.html
"One Missing After Deadly S.C. Train Crash"
AP
Friday, January 07, 2005
GRANITEVILLE, S.C. ARTICLE SNIPPET: "At least eight people died and more than 250 were sickened after a freight train carrying toxic chlorine gas crashed early Thursday in one of the nation's deadliest chemical spills in years."
You are doing a great job, Peach!!
Prayers for all, and especially that those missing will be found safe.
Anyone who has read your posts and lives near railroad track with trains that carry chemicals has due cause to be very seriously concerned about safety protocol and their family's personal safety. One of the TV news channels reported tonight that a missile or missiles projected into chemical laden railcar(s) in a large city could kill tens of thousands. I don't know about that projected number of casualties, but certainly it could be catastrophic.
Peach-thank you much for this firsthand report, are they still saying nothing to see here? Was it sabotage?
I live two blocks from some very busy RR tracks. I have never considered an accident like this. Makes one think!
Any new news?