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BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Grandcamp Plant Explosion Texas City\, TX (1947)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260416T040000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260417T040000Z
UID:100829745195
DESCRIPTION:Texas City\, on the southwestern shore of Galveston Bay seven 
 miles from Galveston and eleven miles from the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston
  County\, is a deepwater port on the mainland. Texas City became the site 
 of the worst industrial catastrophe in United States history. When two Lib
 erty merchant ships\, the SS Grandcamp and SS High Flyer\, carrying ammoni
 um nitrate fertilizer exploded on the 16 and 17 April 1947.\nOn the mornin
 g of 16 April 1947\, just before 8:00am\, longshoremen removed the hatch c
 overs on Hold 4 of the French Liberty ship SS Grandcamp to finish loading 
 a cargo of ammonium nitrate fertilizer\; some 2\,300 tons were already on 
 board\, 880 of which were in the lower part of Hold 4.1 Shortly thereafter
  smoke was reported and began to billow from the hold\; the longshoreman w
 ere ordered out of the hold after their attempts to extinguish the fire fa
 iled. The first officer ordered that no water be used to fight the fire\, 
 although the ship’s fire hoses were available and the ship’s fire pump
  was operating. Instead the first officer ordered steam introduced into th
 e hold in an attempt to smother the fire.2 By 8:30am the pressure from the
  compressed steam blew off the hatch covers\, and a thick column of orange
  smoke billowed out. The smoke and fire began to attract onlookers and the
  fire department was called. The twenty-eight men of the Texas City Fire D
 epartment arrived and began fighting the fire. At about 9:00am flames spew
 ed from the open hatches\; at 9:12am the SS Grandcamp detonated in a massi
 ve explosion felt a hundred miles away at Port Arthur. Massive clouds of b
 lack smoke mushroomed into the sky. The entire dock area was destroyed\, a
 nd the nearby Monsanto Chemical Company\, grain warehouses\, along with nu
 merous oil and chemical storage tanks. A chain reaction of smaller explosi
 ons and fires were triggered by flaming\, flying debris. Over 1\,000 resid
 ences were damaged or destroyed by the initial explosion.\nThe explosion h
 ad killed twenty-six Texas City firemen and destroyed all of the city’s 
 fire-fighting equipment\, including four trucks. The shockwave destroyed b
 uildings and sent metal shrapnel raining down across the city. The shrapne
 l ranged in size from a rivet head to a portion of the ship’s structure 
 estimated to weigh 60 tons. Within one-half mile of the epicenter the shra
 pnel pattern was one ‘missile’ every 2 square feet. Almost all persons
  in the dock area: firemen\, ships’ crews and spectators were killed. Ad
 ditionally a wave of water at least fifteen feet tall swept inland groundi
 ng the Longhorn II\, a 150ft steel barge\, on land. The water then carried
  debris and many dead and injured persons back to sea\, where most perishe
 d. The large number of injured quickly overwhelmed the three medical clini
 cs. Texas City had no hospital. Within the hour doctors\, nurses and ambul
 ances began arriving on their own initiative from Galveston\, surrounding 
 cities and nearby military bases\, until almost 4\,000 workers were presen
 t\; to establish temporary hospitals\, morgues\, and shelters.\nThe force 
 of the SS Grandcamp explosion tore the SS High Flyer\, in dock for repairs
 \, from its moorings and wedged it against another cargo vessel\, the SS W
 ilson B. Keene. The ship was loaded with sulfur and a thousand tons of amm
 onium nitrate fertilizer. The SS High Flyer caught fire but given the conf
 used situation it was some time before the danger was realized. Not until 
 11:00pm were tugs dispatched from Galveston to tow the burning ship away f
 rom the docks. They were unable to free the ship. So by 1:00am on 17 April
 \, with flames pouring from the SS High Flyer holds\, the tugs cut their t
 ow lines and retreated. Ten minutes later the ship exploded—further deva
 stating the waterfront facilities and starting new fires among the petrole
 um storage tank farms. The explosion sent metal shards in a 6\,000 foot ci
 rcle. However\, casualties were light since the area had largely been evac
 uated prior to the explosion.\nThe SS Grandcamp’s explosion caused the w
 orst industrial disaster in United States history. The precise number of d
 ead was impossible to establish given the power of the explosions\, confus
 ion\, and commuter nature of many dock workers. The anchor monument record
 s 576 persons killed\, of whom 398 were identified\, while 178 are listed 
 as missing.3 Most bodies were never recovered and 63 bodies were buried un
 identified. The number of injured is generally estimated at around 3\,500\
 , which roughly equaled 25 percent of Texas City’s estimated population 
 of 16\,000. In the 1947 the property loss amounted to about $100 million a
 long with 1.5 million barrels of petroleum products consumed in the flames
  of the disaster valued at about $500 million. The port’s bulk cargo-han
 dling operations never resumed. One-third of the town’s 1\,519 houses we
 re condemned\, leaving an estimated 2\,000 people homeless. The various in
 surance companies paid out around $50 million in claims. Within six months
  most of the homes were repaired or rebuilt. The people of Texas City reco
 vered quickly as well and committed themselves to rebuilding their town. A
 id donations from individuals and companies eventually totaled $1\,063\,00
 0 providing an incalculable boost to public morale and the economic existe
 nce of the town. Most companies made immediate commitments to rebuild or i
 n some cases even expand their operations.4 Edgar Queeny\, the chairman of
  Monsanto\, came to Texas City on the 18th of April to announce that a new
  and expanded plant would be built on the site of the destroyed original. 
 The Monsanto plant\, along with the bulk of the petrochemical industry\, w
 as rebuilt in just over a year. Republic Oil launched plans to increase re
 fining capacity from 93\,000 to 130\,000 barrels daily.\nThe Coast Guard a
 nd Federal investigations publicized the dangers of ammonium nitrate ferti
 lizer\, which inspired new regulations designed to increase the safety of 
 transporting hazardous materials. Colonel Homer P. Garrison\, director of 
 the Texas Department of Public Safety\, noted the lack of emergency plans 
 and organization capable of assisting communities that were disaster areas
 . He recommended that authorities establish major disaster plans and creat
 e control centers to manage response during a disaster. The Federal Civil 
 Defense Act (1950) and Texas’s Civil Protection Act (1951) allowed the g
 overnor to establish Defense and Disaster Relief Councils—bringing toget
 her state government and non-government agencies. The Texas City disaster 
 provided impetuous to begin establishing basic response plans to industria
 l disasters end to improvements in safety procedures.\n\nhttp://www.youtub
 e.com/watch?v=KM7zRSxt584\n
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