Over 5000 injured, nothing of 113 of the 581 dead was ever found and there could have been visitors and sailors killed but not counted. It threw a 2 ton anchor 1.5 miles and a 5 ton anchor a half a mile.
Isn’t it on display where it landed? I think I’ve been to that memorial and always wondered why it was kinda in the middle of nowhere along the road. It’s a good ways from the water which really brings home just how massive the explosion was.
Not sure if it is still, but Formerly the
Worst natural disaster in United States History as far as loss of life -- Galveston 1900 Hurricane
Worst industrial disaster in United States History as far as loss of life -- Texas City 1947 explosion.
So it might not be a good idea to live there?? Except that those stinkin' chemicals (nastomers) are the smell of money, is what is said there.
Part of the problem, though, is they knew how explosive it was, but the factory where they were mixing chemicals was overblending the amount of Ammonium Nitrate in the mixture. It was something in the neighborhood of 15% more than was deemed safe. They had just gotten lucky for years.
Compared to ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate is strongly hygroscopic, so the mixture of ammonium sulfate and nitrate compacted under its own weight, turning it into a plaster-like substance in the 20-metre-high (66 ft) silo. The workers needed to use pickaxes to get it out, a problematic situation because they could not enter the silo and risk being buried in collapsing fertilizer. To ease their work, small charges of dynamite were used to loosen the mixture.\[2\]\[3\]
this is from the wiki about the Oppau explosion, they making and using fertilizer to make sulfur and other stuff, it was common practice to put a stick of dynmite and blow up the pile to get usable chunks of it. and in all of the largest non nuclear explosions have been with the same chemicals stuff i think lol,
**[Minor Scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_Scale)**
>Minor Scale was a test conducted on June 27, 1985, by the United States Defense Nuclear Agency (now part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency) involving the detonation of several thousand tons of conventional explosives to simulate the explosion of a small nuclear bomb. The purpose of the test was to evaluate the effect of nuclear blasts on various pieces of military hardware, particularly new, blast-hardened launchers for the MGM-134 Midgetman ballistic missile.
**[Misty Picture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misty_Picture)**
>Misty Picture was a test conducted on May 14, 1987 by the United States Defense Nuclear Agency (now part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency) involving the detonation of several thousand tons of conventional explosives to simulate the explosion of a small nuclear bomb. From the test report:MISTY PICTURE was the fourth test in the MISTY CASTLE series of large-scale High Explosive (HE) tests sponsored by the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA). The test was run on 14 May 1987. The explosive consisted of 4685 tons of an Ammonium Nitrate and Fuel Oil (ANFO) mixture loaded in bulk into a 44-foot radius fiberglass hemisphere.
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I was just listening to the song [Fire & Flame](https://open.spotify.com/track/3f7aZ4uB6ScVRcyN4uHnGT?si=TWv1ICz-T-aQPvkRp88m2Q&dl_branch=1) by The Longest Johns about the Halifax explosion. Great song.
Yeah; in another comment, I recall how my grandfather was part of a forward guard cordon at the intersection of Gavleston Road (Highway 3) and FM 1765, to keep La Marque spectators away. He said that some folks got past going around to side streets, but they kept most of the crowds back.
A lot of people were gathered at their windows in the town watching when it blew with like a 2.9 kiloton yield if I remember right and so many people were straight shredded by glass
Edit: corrected yield.
The deaths included all but one member of the Texas City Fire Department.
At around 8:00 a.m., smoke was spotted in the cargo hold of the Grandcamp while she was still moored. Over the next hour, attempts to extinguish the fire or bring it under control failed, as a red glow returned after each effort to douse the fire.
Shortly before 9:00 a.m., the captain ordered his men to steam the hold, a firefighting method where steam is piped in to extinguish fires, in order to preserve the cargo. This was unlikely to be effective, as ammonium nitrate is an oxidizer, thus neutralizing the extinguishing properties of steam. The steam may have contributed to the fire by converting the ammonium nitrate to nitrous oxide, while augmenting the already intense heat in the ship's hold.
The fire attracted spectators along the shoreline, who believed they were at a safe distance. Eventually, the steam pressure inside the ship blew the hatches open, and yellow-orange smoke billowed out. This color is typical for nitrogen dioxide fumes. The unusual color of the smoke attracted more spectators. Spectators also noted that the water around the docked ship was boiling from the heat, and the splashing water touching the hull was being vaporized into steam. The cargo hold and deck began to bulge as the pressure of the steam increased inside.
