Obscure disasters (formerly "Ever hear of Texas City Disaster...?)

[youtalkfunny]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

"The Texas City Disaster of April 16, 1947, started with the mid-morning fire and detonation of approximately 17,000,000 pounds (8,500 tons) of ammonium nitrate on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp in the port at Texas City, Texas, killing 581 people."

The view from Galveston, ten miles away:





Found this page while randomly clicking links on Wiki. It's a mind-blowing read about the worst industrial accident in US History. It makes the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire look like a company picnic.

(At least there was a made-for-tv movie about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire when I was a kid, so I heard of that one.)

[youtalkfunny]

While on the subject of obscure disasters, anyone not from Boston ever hear of the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919?

It sounds like a joke, but there's nothing funny about it:

"A large molasses tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150."

""Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage. Here and there struggled a form — whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was.... Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings — men and women — suffered likewise."

[KotOD]

Is Lake Peigneur too well-known?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0DTgnOar6k

http://www.damninteresting.com/index.php?s=Peigneur


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a Texaco oil rig was drilling down from the surface of the lake searching for petroleum. Due to a miscalculation, the drilling bit entered the mine, starting a remarkable chain of events, turning an almost 10 foot deep lake into the deepest lake in Louisiana, and changing it from fresh to salt water.

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The sucking force was so strong that it reversed the flow of a 12-mile-long canal which led out to the Gulf of Mexico, and dragged 11 barges from that canal into the swirling vortex, where they disappeared into the flooded mines below. It also overtook a manned tug on the canal, which struggled against the current for as long as possible before the crew had to leap off onto the canal bank and watch as the lake consumed their boat.

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The event permanently affected the ecosystem of the lake by greatly increasing the depth of the lake from 10 feet to 1300 feet at its greatest depth, and changing the lake from freshwater to saltwater.

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[SmokeyRidesAgain]

The Tay Rail Bridge

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During a violent storm on the evening of 28 December 1879, the centre section of the bridge, known as the "High Girders", collapsed, taking with it a train that was running on its single track. More than 75 lives were lost, including Sir Thomas' son-in-law. (A common urban myth in Dundee is that Karl Marx would have been a passenger on the train had illness not prevented him from travelling.)

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Rai...ridge_Disaster

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
Is Lake Peigneur too well-known?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0DTgnOar6k

http://www.damninteresting.com/index.php?s=Peigneur


[ QUOTE ]
a Texaco oil rig was drilling down from the surface of the lake searching for petroleum. Due to a miscalculation, the drilling bit entered the mine, starting a remarkable chain of events, turning an almost 10 foot deep lake into the deepest lake in Louisiana, and changing it from fresh to salt water.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
The sucking force was so strong that it reversed the flow of a 12-mile-long canal which led out to the Gulf of Mexico, and dragged 11 barges from that canal into the swirling vortex, where they disappeared into the flooded mines below. It also overtook a manned tug on the canal, which struggled against the current for as long as possible before the crew had to leap off onto the canal bank and watch as the lake consumed their boat.

[/ QUOTE ]



[ QUOTE ]
The event permanently affected the ecosystem of the lake by greatly increasing the depth of the lake from 10 feet to 1300 feet at its greatest depth, and changing the lake from freshwater to saltwater.

[/ QUOTE ]

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holy christ! that's amazing

[mrbaseball]

[ QUOTE ]
"The Texas City Disaster of April 16, 1947

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Years ago I saw this whole story on either the Learning Channel or the Discovery channel. It was a very well done documentary about a big horrific event at the time I hadn't ever heard of.

[dcasper70]

I've posted this one before, but it cetainly fits this thread:

The Boston Molasses Flood (1919)

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At 529 Commercial Street, a huge molasses tank 50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter and containing as much as 2,300,000 US gal (8,700,000 L) collapsed.

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The collapse unleashed an immense wave of molasses between 8 and 15 ft (2.5 to 4.5 m) high, moving at 35 mph (56 km/h) and exerting a pressure of 2 ton/ft² (200 kPa).[3] The molasses wave was of sufficient force to break the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue structure and lift a train off the tracks. Nearby, buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet.

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It took over a man-decade (the amount of work in a decade of pure labor without breaks) to remove the molasses from the cobblestone streets, theaters, businesses, automobiles, and homes.[4] The harbor ran brown until summer.

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[youtalkfunny]

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Is Lake Peigneur too well-known?

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It's news to me.

[Quicksilvre]

I had heard of Texas City a long time ago; I think it was a part of the Wrath of God series on the History Channel. I'd heard of the Lake Peigneur incident as well, from Modern Marvels (Engineering Disasters). I honestly think that one has got to be the sickest disaster ever, given that no one died and the bizarre effects of it--turning canals around, sucking may acres of land in, creating temporary waterfalls and geysers, etc.

Another one: it wasn't until very recently that I learned what shape the Aral Sea is in. This used to be the fourth-largest lake in the world, and it's lost four-fifths of its water over the last fifty years (due to river water being diverted to cotton fields), and the countries bordering it are just too poor to do too much. There are fishing villages dozens of miles from the water now:

[wdcbooks]

I started to get curious when during the coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings I heard several announcers call it the worst school shooting, but not the worst incidence of school violence in US history. Wikipedia provides us with the answer of what was the worst and I had never heard of it


Bath School Disaster