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Lightening hit an ammonium nitrate manufacturing plant yesterday in Bryan, TX. (that's the story and I'm sticking too it) The resulting fire released clouds of ammonia gas, prompting city officials to tell 70,000 people to get the heck out of there. Most were allowed to return 24 hours later.

This is exactly the sort of thing the Blast-family BOB is designed for: a quick get-away from a very localized emergency. We grab it (one very large, wheeled duffle bag) and off we go to a hotel or friend's place.

-Blast

p.s. Bryan, TX is about two hours away. We were not affected in any way other than a sadness over the loss of NH4NO3.

Snort!

Somehow I think Blast will find a way to get ahold of more... much, much more.

For, ahem, his large farming operations, of course.

That cloud didn't manage to nitrate anything when it was passing through, did it? Like, say, a stockpile of ramen or what-have-you?

I would like to know how effective the evacuation was.
There seems to be a real tendency in a lot of places for people to simply refuse to leave because they are afraid of losing property to looters.

Yikes!!!

I guess there is a reason to have those kind of filters for your mask!

"Lightening hit an ammonium nitrate manufacturing plant yesterday in Bryan, TX." (that's the story and I'm sticking too it)

"Snort" Sure it did!! LOL

Mike

It takes a special filter and mask for ammonia.

I have masks and filters for all the other chemicals except for Ammonia!

70,000!!--thats a seven with all those zeros???..how in the world could 70,000 people move fast enough to get away..i would think by the time that many people could get in a car and on the road in what must have been a traffic jam they would be gassed anyway--
any idea of how many really left out of that 70,000..?

Probably only as good as they drill for. Folks in Benton County, WA had a drill earlier this year to evacuate away from a mock nuclear accident on the Hanford Reservation. DHS and FEMA paid for that, it had pretty good participation. Whoever operates emergency management for Bryant, TX will want to assess how good it went, and maybe run a future drill.

Lightning seems to get a lot of blame for things like this.

Today's article indicates that "a welding job in the 11,216-square-foot warehouse likely sparked the fire". Lightning and a welding torch don't usually resemble each other, as far as I've ever noticed...
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/6557386.html

Evacuation from an incident like that would be rather dependent on which way the wind was blowing, and if it was likely to change.

If you're home is downwind from the incident, leave immediately. Let the fumes get the looters. Don't forget your pets.