Don't look at me, I didn't start it.
Grew up about 10 miles away....my grandmother lived there as a young girl
No, but it sounds fascinating.
I'm a firm believer of making lemonade when the universe gives me lemons...
I wonder why they don't consider harnessing the heat by injecting water at controlled rates and generating electricity?
Yep. It's actually kind of hard to tell what is going on as you drive by what is left. And there is a gorgeous state forest just to the north, so folks tend to be driving past on the way to that or other destinations.
Anthracite country is a strange mix of lunar-appearing mine country, broken-down industries, towns struggling to survive along with beautiful forested ridges.
Pennsylvania has suffered far more from coal than from nuclear power.
I live about 30 miles from Centralia. I have been through the town on numerous occasions both before the evacuation and after.
It is eerie. You drive through at night and can see the glowing fire between some of the rock covered hills.
In the winter, it is easy to know where the fire comes close to the surface because the ground will be barren of snow or moisture.
There are areas where you can walk out and not be able to keep your hand on the ground because of the heat.
The evacuation was the best option as the $660 million for the extinguish attempt was a guess (you know gov't, it would have escalated into the billions) and had very little hope of success.
Been through there many times.
It was/is weird. Snow covers everything. Except town, it stays green all year.
I think even the last residents are out now, only the dirt bikers and quad guys ride through. The ways in have been bulldozed in the last few years because the fedgov got real serious about keeping folks out.
Good place to go hunting in the late season, because the critters like the warm spots.
Gotta watch the smoke coming up out the ground if you hunt, the monoxide can kill you, as it does to a lot of critters.
There are several mine fires in Pa., but Centralia is the most famous.
I grew up jsut down the road on Rte. 61 in Pottsville. Yes, it is a very strange place. Lots of press during the years of people,who chose to stay, being forced out of their homes because the fire was moving directly underneath their homes, etc...
Last time I went there was about 7 years ago. It is very eerie, I'll give you that.
I can remember, oh, 25 or so years ago, people putting their kids to bed with oxygen masks on every night to prevent them from getting carbon monoxide poisoning because the buyout $$ on the house wasn't enough. They wanted more.
I also remember a proposal to backcut and fill in with concrete. But the guy wanted a bunch of money, maybe 5 million and they didn't want to pay it out.
Lots of sad stories.
Yes, I drove by on that highway about 15 years ago, before they closed it. Smoke was coming up from all over the town.
For anyone who is interested, this town was featured in an article in Smithsonian Magazine, May 2005. If you go to their web site and do a search you can find the article entitled "Fire in the Hole".
What's the motto for Centralia, PA?
"There will be a hot time in the old town tonight!"
Just like old Mother O'Leary's cow said.
Sorry, if gasoline is above room temperature, I'm sure not going to be there to find out that it's at 180 degrees. Troubling??? That's got to be the understatement of the year.
So, why have they not made a firebreak by excavating a section of the coal seam beyond the burning part, so it uses all the fuel and dies out? It works with forest fires.
Digging out the burning coal seems ineffective and dangerous.
I have been to this town in the 60s . My girlfriend lived there and it was a nice place to live. You could walk down the streets at midnight if you could not sleep. The people were the best. Small and great is what I could say about it. But it was destroyed.It was safer in this town then it is in small town America. This town had no drugs, sometimes sure people got drunk , but nobody ever feared from the people of this town. If God wills and I am still alive I will go down there when they open that capsule and feel that a beautiful place is now gone.
Seems like an opportunity to do some sort of massive uncoventional power generation. Inject water and recover the steam, etc. If it will burn for hundreds of years, I say tap it!
The film is here: http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/multimedia.htm
What is interesting is I grew up in West of Ashland and Centralia is about 35 miles north, in Missouri.
I went there at night a few years back right before they closed the roads for good... Cool but eerie place.