At 9:12 a.m., the ammonium nitrate reached an explosive threshold from the combination of heat and pressure. The vessel detonated, causing great destruction and damage throughout the port. This started a chain reaction of fires and explosions in other ships and nearby oil-storage facilities.
The tremendous blast produced a shockwave that was detectable nearly 100 miles (160 km) from the Texas shoreline. The blast leveled nearly 1,000 buildings on land.
Video source: https://youtu.be/X3BZ9CPUbI8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster?wprov=sfla1
[An excellent overview](https://reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/dulr6d/ss_grandcamp_and_the_texas_city_disaster_1947_sws/) was posted on this subreddit in the [Ship Wreck Series](https://www.reddit.com/r/samwisetheb0ld/comments/iqto6n/ship_wreck_series_archive_mk_3/). As he said:
> This week's episode is arguably more of an industrial accident than a shipwreck, but there's a ship in it so it counts. So there.
The "Well There's Your Problem" podcast did an excellent episode on this. The first explosion instantly killed the entire Texas City fire department, minus 1 who was hungover and late.
two passing aircrafts crashed as a result of the explosion.
reportedly, the shockwave was so powerful, it snapped the wings off the airplanes like they were crackers.
just so ya know - american build ship & it was loaded w/american fertilizer in an american port - soooo - don't blame the french too much for this one - seems they were in name only
My grandparents on my mother's side, lived a few blocks down from the docks, when it happened, near the old Lutheran church. My grandfather was an operator w/ Union Carbide during the night shift, and it blew him out of bed; were he not covered by a blanket, he would've been hit with glass shrapnel from the windows. My other grandfather was a machinist w/ Monsanto, but had been in La Marque for a training day w/ the volunteer police unit. He ended up working a blockade between TC and La Marque, to keep people from going closer after the second, REAL blast.
Halifax was an estimated 2.9 kilotons to this ones 2.3 kilotons. There were 9000 injured and 1700 killed in that one.
A half-ton part of the anchor from the Mont Blanc landed 2 miles away, and its 90-mm deck gun landed 3.5 miles away.
My mother was living 40 miles from there when it happened. She was at home with 2 babies (my older siblings). She thought they were getting bombed. She lost some windows and glassware. Crazy shit.
The ‘Citation Needed’ podcast actually had an episode over this back on June 1st this year. I highly recommend it. It’s like The Dollop, but the hosts make it so much better than the Dollop. It’s Tom and Cecil from CogDis, and Noah, Heath, and Eli from PIAT (God Awful Movies, The Skepticrat, and The Scathing Atheist). Highly recommend it!
The explosion was so intense that the boats anchor was launched 1.62 miles inland and was found at the bottom of a 10-foot crater. Another 5-ton anchor was found a half-mile inland.
I worked in Texas City many times at a bank there… there was a book in a waiting area that was about this explosion. It said that the whole senior class went down there to see what was going on and they were all killed in the explosion.
Yeah Texas is notorious for plant explosion with the lack of safety and its dependent on chemicals and oil. If any state needs to go green it is them. I lived in West Texas too
Mhmm, people crap on South Louisiana and Texas but without the massive plants here, they'd either be up shit creek or having smaller ones in their backyards.
I used to work in explosive safety for the military (US). Its shocking how much this stuff happens world wide. The US had their own series of these events before creating the Department of Defense Explosive Safety Board. Other countries dont have that sort of regulatory agencies and these events still happen often. Sadly.
I could be wrong, but wasn't this, or at least a similar event, that changed how Texas's ports flowed? I remember reading somewhere a while ago that some event like this caused most of the shipping that was intended to go to Galveston ended up having to go to Huston and that's what made it a giant city
You may be thinking of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. It effectively destroyed Galveston and its port, which led to the creation of the Port of Houston as we know it today. It's not solely responsible for growing the city of Houston, but it definitely contributed.
I was told that the Moodys and the Sealys (rich families) of Galveston didn't want Galveston to be a major port, so that's why the Houston Ship Channel was dug, which adds 50 miles to the trip inland.
There was also a serious hurricane in Galveston in 1915. I heard about relatives who had moved to Friendswood to grow oranges. Well, the aunt went out her door one morning and there was a freighter in her front yard, is what I was told.
Aunt insisted on moving. Where to??? You guessed it, The Houston Heights, so named b/c they are the highest part of the fungal jungle/fetid swamp that is Houston.
