THE GRANDCAMP & THE WORST STORM EVER

[leVieux]

The largest Industrial Accident in US History AND the largest natural tragedy were at the same place in Texas, some 47 years apart!

We’ve all heard or read about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, and a few of us can recall the 1947 “Grandcamp” disaster, a peacetime industrial/maritime incident in which over 580 were killed, and thousands were wounded.

Although both set records for deaths, injuries, & property damages, which still stand as the USA’s all-time worsts; few today realize that both involved the same tiny area of the Continent; the adjacent S E Texas neighborhoods of Texas City & Galveston Island.

This small part of Texas was historically important. Today, within a one-mile radius; it houses two large refineries, several ports, a college, a Medical School, the largest prison hospital, several other large hospitals, one of the USA’s two bioweapons labs, the channel entrance to the Port of Houston, and resort areas. Nearby are USCG & US Naval facilities, Ellington Field, NASA, shipbuilders, & tens of thousands of homes.

I was told by an ex-USAF-SAC Officer that it was considered the most important target of Soviet nuclear attack plans, for decades.

As large as Texas & the USA are; is it wise to have so many critical facilkities in such an ‘’unlucky’’ spot ?

leVieux
.

See:

1900 Galveston Hurricane - Path, Deaths & Name

On September 8, 1900, a Category 4 hurricane ripped through Galveston, Texas, killing an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 people. The hurricane remains the worst weather-related disaster in U.S. history in terms of loss of life.

www.history.com

https://thehistoryguy.com/videos/1947-texas-city-disaster/


Google Earth Link


https://earth.app.goo.gl/U4uWux
#googleearth

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Too much for me to read.....

 

[digger]

Galveston hurricane and Texas City explosion? but that's a stretch for the "same place"

 

[Texasgordo]

Wut?

 

[Texasgordo]

Is the OP drunk again?

 

[Colonel]

We’ve all heard or read some on Galvesto Hurricane[-2

Glenn Campbell sang a song about Galveston.

Where is this Galvesto of which you are speaking?

 

[Moonpie]

OP must be from Algoa

 

[Texasgordo]

OP must be from Algoa

Or Angleton

 

[Texasgordo]

OP must be from Algoa

Or Arcola

 

[Moonpie]

Or Angleton

Naaaaaaa. Too tar away. Probably one of them Frenchtown bums.

 

[TXAZ]

Naaaaaaa. Too tar away. Probably one of them Frenchtown bums.

Or Angola.

 

[Sam Colt]

I clean my gun, and dream of Galveston.

 

[leVieux]

The computer crashed; corrections are now made.

 

[leVieux]

Galveston hurricane and Texas City explosion? but that's a stretch for the "same place"

Look at a map !

Google Earth Link


https://earth.app.goo.gl/U4uWux
#googleearth

 

[jrbfishn]

If it ever happens, how close they are to each other will not matter.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

 

[Texasjack]

I did some work for the company that owns the property where the Grandcamp blew up. The frame of the office building was left standing as a memorial. It has trees growing up through it. The cargo was ammonium nitrate. It has been commonly used in fertilizer, but was heavily used during WWII to cut the cost of bombs and torpedoes. Mix it with a little TNT and it makes a very good bomb for half the price. Add aluminum and it makes Torpex for torpedoes. It's also the stuff used in Tannerite. Normally it's extremely safe to handle, but under certain circumstances, it can explode, like it did in Texas City. Sadly, the mistakes were repeated in the 2013 West Fertilizer Company explosion.

I worked along the Houston Ship Channel when 9/11 occurred. Everybody in that area knew that if America was going to be attacked, that strip would be one of the primary targets. I watched as a ship full of LNG was escorted by 3 Coast Guard vessels - with people standing at the triggers of the vessel machine guns. It's kind of a sobering thing. But you still go to work every day because you know that if you are important as a target, you're also important to the country.

As for hurricanes, most of the people who die in a hurricane these days do so because they are stupid or incredibly unlucky. "Hide from the wind and run from the water". It's pretty simple. But people will try to drive around to take pictures, or swim the flooded bayous. As a comic put it, "It ain't the wind you need to worry about. It's the stuff in the wind."

 

[oldag]

Had a relative who was in Monsanto when the Grandcamp detonated. Pretty serious injuries.

Ammonium nitrate under adequate temperature and pressure goes into a liquid phase. And then it can detonate (as opposed to explode). Much more devastating. When the ammonium nitrate in the hold was on fire, they were unable to put the fire out. So they decided to pump in steam and close the hatches in. Guess they were trying to starve the fire of oxygen. Exactly the wrong thing to do. Pressure and temperature went up, eventually detonated.

At ambient conditions, ammonium nitrate is not all that easy to ignite.

The shockwave broke windows as far away as Dickinson. The Dickinson football team was reviewing film at the time. The projector was rocked over. When the High Flyer (aptly named) went up later, a news plane had been circling over the site. They never found even the tiniest trace of the plane.

At one time, Texas City had three refineries and several of the largest chemical plants in the world. It was in the top ten Soviet nuke hit list supposedly.

But over time the petrochemical complex has shrunk dramatically. What was once Monsanto is a mere ghost of itself. Union Carbide is long gone.

 

[oldag]

Also, the 1900 storm also hit Texas City.

 

[Eli]

Had a relative who was in Monsanto when the Grandcamp detonated. Pretty serious injuries.

Ammonium nitrate under adequate temperature and pressure goes into a liquid phase. And then it can detonate (as opposed to explode). Much more devastating. When the ammonium nitrate in the hold was on fire, they were unable to put the fire out. So they decided to pump in steam and close the hatches in. Guess they were trying to starve the fire of oxygen. Exactly the wrong thing to do. Pressure and temperature went up, eventually detonated.

At ambient conditions, ammonium nitrate is not all that easy to ignite.

The shockwave broke windows as far away as Dickinson. The Dickinson football team was reviewing film at the time. The projector was rocked over. When the High Flyer (aptly named) went up later, a news plane had been circling over the site. They never found even the tiniest trace of the plane.

At one time, Texas City had three refineries and several of the largest chemical plants in the world. It was in the top ten Soviet nuke hit list supposedly.

But over time the petrochemical complex has shrunk dramatically. What was once Monsanto is a mere ghost of itself. Union Carbide is long gone.

The blast rattled windows in downtown Houston and West U - scaring the hell out of my then-toddler father and his parents. My mother and her sister - also young children - were much closer, I recall being told the infamous 3200-lb anchor that flew 1.62 miles landed very near where my aunt was at the time.
It's believed 581 people died in the Texas City Disaster, it's known that total would be substantially higher if most of the men in the area hadn't had first aid training as part of their recent military service.

Eli

 

[deemus]

Interesting video. I had never heard of Grandcamp.