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From: etan@tellab1.UUCP (Nate Stelton)
Newsgroups: net.general
Subject: Lockport Blast
Message-ID: <338@tellab1.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Jul-84 10:42:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: tellab1.338
Posted: Tue Jul 24 10:42:30 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jul-84 02:19:50 EDT
Organization: Tellabs, Inc., Lisle, Ill.
Lines: 24


I'd make a terrible newsman, but here goes.  

Lemont, IL.  At 5:52 PM Monday afternoon an explosion at an oil refinery
owned by Union Oil Co. occurred.  The blast set off a runaway fire that
150 firefighters battled for five hours.  A thirty-five ton refinery
tower was hurled through the air about a mile and knocked down a
high-tension power line tower causing an outage for 10,000 customers.
The number of deaths at this time is unknown.

I live about 3.5 miles from the site where the blast occurred, at the top
of a valley.  The power in our home winked for a split-second, then the
house MOVED.  It felt like a huge tree fell on top of us!  The next-door
neighbors' alarm system went off (they weren't home), and I thought maybe
this was WWIII.  Apparently, we were extremely lucky that no windows
broke because many homes a little closer lost all their windows, and
their plaster walls and ceilings cracked.  People I spoke with this
morning who live 15+ miles away felt the shock wave at an alarming
intensity.

The physical experience of the shock wave was not a bang or snap, but a
soft, low-frequency push with hitherto unimaginable force.

From Lemont Illinois, this is etan