SCENARIO #13 Chemical Spill Disaster

[RICHFL]

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Here we go again This happened to me and my family while serving in the military in the mid 1980's


We went to bed at 10:30 last night expecting to get up around 8 am to take the kids to the beach (Orange County) Ca. It is the middle of the Summer vacation and the kids have not done a lot with their time off. Everyone is looking forward to it.

I sleep on my side and with me having hearing damaged from the war I sleep very well and cannot hear much of anything around me. My wife starts shacking me and yelling that something is wrong. The first thing I do is look at the clock it says 2:18am. I'm not awake by any means when I asked what's up!

She says a police car just went by with it's loud speaker going -telling everyone to get up and get out fast. I of course having never heard the message, or ever seen anything happen like this before, tried to get her to lay back down, because I thought it must have been a nightmare!

A flashing light starts shining through the window so I get up to see whats up. A Military Police car is moving down the street with its loud speaker going "Wake up , get up, and get out fast there has been a chemical spill and a chemical cloud is moving this way.".

What would you do?

[RICHFL]

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Tomorrow I will tell the rest of this story. To say the least that there was a chemical spill at an off base chemical plant within 1/2 of the base. (We "military families" were not informed of a chemical plants location prior to the spill).

[hawkcrewchief]

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Thats always nice to find out about a hazard like that after the fact.

[RICHFL]

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Yes that is one of the truths to be known from this scenario. Know what hazardous are around you.

Continued:

My wife is dressed in less then 1 minute. I'm still waking up - trying to put shoes on with my PJ still on. I decide to start over. I dress once again taking the time to do it right. Warm clothing since it could be a long night. I yell to mama to dress the kids warm with pillow and blanket each. I grad my wallet and a bag I keep near the bed for emergencies that has our important papers, extra money, water and food for at least a day.

Mama has the kids ready then I look at her she has a bath robe on over her PJ with slippers and is ready to run. I stop her and tell her while I get the kids and dog into the truck to get some cloths for her and a blanket for each of us.

The police car is still running up an down the neighbor hood telling us to go through the south gate and continue south since the wind is from the SW moving to the NE. I look around the neighbor hood. Doors have been left open, lights on, I see some clothing left on the front lawns, and most autos gone.

So we start going south until I see the line of cars waiting to go through the gate; it is over 1/2 mile long. It looks like everyone is trying to go through the same gate at the same time.

I turn around and head towards the west gate. It is wide open , no traffic and no one manning the gate house. I see in the distance a cloud low to the ground moving slowly with the wind. It is about 1/2 mile from us, when I turn the truck onto the interstate moving south. We go to a gas station so I can call some friends that live about 30 minutes south of the base, that we need shelter for a few hours. They say come on in. We arrive at 3:45 am. Alive and well. We stayed there for 2 days while the government does a total decontamination of the housing areas.

Any animals left behind died in the gas cloud. It was a cloud of Hydrochloric acid that was being used in some chemical manufacturing at the plant. The 5,000 gallon tank exploded and the cloud spread for over 3/4 of a mile. No people were hurt due to the plants location near the military airfield, and was located in a manufacturing area of the county. A lot of dead animals were found over the next 10-14 days.

A similar spill happened in India about 2 years later where over 1,800 people died and over 25,000 were injured.

After action:

1. The military set up a call back system (reverse 911) using the telephone system to all military housing on the airfield

2. The military set up plans for total evacuation of everyone including places to take families to. (It took almost a week to get everyone back to the base).

3. Any new industry that moved into the area had to pass an state run inspection when using/storing hazardous materials.

4. My family started packing a bag each that had items rotated each month that became our bug-out bags of today. Mostly it held clothing food and water. The items you need when on the run.

5. In my truck I placed a lock box that contained sleeping bags, tents, cooking items, and other items you need for 2 or 3 days.

6. I always kept the gas tank at 1/2 full!.

This happened in 1982 in Orange County Ca. I was assigned to and living at MCAS Tustin when this happened.

[RICHFL]

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Follow up:

I did some additional reading and my original number were wrong. See below:



India 1987 a chemical gas cloud released by a Union Carbide Chemical Plant has killed over 25,000 and injured over 35.000 people.

Can you guess what type of chemical it was????? YES IT WAS THE SAME!

Did the owners of the chemical plant go to jail for this disaster? No.

Did the Plant Manager who was required to over see the safety procedures at the plant go to jail? No

Did anyone go to jail over this disaster? No

Was the Chemical Plant closed? No

Were the victims medical care taken care of by the Plant owner? No

Did the Plant owner pay money to the dead peoples families. Yes about $12,000 per.

Does the plant still use the same chemical and store it at the plant site? Yes.

Does this give you any idea of what could happen, near to where you live? I hope and pray so.

[Redneckwop]

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Good info Rich & thanks, it's something I never really thought about.