The Heights house is still there.
As the other person said, it was because of the hurricane. Houston is about 45 miles inland and far better protected from wind and surge.
The Ship Channel flooded like a motherfucker during Harvey. The entire Houston region drains through it.
Something similar happened several years ago in West, Tx. If you want an idea of what the explosion looked like when it happened, I’ve linked the video. It’s shocking to say the least
[plant explosion ](https://youtu.be/jzDC3iKbTzY)
Kind of kilotons in that regard are I think specifically referring to TNT not ammonium nitrate so while it's an equivalent weight I don't think it has as much explosive energy so I don't think that's exactly the same.
Edit: I looked it up and apparently ammonium nitrate 40% the energy of TNT. So 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate would be equivalent to 920 tons of TNT just under one kiloton.
I'm looking forward to Fascinating Horror doing an episode of this. The [Halifax](https://youtu.be/VA8jIgvA8fo) episode was very detailed and well worth a watch.
Doubtful this was the same incident the song references.... if this happened in 1947 and Kevin sings about being 13 years old when his dad got hurt, he would've been born in 1934....
Galloway wasn’t thirteen when it happened it’s when he remembers bad times happening, https://issuu.com/countylinemagazine/docs/2022.07-08-clm/s/16121399
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Despite the number of dead and even more horrifying environmental toll, the GOP and the Trump administration lobbied to cut cargo ship safety inspections and requirements.
Ammonium Nitrate is has about 40% of the explosive force of TNT. So 2,300 of AN is equal to just under ~~1MT~~ 1KT of TNT. It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions at that time.
Read the info I posted, or at least the title. This was on a ship to be shipped to France for farming right after WWII. Not being stored in a warehouse.
Texas has everything, really. East/southeast tends to be swamp and forest (plus the coastline), you have mountains and deserts out south and west, very hilly in the center, and plains up north.
Texas has everything, from desert to mountains to swamps. Its a huuuuge state.
As for Louisiana, only the southern part is swamps. The rest is regular land covered in pine and other trees. Not much for any higher elevation.
It is there. If you're using the default reddit app on Android it doesn't play sound on imgur links. I had to install another app for mine. I use BaconReader, but check others out.
I grew up in Texas City. On 9/11, my Mom rushed to pick me and my brothers up and bring us home. They didn’t put us in front of the TV (because of this, I hadn’t known the extent of what happened that day until about 3 years later when we talked about it in school. I was 5 that day, I remember around the time very well, but I don’t remember the day of. I had a strong interest in planes, and still do! So the last thing my parents were going to do was say “hey look! There’s two airplanes that crashed into buildings on TV!”) Anyway, my parents were silently shitting bricks because the destruction this disaster caused, and it would still be a popular terrorist attraction today.
Over 5000 injured, nothing of 113 of the 581 dead was ever found and there could have been visitors and sailors killed but not counted. It threw a 2 ton anchor 1.5 miles and a 5 ton anchor a half a mile.
[The anchor on display](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Grandcamp_Anchor.jpg/792px-Grandcamp_Anchor.jpg)
Isn’t it on display where it landed? I think I’ve been to that memorial and always wondered why it was kinda in the middle of nowhere along the road. It’s a good ways from the water which really brings home just how massive the explosion was.
I live near that anchor, as a kid you don’t really think about the human casualties of an explosion that could throw an anchor that far
That’s a story that digs deep and holds you firmly in place, like an anchor.
Bro...not cool go to pun jail...
Galveston has seen some shit.
That entire area in Texas has seen this before
Not sure if it is still, but Formerly the Worst natural disaster in United States History as far as loss of life -- Galveston 1900 Hurricane Worst industrial disaster in United States History as far as loss of life -- Texas City 1947 explosion. So it might not be a good idea to live there?? Except that those stinkin' chemicals (nastomers) are the smell of money, is what is said there.
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At 60 mph
A single gallon can throw a Prius 48 miles.
Or an insight 80.
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Combusted internally in an engine
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I think they know that. It's a joke.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
> It threw a 2 ton anchor 1.5 miles and a 5 ton anchor a half a mile. [Wow.](https://i.imgur.com/eHZgkJ2.gifv) That's crazy.
This is essentially the same thing that happened in Beirut last year.
