The West Fertilizer Plant Explosion

The Texas City disaster took place on April 16th, 1947, with the detonation of 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate, near the Texas City docks. The Grandcamp was set to embark on an assigned trip to Europe to help in the reconstruction of various countries in the aftermath of the Second World War. The ships were loaded with 32.5 % ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which is a high explosive used in military and mining operations. The result of which was a DDT which is a deflagration to detonation causing a massive explosion leading to many deaths, destroyed homes, and the surroundings being ruined. The leading causes of this horrific tragedy were poor transportation and storing laws of ammonium nitrate which was a main component in the disaster, if these two components had have been handled with more care the lives of innocent people would not have been lost.

A natural disaster has the capability to cause large scale damage and destruction to an area. Seismic events have been known to alter landscapes and affect the livelihoods, health and development of communities. No two earthquake events are the same and the level of threat posed by an earthquake can vary due to both the human and physical factors of an area. The 2010 magnitude - 7.0 earthquake that occurred in Haiti is an example of where a natural disaster caused a previously vulnerable area to suffer tremendous loss and debilitating socio-economic impacts, to an already poverty-stricken nation.

After the explosion, the yellow press proclaimed that “The Maine was destroyed by treachery”. Although there is no evidence to support their assertion, but this assume give a possible explanation of the explosion, and successfully make a lot of people believed in it. Not only one press, but a lot of yellow press start making rumours about this explosion and they are announcing “The warship Maine was split in two by an enemy’s secret infernal machine”. These announcement make people think that the Spain government is behind this thing.

Viewers across the nation are affected by the social media causing stress on the subject by bombarding the public with media stories, rumors and “a sense of mass panic”. Victims have to relive that horrible moment because the media wants to

On April seventeenth, year 2013, a vast blast caused by several bins of fired ammonium nitrate fertilizer at the West Fertilizer Company and distribution facility in West, Texas occurred (Lateef, 2013). This disaster caused 35 people dead, which included 12 volunteer firefighters, no mention that over 100 people living nearby injured. (Dave 2014). The purpose of this report is to analyze the causes of this tragedy to find the shortage of storing flammable fertilizers in West fertilizer Company, also to provide a safer way or strategy to prevent a similar accident which may occur in the future time.

At 6pm on April 30th, 2014, a life-threatening disaster struck the Florida panhandle. At that time, Florida residents were not aware of the rain and flooding that was about engulf Pensacola and the surrounding areas. But as time began to pass, it became obvious this was not an ordinary storm. As the rain poured and the lightning struck, many people lost power and television connection, unable to see that what was thought to be a small storm would set national records and be the cause for severe-weather threats. This event taught me how to prevent a disastrous situation in dire conditions as well as the importance of being prepared.

For example, in Canada, the number of human deaths has been small in comparison to those that have occurred in developing nations as a result of extreme events of similar magnitude and intensity. Nevertheless, there have been a number of disasters that have caused enormous disruption and/or damage, including the 1998 Ice Storm, the Prairie droughts of the 1930s, 1980, 1987 and 1989, the Red River flood of 1997, the British Columbia forest fires of 2004, the Saguenay flood of 1997, Hurricanes Hazel (1954) and Juan (2004), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS, 2003) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) (Haque, C.E and Etkin, D 2007).

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast leaving bits and pieces of people’s lives in its wake. While those in need did receive much needed response and help from surrounding areas, other states, and the government, there was much that was learned from this disaster as well. A disaster was declared and FEMA stepped in, along with the Coast Guard, National Guard, and State Defense Forces to provide their assistance (Bucci, et al., 2013).

