Posted: 8/18/2012 12:11:58 PM EDT
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It was storming pretty bad yesterday, I was home with the family my son was playing in the living room wife was doing stuff around the house.
My phone rings and it's my mom who lives about 10 min away..."bay... Lightning hit the chemical plant and theirs a fire". I turn the tv on and the news lady says chemical fire plant leaking benzene... (plant is about 5 min away) the next 5 min went like this. Call wife into living room "look at what's happening" I run to my hall closet and grab the BOB/hurricane bag bring it to the living room (when she saw it she already knew what time It was) She grabs the baby and they go into the bed room to get shoes on. I turned my a/c off and turned all the fans on in the house grabbed my rifle threw everything in the truck. Wife puts baby in car seat while I lock up the house I jump in the truck and we hit the road. There's 1 way into town (a tunnel) And one way out (a bridge) Both right next to each other Once we cross the bridge it sets in... The police have the tunnel blocked and they are redirecting traffic. were headed to wife's parents house about 20 min away. Long story short No one was hurt after about 3 hours they opened the road blocks and said the air was clear. In all I was surprised that we got out so quick and organized We beat about an hours worth of traffic by leaving at the first sign of danger which is our plan in any case. Im really glad that I'm not a sheep and that we are prepared for things like this. I was worried but once we made it out of town I couldn't help but smile. I told the wife how good of a job she did and we made it to her folks house safe and sound. |
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Good job OP.
People tend to think of bug out situations as natural disasters or civil unrest, but stuff like this probably happens a lot more than people realize. I remember a train derailment that caused them to evacuate our little town when I was a kid due to the LP tanker cars. |
I love seeing stories like this! Good job!
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Quoted:
Good job OP. People tend to think of bug out situations as natural disasters or civil unrest, but stuff like this probably happens a lot more than people realize. I remember a train derailment that caused them to evacuate our little town when I was a kid due to the LP tanker cars. If you are not doing a threat assessment that includes rail lines, chemical factories, and other industrial hazards then you are missing significant risks. Choke points like the one OP encountered are also overlooked by a lot of folks in their evac plans, be sure you have other routes scoped out to use if you have to BO. Well done OP glad it worked good for you and yours. |
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Nice Job. Shows that it can happen to anyone.
Suggestion: Have a code word/phrase that you or your wife can use to evacuate (or indicate under duress). Example: You may not want to discuss why you want to leave a food establishment when you notice three gang banger walking in with trench coat on in the middle of summer. |
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Redneck fail.
Proper response was to grab some beer and a bottle of liquor. Go park near chemical plant with your shirt off, Skynyrd on the radio, and take pot shots in its general direction while consuming aforementioned beverages until one of the following conditions was met. 1. You run out of liquor and beer and lose your buzz. 2. The cops run you off / arrest you. 3. You die from a cloud of benzene. 4. Get hungry / bored and leave to pick up a burrito / Slim Jim / can of vienna sausages and pack of crackers at the gas station. Extra points if wife takes her shirt off too. |
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Quoted:
Redneck fail. Proper response was to grab some beer and a bottle of liquor. Go park near chemical plant with your shirt off, Skynyrd on the radio, and take pot shots in its general direction while consuming aforementioned beverages until one of the following conditions was met. 1. You run out of liquor and beer and lose your buzz. 2. The cops run you off / arrest you. 3. You die from a cloud of benzene. 4. Get hungry / bored and leave to pick up a burrito / Slim Jim / can of vienna sausages and pack of crackers at the gas station. Extra points if wife takes her shirt off too. Next time TSHTF, I wanna roll with yer crowd! 
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Quoted:
Nice Job. Shows that it can happen to anyone. Suggestion: Have a code word/phrase that you or your wife can use to evacuate (or indicate under duress). Example: You may not want to discuss why you want to leave a food establishment when you notice three gang banger walking in with trench coat on in the middle of summer. Me and the ex-wife had this. She knew if I said "Lets go." no questions asked we go. Wherever we are. Pay the bill, checkout, was her task. Id be busy doing whatever I thought I needed to do. We used it once in 5 years together in our local mall. I had assisted with a search warrant the previous day and guess who do we bump into??? |
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Good job OP. Understand that sometimes the best thing to do isn't to get out into a potentially hazardous atmosphere. Lots of work can be done by sheltering in place. You can look out a window and get a feel for how stuff is going. If you look out and bugs are flying, kids riding their bikes, birds chirping, etc you can probably get out just fine. If you look out and see any of the above not happening it may be best to shelter in place.
You can hide in a room and tape off the door frame and any walls with clear plastic sheathing. Turn off all fans, ac units, heaters etc. I am not knocking you OP, just giving you an extra bit of knowledge. I seem to remember a story from my hazmat classes about an incident on a highway involving an overturned tanker truck. People got out and started running away. The people that left their vehicles were killed or badly sickened by the vapor cloud. One lady was old and immobilized in her car, she was fine as well as some others. Just look a bit before you go, but a very good job by you OP. |