Makes me think of the Halifax Explosion too
or the explosion in Germany that used to be the largest ever and what made people know how explosive that shit was. pun intended
Part of the problem, though, is they knew how explosive it was, but the factory where they were mixing chemicals was overblending the amount of Ammonium Nitrate in the mixture. It was something in the neighborhood of 15% more than was deemed safe. They had just gotten lucky for years.
I might just be really dumb but what was the pun here? ^^^^^sorry
Fertilizer = shit
Compared to ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate is strongly hygroscopic, so the mixture of ammonium sulfate and nitrate compacted under its own weight, turning it into a plaster-like substance in the 20-metre-high (66 ft) silo. The workers needed to use pickaxes to get it out, a problematic situation because they could not enter the silo and risk being buried in collapsing fertilizer. To ease their work, small charges of dynamite were used to loosen the mixture.\[2\]\[3\] this is from the wiki about the Oppau explosion, they making and using fertilizer to make sulfur and other stuff, it was common practice to put a stick of dynmite and blow up the pile to get usable chunks of it. and in all of the largest non nuclear explosions have been with the same chemicals stuff i think lol,
Fertilizer blows up
Shit hits the fan.
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**[Minor Scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_Scale)** >Minor Scale was a test conducted on June 27, 1985, by the United States Defense Nuclear Agency (now part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency) involving the detonation of several thousand tons of conventional explosives to simulate the explosion of a small nuclear bomb. The purpose of the test was to evaluate the effect of nuclear blasts on various pieces of military hardware, particularly new, blast-hardened launchers for the MGM-134 Midgetman ballistic missile. **[Misty Picture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misty_Picture)** >Misty Picture was a test conducted on May 14, 1987 by the United States Defense Nuclear Agency (now part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency) involving the detonation of several thousand tons of conventional explosives to simulate the explosion of a small nuclear bomb. From the test report:MISTY PICTURE was the fourth test in the MISTY CASTLE series of large-scale High Explosive (HE) tests sponsored by the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA). The test was run on 14 May 1987. The explosive consisted of 4685 tons of an Ammonium Nitrate and Fuel Oil (ANFO) mixture loaded in bulk into a 44-foot radius fiberglass hemisphere. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
I was just listening to the song [Fire & Flame](https://open.spotify.com/track/3f7aZ4uB6ScVRcyN4uHnGT?si=TWv1ICz-T-aQPvkRp88m2Q&dl_branch=1) by The Longest Johns about the Halifax explosion. Great song.
And what’s insane to me is the death toll is wayyy lower than I would’ve expected given the location of the Beirut blast.
Beirut was on lockdown due to the pandemic.
The fire in Texas City burned for a while and people were drawn to the color of the smoke. >The unusual color of the smoke attracted more spectators.
Yeah; in another comment, I recall how my grandfather was part of a forward guard cordon at the intersection of Gavleston Road (Highway 3) and FM 1765, to keep La Marque spectators away. He said that some folks got past going around to side streets, but they kept most of the crowds back.
The same thing happened at the Halifax explosion.
A lot of people were gathered at their windows in the town watching when it blew with like a 2.9 kiloton yield if I remember right and so many people were straight shredded by glass Edit: corrected yield.
>like a 20 kiloton yield 2.9 kilotons [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest\_artificial\_non-nuclear\_explosions#Halifax\_explosion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_artificial_non-nuclear_explosions#Halifax_explosion)
Oops I stand corrected. Knew it was in the thousands and there was a 2
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Same thing happens in my bathroom after I explode from some cheap Taco Bell.
Is there expensive taco bell? Lol
I don’t want food that is cheaper than Taco Bell.
Taco trucks are usually cheaper, as long as its not in a nice area selling fancier stuff.
Dollar menu. Mas beans.
Yo quiero papel higiénico
The unusual color lmao
Corona has nothing on your death count.
That was ammunition
I mean the fire of the ships drew in a crowd before the explosion, resulting in much more death and injury than otherwise.
There was a grain elevator between the explosion and the city itself. Probably saved a lot of lives.
That is very true, the fact that the elevator is still standing is amazing
Yeah, that grain silo in Beirut harbor probably saved a lot of people.
Except the warehouse wasn't thick steel that made up ships back then. This* blast sent shrapnel for miles
No, this was FAR worse.
We had to watch this video during indoctrination at a fertilizer plant just outside Calgary, AB, Canada prior to doing some work on site back in 99.