This spring, record breaking floodwaters along the Mississippi River caused massive damage in nine states, totaling over $25 billion dollars in damage (Watts, 2011). In most areas the floodwaters have receded, however there is concern that even a little rain could cause more flooding due to the already saturated land. As cities and towns are beginning the restoration process, one thing caused by the flooding waters cannot be restored. Pollutants’ such as nitrogen from fertilizer, due to this area being primarily composed of farming land, is making its way toward the Gulf of Mexico. Every year pollutants traveling in the Mississippi River enter the Gulf and contribute to the Coastal Dead Zone; however, this year the Dead Zone in the Gulf

When one thinks about an environmental disaster, the image of a large explosion in a highly industrial area comes to mind. Such is not the case in the Love Canal emergency. Unlike most environmental disasters, the events of Niagara Falls's Love Canal weren't characterized by a known and uncontrollable moment of impact. It developed over a period of several decades, since the effects of leaching chemicals is uncertain and slow in development and the visual effects are very limited. This disaster could have been identified earlier or later for as far as the rest of the world was concerned there was no emergency until the authorities made it public. The importance of Love Canal is that acknowledging the danger that existed

Throughout human history there have been many disasters that have plagued humanity. These disasters have caused an untold amount of damages and an untold number of lives lost. Each disaster is different from each other and each can leave their own impact on human civilization. Many of these disasters are of the nature variety, these typically include your hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, and many others that can impact humanity. We can’t control these types of disasters, any many of them can strike at any time with little to no warning. The best that we can do is learn from them and our past mistakes, in order to prepare for the next time one of these types of disasters strikes an area. There is, however another type of disaster that plagues mankind, and that is called man-made disasters. One of the biggest man-made disasters to have occurred in more recent time, was the “Event Horizon” disaster or as it is better known as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This was one the worst because millions upon millions of barrels of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, which not only damages the surrounding waters, but also killed marine life, destroyed many fishing businesses’ around the Gulf, and in some cases destroyed the tourism around the gulf as well. In order to get a better understanding of why this event was important we need to look at what caused the event to happen in the first place, could have anything been done to prevent it from happening in the first

In working with a member of the community after the Texas fertilizer plant explosion, they could be experiencing many types of loss. Below are examples of at least three instances where my client could be experiencing loss.

Since the drastic 1934 Nepal-Bihar earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0, Nepal continued to experience numerous series of earthquakes throughout the years that were of less magnitude and low causalities. However, on 25 April 2015, Nepal once again encountered one of the most severe earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 followed by several aftershocks which resulted in more than 8,000 people being killed, injuring over 21,000 people and destroying more than 500,000 buildings (UNOCHA, 2015). Nonetheless, there were different international media coverages and responses to this issue of Nepal earthquake. Firs, this report will contain the overview of international responses interpreted by five different media sources such as CNN, The Kathmandu Post, Reuters, Zee News India and Hindustan Times. In addition, the sources will then be examined in detail focusing on the efforts of disaster relief assistance provided by the Nepali government and several other agencies. Subsequently, this media report will be concluded by generally analysing the role of media in framing the global events.

Third of all, any piece of information given to the press by the victims could be wrong. The victims of the natural disaster are not in a healthy state of mind. They will feel confused and won’t pay attention to the questions asked. They might even answer the question with something completely off topic. Also, the victims would say anything to get away from the press. The victims will want to be left alone, to be by themselves so that they can think about their next step. For that to happen, they will be willing to give false information about the tragic event so that they can be left in solitude. To add, the environment around them will distract them. There are piles of objects everywhere and the survivors will want to pick around the piles, to check for anything valuable. They will concentrate on that instead of the questions asked.

“Natural disasters have killed more than 600,000 people and left behind trillions of dollars in damages in the last two decades, the United Nations said Monday.” (Chan) Extreme weather has caused millions of casualties and extreme damages over the years, but lately there has been an increase in severe weather events. This is causing problems in the US, with the amount of tornadoes rising in tornado alley “Tennessee experienced a 67 percent increase in tornado activity in 1983-2013 compared to the 1954-1983 time period. Oklahoma experienced a nearly 35 percent decrease in tornadoes in 1983-2013 compared to 1954-1983.”