are more plants exploding?

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I'm just wondering if anyone else has noticed in the news lately that a lot of explosions have occurred in the chemical plants, petroleum refineries, etc? Now I'm not really sure if the incidence of these explosions has become more frequent or not, because 2 years ago I would not have paid as much attention to this news as I do now. Also it seems like they try to sneak it in without much comment. I listen to a lot of talk radio during the day, and there will be one really short comment about say, a chemical plant having a malfunction and killing 10 people, and then nothing more. Then if I turn on CNN or something, nothing is mentioned about it. The first time this happened, I thought I had misheard, but I have heard at least 5 more reports that were similar in the last 3 months. Same thing each time. Maybe I'm just Y2K paranoid or something, so I wonder if anyone else out there keeps track of these things. Another thing on my mind-when I think of the possible ramifications of Y2K, it brings to my mind that game Jenga. The one where you stack up a bunch of wooden blocks, then carefully draw them out one by one, and see which one pulled out will collapse the whole structure.

-- sarah sapper (ssapp@bootheel.net), September 09, 1999

Answers

Check out this link

Pipeline and Gas Explosions

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), September 09, 1999.


sarah: Do you like to mudwrestle?

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), September 10, 1999.

KOS, do you have a "new female name filter" running? <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), September 10, 1999.

Spider...

I checked out the link you provided (thank you very much). All I can say is "Oh-my-God"...I had no idea. The data builds a really nice curve.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Y2KOK.ORG), September 10, 1999.


Just heard the local news for the first time today. One of the largest manufacturers of exotic metals, Teledyne Wachang, near Albany Oregon, had a chemical explosion and resulting fire. Appears the cause is still a mystery, but the thing that really caught my ear was, the alarm system did not go off until ten minutes after the explosion. ''Hmmmm''

They do a lot of work with things like titanium, lots of gov.con things.

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), September 10, 1999.



Yep,

...And at a rate far higher than those plants in Kosovo targeted by American Cruise Missiles!

Hope our enemies are encouraged to steal the plans to our secret "exploding" plants, maybe then we wouldn't have to put American pilots at risk.

Also, hope these workers know these stats and are aware of the risks they are now facing.

Got hazard duty pay?

-- (snowleopard6@webtv.net), September 10, 1999.


I wonder how many of those from spider's link we have in the archive? But none of this has anything to do with Y2K. Right?

Tick... Tock... <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), September 10, 1999.


It's a good question, and we've had no good answer. Certainly there have been more reports...

However, this could easily be the "red pickup truck" effect (you notice a lot more of them after you buy one yourself, than before!). I've asked before whether there is a statutory agency to which all such events must be reported, and whose records are public. There does not appear to be.

I do know that chemical plants are intrinsically dangerous places, and that things go badly wrong more often than one might expect. Unless it's a catastrophe with many deaths or truly spectacular pyrotechnics, it rarely makes national news. A big fire that closed my commuter railway line some years back (with propane cylinders going off like bombs and rockets) didn't even make the local news.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), September 10, 1999.


On a related note, we've had 6 power outages in my neighborhood this summer, ranging from 10 minutes to 3 days. Plus there have been a number of overnight "flickers" that were just long enough to make the digital clock on the VCR flash (I collect electric clocks from the 30's 40's and 50's and several are always actually in use, so this provides an easy way to time the outages). In every instance of outage, the power company had a plausible mundane explanation. However, this is the first time we've had this many outages, in the same season.

The only one of these outages that made the local news was the big one, whose apparent cause was a heavy lightening, which was widespread and was from 1 to 3 days, depending on where you lived. But I have talked to people who live in other neighborhoods, and while I have yet to find anyone who can say exactly how many there have been, they have said that they have been having what seemed to be a higher than normal number of outages. They have also said that sveral outages have happened during clear weather.

Now, I suppose this could all be coincidence (I can say for sure it's not "red truck syndrome"), but the timing does give me pause.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), September 10, 1999.


Probably just more of those flammable tear gas bombs.

-- Dave (aaa@aaa.com), September 10, 1999.


You guys are better at getting the news than Drudge! Amazing! Not even Drudge has reported on the exploding plant Y2K 1999 problem. Break out the tinfoil, like Jim Lord's Navy Master Utilities List, this story is headed for the Washington Post!

Regards,

-- FactFinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), September 11, 1999.


It's the Invasion of Electrically Curious Squirrels

Actually the Official Explanation in our neck of the woods.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 11, 1999.


Bokonon,

You are also discussing the Summer months. The highest usage time of the year. I don't have the link handy, but you may want to go read Dick Mills article on how we are dancing on the edge of the canyon without Y2K in the picture.

b

-- b (b@b.b), September 11, 1999.


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