TDW 1663 - The Texas City Disaster
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Transcript
0:01
Now that's a
0:02
sunrise. Very beautiful. One would even
0:05
say majestic. Heading into Texas City, a
0:09
town where fireworks are prohibited.
0:12
Welcome everyone. Adam the Woo here.
0:14
It's my second channel, Daily Vlog
0:16
Channel. Today's video is going to be on
0:19
a little bit more serious note than
0:22
normal. It's the Daily Woo. In the
0:24
1940s, this became the location of the
0:27
worst industrial accident in history.
0:31
There are lots of factories here and
0:33
lots of ways to transport goods to
0:37
different areas from those factories,
0:39
including by boat, and that's where the
0:42
Port of Texas City comes in. It happened
0:44
on April 16th,
0:47
1947, a day this area will surely never
0:50
forget.
1:02
Now, obviously, I cannot get inside the
1:02
actual port because of security reasons,
1:06
but I can show you what happened. Just
1:08
right over there was one of the largest
1:11
non-nuclear explosions in history. It
1:15
started upon a ship by the name of the
1:17
SS Grand Camp who was hauling well over
1:21
2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, the same
1:26
chemical that was used in the Oklahoma
1:29
City bombing years and years later. What
1:33
the local town folk did not know when
1:35
they were watching the fire that was
1:37
supposedly started by a cigarette is
1:41
that the ship was going to explode. And
1:44
it did. It ignited two other ships and a
1:47
bunch of oil
1:49
refineries, creating an explosion of
1:52
immense proportions.
2:12
In all, there were over 581 people who
2:12
perished, mostly including all but one
2:14
person of the fire department who was
2:16
putting out the blaze. The rest were
2:18
mostly people from town that were
2:21
curious to see what was going on. They
2:23
came down to the shoreline. They
2:25
certainly were not expecting that. Over
2:28
1,000 buildings were destroyed as well
2:32
as two airplanes that were flying
2:34
overhead were taken from the sky. One of
2:36
the two cargo ships on site was called
2:39
the High Flyer. The explosion happened
2:41
about a mile that way. And here is that
2:45
ship's
2:47
propeller. It flew this far, dedicated
2:50
in memory of those who died and in honor
2:53
of those who survived to make Texas City
2:56
a safer and better place in which to
3:00
live and to work.
3:03
Just to give you a perspective of how
3:05
large this really is, it's like three or
3:08
four of
3:13
me. Man, that's big. And a little
3:13
farther down the road, about a block or
3:14
two from the propeller, is this anchor
3:18
from the
3:19
ship that started the fire. And keep
3:22
this in mind, I was just reading that
3:23
placard. This thing weighs 10,000 lb.
3:27
That's 5 tons.
3:30
wrap your head around that to way past
3:33
that factory thrown and now located
3:38
here. I have arrived now at the memorial
3:42
cemetery here in
3:44
town. Started the same year as when the
3:48
explosion was. And it is also the
3:51
location of the anchor thrown the
3:54
farthest. This one.
4:03
62 miles. Here is a photo before the
4:03
accident of the port. And down here is
4:06
one of the last photos taken of the
4:10
firemen who lost their lives shortly
4:13
before it exploded. It was only a few
4:16
minutes later when tragedy
4:25
struck. Incredible how powerful that
4:25
was. the cars in the parking lot, the
4:28
charred remains of them. And 10 to 12
4:32
miles away in
4:33
Galveastston, that was their view. Wow.
4:35
It created a 15 ft tidal wave that
4:39
crashed onto the dock and flooded the
4:41
surrounding areas. Windows were
4:44
shattered in
4:45
Houston, 40 miles north, and people 250
4:49
mi away in Louisiana even felt the
4:51
shock. This is an aftershot of every
4:54
building just leveled and one of the
4:56
ships completely ripped in half. There
5:00
was no public cemetery in Texas City in
5:02
1947. A burial committee appointed by
5:05
local officials used donated funds to
5:08
purchase this 2acre tract of land and
5:11
made plans to bury the unidentified
5:13
victims on Sunday, June 22nd.
5:18
On the property sits the
5:25
statue simply titled grief. Just one
5:25
word to sum up the
5:28
thoughts I'm sure everyone was feeling
5:32
around that time frame and probably
5:34
still are
5:39
feeling. Hard to imagine something of
5:39
that proportion happening to your little
5:42
town.
5:51
This sums it up pretty perfectly. This
5:51
fountain was created to honor the
5:54
firemen who served that day.
6:16
There were 63 people who were
6:18
unidentified. And right past that
6:20
sidewalk, right on that mound, is where
6:23
their final resting place is.
6:53
This might be the first time that I've
6:53
ever been to what is designated a
6:55
cemetery that does not have the
6:58
traditional graves and regular
7:00
headstones like you would see. This
7:03
might be a first for me.