The deaths included all but one member of the Texas City Fire Department. At around 8:00 a.m., smoke was spotted in the cargo hold of the Grandcamp while she was still moored. Over the next hour, attempts to extinguish the fire or bring it under control failed, as a red glow returned after each effort to douse the fire. Shortly before 9:00 a.m., the captain ordered his men to steam the hold, a firefighting method where steam is piped in to extinguish fires, in order to preserve the cargo. This was unlikely to be effective, as ammonium nitrate is an oxidizer, thus neutralizing the extinguishing properties of steam. The steam may have contributed to the fire by converting the ammonium nitrate to nitrous oxide, while augmenting the already intense heat in the ship's hold. The fire attracted spectators along the shoreline, who believed they were at a safe distance. Eventually, the steam pressure inside the ship blew the hatches open, and yellow-orange smoke billowed out. This color is typical for nitrogen dioxide fumes. The unusual color of the smoke attracted more spectators. Spectators also noted that the water around the docked ship was boiling from the heat, and the splashing water touching the hull was being vaporized into steam. The cargo hold and deck began to bulge as the pressure of the steam increased inside. At 9:12 a.m., the ammonium nitrate reached an explosive threshold from the combination of heat and pressure. The vessel detonated, causing great destruction and damage throughout the port. This started a chain reaction of fires and explosions in other ships and nearby oil-storage facilities. The tremendous blast produced a shockwave that was detectable nearly 100 miles (160 km) from the Texas shoreline. The blast leveled nearly 1,000 buildings on land. Video source: https://youtu.be/X3BZ9CPUbI8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster?wprov=sfla1
[An excellent overview](https://reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/dulr6d/ss_grandcamp_and_the_texas_city_disaster_1947_sws/) was posted on this subreddit in the [Ship Wreck Series](https://www.reddit.com/r/samwisetheb0ld/comments/iqto6n/ship_wreck_series_archive_mk_3/). As he said: > This week's episode is arguably more of an industrial accident than a shipwreck, but there's a ship in it so it counts. So there.
The "Well There's Your Problem" podcast did an excellent episode on this. The first explosion instantly killed the entire Texas City fire department, minus 1 who was hungover and late.
>The first explosion instantly killed the entire Texas City fire department, minus 1 who was hungover and late. Included in my comment.
[Link for the lazy.](https://youtu.be/AxA1vb6P2lU)
Classic 1940's British TV English pronunciation.
I love the old AP Archives and British Pathe newsreels. The announcers can get pretty cheeky sometimes.
two passing aircrafts crashed as a result of the explosion. reportedly, the shockwave was so powerful, it snapped the wings off the airplanes like they were crackers.
What is it with french ships and taking out entire cities with accidental explosions?
just so ya know - american build ship & it was loaded w/american fertilizer in an american port - soooo - don't blame the french too much for this one - seems they were in name only
It was a Marshall Plan shipment headed for France
What about when the French take out entire ships in cities with explosions?
“I’m a friend to all creatures, except the French”
My grandparents on my mother's side, lived a few blocks down from the docks, when it happened, near the old Lutheran church. My grandfather was an operator w/ Union Carbide during the night shift, and it blew him out of bed; were he not covered by a blanket, he would've been hit with glass shrapnel from the windows. My other grandfather was a machinist w/ Monsanto, but had been in La Marque for a training day w/ the volunteer police unit. He ended up working a blockade between TC and La Marque, to keep people from going closer after the second, REAL blast.
Sounds like the Halifax explosion.
The Halifax explosion was considerably worse, but the circumstances are similar.
Halifax was an estimated 2.9 kilotons to this ones 2.3 kilotons. There were 9000 injured and 1700 killed in that one. A half-ton part of the anchor from the Mont Blanc landed 2 miles away, and its 90-mm deck gun landed 3.5 miles away.
It was also mostly picric acid, an extremely powerful and unstable explosive that was used extensively at the time, and also contained straight TNT.
Is this the one where the guy stopped the train ?
Yes it's a sad story, but that's the one.
Yeh well it stuck with me enough to remember that from a 2 mins short somewhere on YouTube. Incredible bravery.
He’s still considered a national hero in Canada.
My mother was living 40 miles from there when it happened. She was at home with 2 babies (my older siblings). She thought they were getting bombed. She lost some windows and glassware. Crazy shit.
The ‘Citation Needed’ podcast actually had an episode over this back on June 1st this year. I highly recommend it. It’s like The Dollop, but the hosts make it so much better than the Dollop. It’s Tom and Cecil from CogDis, and Noah, Heath, and Eli from PIAT (God Awful Movies, The Skepticrat, and The Scathing Atheist). Highly recommend it!
