BHOPAL, TX (AP) - One of the "great" things about living in the Houston area is the life-on-the-edge quality of life that comes from living in close proximity to refineries and chemical plants. Some of these plants produce chemicals that would reduce a human being to the equivalent of a bowl of jello in no time flat, and every now and then one plant or another will simply go "BOOM". And then, depending on which way the wind is blowing, much hilarity is sure to ensue.
Yesterday morning, it was a pesticide plant in Pasadena that went en flambe, and if not for the wind blowing directly east into the Gulf of Mexico, life here might well have been...well, let's just say less abundant.
As I was leaving for work, I looked south into a brilliant blue southeast Texas morning sky. Then I looked to the north, and the color I saw was just not something you should have to see first thing in the morning. Officials issued what is called a "shelter in place" order, which is basically one level below the "bend over and kiss your @$$ goodbye" order. The idea is that everyone is supposed to stay inside, turn off their air conditioners, and pray that they have their affairs in order. Of course, this is much easier to do in March than, say, August. Air conditioning in March is generally not required in southeast Texas, so theoretically this was no big deal. Try telling that to those who live near where the fire occurred.
Of course, "shelter in place" means that EVERYONE stays indoors- unless you're a school, in which case administrators have no qualms about running kids outdoors where they can breathe deeply of the gathering gloom. So, if your kid came home with a third nipple yesterday, well, now you know why.
Yesterday's warning was that breathing the smoke from the burning pesticide warehouse could make you nauseous. Lo and behold, I was nauseous all afternoon and into the evening, even though I was inside all day long. Of course, my nausea may have nothing at all to do with whatever it was floating in the air, but it does make me wonder.
Of course, I haven't noticed any mosquitoes, either. Every cloud really DOES have a silver lining, eh?
We were fortunate yesterday. The wind was blowing from west to east, and the bulk of the smoke was blown the seven or eight miles to the Gulf Coast and then over Galveston Bay. The area the smoke was blown over is, thankfully, mostly industrial and not very heavily populated. I wonder, though; what's going to happen when something goes BOOM next time, and the wind is blowing in the opposite direction? How many people will have to be sickened or, worse, die before local and state governments recognize and deal with the risks? Next time, I may not have anything to ridicule- and that is what truly frightens me.
