A Wake-Up Call!

There we were Sunday night around 9:45pm watching TV peacefully. Completely out of nowhere we felt our house shake. At first it felt like someone had hit their car into our townhouse building. However, we rushed to the balcony and found many neighbors of other buildings on their balconies as well. We immediately dismissed the car-into-our-building theory. Our second theory was possibly an earthquake when a neighbor yelled “Look at the smoke!” He was referring to a tall, smoke-cloud coming from the valley. We all rushed to put our coats on and run to the valley-side of the complex. There we learned that the Pacific State Cast Iron Pipe Company about 1 mile away had an explosion. After a minute or two outside in the cold, we headed back home to flip on the local news to see if they knew anything more. It was not until the next morning that we learned many of the details of the explosion. For you chemists out there:

"A pipe froze and leaked water onto calcium carbide which was also leaking from a
container. The chemical – water mix created gas which built up to an explosive level. An unknown source ignited the gas and created the huge explosion." Check out the full story here... http://www.kutv.com/content/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=767e5592-39f6-406a-ad95-75f4a419a9d2

Let’s just say I had a lot to think about that night. The first thing I contemplated was the reality that the explosion could have been an earthquake. The area that we live, the Wasatch Front, is around 10,000 years overdue for a massive earthquake. Which, of course excites me to no end! Hurricanes, I can handle. Earthquakes, I cry over. I quickly realized that we still do not have our 72 hour kits ready. And not only will we need the supplies for the two of us, but with our little one coming we will need supplies for him. Now leaving for Florida tomorrow does not leave much room for immediate action on my new project. But when we return it will be assembly time! I refer everyone to an amazing website if they would like some direction as to where to start. My wonderful friend Vanessa documented her and her husband’s 72 hour kit excellently (pictures included as well). At the end of her post, she even created for ease a print-out of the list and other important documents. Our copies are printed and I will be reviewing everything on the plane tomorrow. Thank you again, Vanessa for being such a great example and posting this for me. http://zinke.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/72-hour-kits-checklist/