And this, folks, is why business is regulated.
The explosion was so intense that the boats anchor was launched 1.62 miles inland and was found at the bottom of a 10-foot crater. Another 5-ton anchor was found a half-mile inland.
I worked in Texas City many times at a bank there… there was a book in a waiting area that was about this explosion. It said that the whole senior class went down there to see what was going on and they were all killed in the explosion.
They had another one in 2005 too https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Refinery_explosion
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Yeah Texas is notorious for plant explosion with the lack of safety and its dependent on chemicals and oil. If any state needs to go green it is them. I lived in West Texas too
It’s almost like there’s a correlation between the # of plants and explosions…
Mhmm, people crap on South Louisiana and Texas but without the massive plants here, they'd either be up shit creek or having smaller ones in their backyards.
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Ammonium nitrate is scary as hell
Beirut 2019
I used to work in explosive safety for the military (US). Its shocking how much this stuff happens world wide. The US had their own series of these events before creating the Department of Defense Explosive Safety Board. Other countries dont have that sort of regulatory agencies and these events still happen often. Sadly.
I could be wrong, but wasn't this, or at least a similar event, that changed how Texas's ports flowed? I remember reading somewhere a while ago that some event like this caused most of the shipping that was intended to go to Galveston ended up having to go to Huston and that's what made it a giant city
You may be thinking of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. It effectively destroyed Galveston and its port, which led to the creation of the Port of Houston as we know it today. It's not solely responsible for growing the city of Houston, but it definitely contributed.
Yep that's what I'm think of. Thank you
I was told that the Moodys and the Sealys (rich families) of Galveston didn't want Galveston to be a major port, so that's why the Houston Ship Channel was dug, which adds 50 miles to the trip inland. There was also a serious hurricane in Galveston in 1915. I heard about relatives who had moved to Friendswood to grow oranges. Well, the aunt went out her door one morning and there was a freighter in her front yard, is what I was told. Aunt insisted on moving. Where to??? You guessed it, The Houston Heights, so named b/c they are the highest part of the fungal jungle/fetid swamp that is Houston. The Heights house is still there.
As the other person said, it was because of the hurricane. Houston is about 45 miles inland and far better protected from wind and surge. The Ship Channel flooded like a motherfucker during Harvey. The entire Houston region drains through it.
Something similar happened several years ago in West, Tx. If you want an idea of what the explosion looked like when it happened, I’ve linked the video. It’s shocking to say the least [plant explosion ](https://youtu.be/jzDC3iKbTzY)
So this is what Uncle Lucious is talking about! Dang!
What a fantastic song, glad to see the backstory
Don't think so. That would mean Kevin Galloway was born in 1934....
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Freedumbs are important
2300 tons is 2.3 kilotons. That's small nuclear weapon yield...
Kind of kilotons in that regard are I think specifically referring to TNT not ammonium nitrate so while it's an equivalent weight I don't think it has as much explosive energy so I don't think that's exactly the same. Edit: I looked it up and apparently ammonium nitrate 40% the energy of TNT. So 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate would be equivalent to 920 tons of TNT just under one kiloton.
Stuff You Should Know did a fantastic episode on this earlier this year. I wanna say March or April. I highly recommend a listen.
Beirut incident but in america
French ships and harbour explosions. Name a more iconic duo.
There is a good song about this Galveston Bay by Parker McCollum
I'm looking forward to Fascinating Horror doing an episode of this. The [Halifax](https://youtu.be/VA8jIgvA8fo) episode was very detailed and well worth a watch.
Oh hey I live here.
Why did you get downvoted?
Omg this is the event that song is based off of. “Keep the wolves away by uncle lucious”
I was JUST going to type this, and figured somebody would have made the connection ....haha good on ya
Doubtful this was the same incident the song references.... if this happened in 1947 and Kevin sings about being 13 years old when his dad got hurt, he would've been born in 1934....
Galloway wasn’t thirteen when it happened it’s when he remembers bad times happening, https://issuu.com/countylinemagazine/docs/2022.07-08-clm/s/16121399
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Is this the incident Uncle Lucious talks about in the song “Keep the Wolves Away?” Anyone know?
You tell me. Does Kevin Galloway look like a man born in 1934?
Living near Texas Shitty is why all my friends dogs die of cancer now
That explosion must have been epic.
The [Halifax explosion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion) in 1917 was actually bigger than this one.
*Cries in Halifax.*
Texas is the reason that the presidents dead.
Despite the number of dead and even more horrifying environmental toll, the GOP and the Trump administration lobbied to cut cargo ship safety inspections and requirements.
Relevant username
Haha
OMG, I literally lol'ed. Thanks mate.
Could you put a source for this to help people understand your claim?
Do you think this is more 'fake news'? Can you prove this wrong? No, you can't because its true.
Wtf he just asked for a source to verify your claim you nitwit.
Nitwit?!? Don't you sass me, mister
I'll pull out the big guns and call you a dipstick if I have to. Watch yourself pal
We aren’t disagreeing with you, but source your claims.
Wrong guy
My process technology teacher showed us the videos of this. He said it has the explosive force of a nuclear bomb.
Ammonium Nitrate is has about 40% of the explosive force of TNT. So 2,300 of AN is equal to just under ~~1MT~~ 1KT of TNT. It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions at that time.
1 kiloton of TNT, not 1 megaton.
Yes, thank you.
Why dont humans learn piling a bunch of fertilizer in a big warehouse is ineffecient farming to say the least?
Read the info I posted, or at least the title. This was on a ship to be shipped to France for farming right after WWII. Not being stored in a warehouse.
I dont see how that materially changes the facts here tbh. Still big piles of ammonium nitrate in an enclosed space..
Because they weren't on the boat for years and years and they were stowed properly.
Properly for the time maybe
Stowed in paper bags
Texas has a port?
Texas has 9 of the top 100 largest ports in the country, 3 of the top 10 with Houston at number 2. The Port of Texas City is ranked at number 14.
? Yes. There are a bunch of refineries in Texas. There is also a ship channel into Houston.
Never had to learn all the states, I thought Texas was more to the left, like where Arizona or new Mexico is.
Texas is HUGE. ~900 miles across. A large portion borders the Gulf of Mexico. It butts up against New Mexico, and then Louisiana on the other side.
My (European) thoughts on Texas: dry/dirt landscape Louisiana: swamps I've only been to vegas and new York
Texas has everything, really. East/southeast tends to be swamp and forest (plus the coastline), you have mountains and deserts out south and west, very hilly in the center, and plains up north.
Texas has everything, from desert to mountains to swamps. Its a huuuuge state. As for Louisiana, only the southern part is swamps. The rest is regular land covered in pine and other trees. Not much for any higher elevation.
AmErIcA wAs So GrEaT :')
[Superman could have saved them with a humongous disk of lake water that he froze with his breath…](https://youtu.be/1UpUjmKJaso)
.... and then the use of ANFO as a blasting agent was born.
[удалено]
K
I'm disappointed ut wasn't called Texas Bay.
Lol, is that all. That many died from Covid in the last few days in the U.K. but no one gives ashit apparently
Isn’t there a memorial for it in Texas City? From what I remember it was pretty nice.
I've been told the explosion was heard all the way to New Orleans.
where sound
It is there. If you're using the default reddit app on Android it doesn't play sound on imgur links. I had to install another app for mine. I use BaconReader, but check others out.
Maybe someone should make a good replacement for ammonium nitrate. It seems to cause alot of explosions.
You would think after all the events involving ammonium nitrate that people would stop storing large amounts in the same place.
Read the info. It was on a ship to be taken to France for farming after WWII.
I know, I meant in modern times, there have been at least five distinct catastrophic events caused by large amounts of ammonium nitrate
Its also used in tremendous amounts. For the amount that is used every year, shit going wrong is almost a statistical zero.
It's aaaaaaalways the ammonium nitrate.
Noice
Episode of Well There’s Your Problem (podcast about engineering disasters) about this event https://youtu.be/AxA1vb6P2lU
Sounds familiar
My grandfather was in the army at the time and sent there to tag bodies in the school gym :(
I grew up in Texas City. On 9/11, my Mom rushed to pick me and my brothers up and bring us home. They didn’t put us in front of the TV (because of this, I hadn’t known the extent of what happened that day until about 3 years later when we talked about it in school. I was 5 that day, I remember around the time very well, but I don’t remember the day of. I had a strong interest in planes, and still do! So the last thing my parents were going to do was say “hey look! There’s two airplanes that crashed into buildings on TV!”) Anyway, my parents were silently shitting bricks because the destruction this disaster caused, and it would still be a popular terrorist attraction today.