The Conservative Cave

The Bar => The Lounge => Topic started by: Chris_ on July 18, 2008, 07:55:35 AM

Title: 5,000 Gallons Of Molasses Spill On Texas Highway
Post by: Chris_ on July 18, 2008, 07:55:35 AM
Quote
5,000 Gallons Of Molasses Spill On Texas Highway

(AP) A sticky mess has been cleaned up after an overturned tanker truck poured 5,000 gallons of molasses onto a major Texas highway.

Drivers heading to Sugar Land were rerouted Thursday after the afternoon accident shut down Texas 6 at Southwest Freeway for eight hours.

City of Sugar Land  spokeswoman Pat Pollicoff told The Houston Chronicle the road was closed until midnight Thursday because of the coating of "healthy, all natural molasses." The spilled molasses was supposed to be used in cattle food.

The 26-year-old driver of the truck, Joe Albert Loya, was taken to a hospital with minor head injuries.

GOO (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/18/ap/strange/main4270807.shtml)

I guess people really were "stuck" in traffic.   :-)
Title: Re: 5,000 Gallons Of Molasses Spill On Texas Highway
Post by: jtyangel on July 18, 2008, 08:08:28 AM
That's a sticky situation.
Title: Re: 5,000 Gallons Of Molasses Spill On Texas Highway
Post by: Lord Undies on July 18, 2008, 08:21:16 AM
Another headline from that sweet link:

Quote
Woman Searching For Crabs Finds 50-year-old Ring

She's been itching for years to find that lost ring. 
Title: Re: 5,000 Gallons Of Molasses Spill On Texas Highway
Post by: ReardenSteel on July 18, 2008, 09:36:25 AM
"Slow down, ya move too fast..."  :-)

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfaBsspAE7k[/youtube]
Title: Re: 5,000 Gallons Of Molasses Spill On Texas Highway
Post by: Lord Undies on July 18, 2008, 09:48:33 AM
"Slow down, ya move too fast..."  :-)


Blessed are The Seekers for they shall inherently be the molasses.
Title: Re: 5,000 Gallons Of Molasses Spill On Texas Highway
Post by: Splashdown on July 18, 2008, 09:50:56 AM
"The workday passes like molasses in the wintertime, but it's July."

-Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett, "It's 5 O'clock Somewhere."

That's all I got. Sorry.
Title: Re: 5,000 Gallons Of Molasses Spill On Texas Highway
Post by: Lord Undies on July 18, 2008, 09:54:59 AM
"The workday passes like molasses in the wintertime, but it's July."

-Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett, "It's 5 O'clock Somewhere."

That's all I got. Sorry.

"And the Mississippi River runs like molasses in the summertime"

-John Phillips, "Mississippi" (1970)
Title: Re: 5,000 Gallons Of Molasses Spill On Texas Highway
Post by: JohnnyReb on July 18, 2008, 12:00:15 PM
The only thing better than 'lasses is mo 'lasses.

I got first hand knowledge of molasses. I hope some stupid government environmental agent was first on the scene and ordered them cleaned up with "hot" water/steam......... :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: ...oh boy.... :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
Title: Re: 5,000 Gallons Of Molasses Spill On Texas Highway
Post by: Chris_ on July 18, 2008, 12:07:14 PM
The only thing better than 'lasses is mo 'lasses.

I got first hand knowledge of molasses. I hope some stupid government environmental agent was first on the scene and ordered them cleaned up with "hot" water/steam......... :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: ...oh boy.... :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
Nah, they just need a truckload of biscuits.   :-)
Title: Re: 5,000 Gallons Of Molasses Spill On Texas Highway
Post by: asdf2231 on July 18, 2008, 12:36:04 PM
These people got NOTHING on Boston!

THEY had to deal with The Great Molasses Flood of 1919!!!!

(http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/asdf2231/molasses2.jpg)

(http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/asdf2231/molasses.jpg)

(http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l307/asdf2231/molasses3.jpg)

Quote
The disaster occurred at the Purity Distilling Company facility on January 15, 1919, one day before the 18th Amendment (which prohibited alcohol production) was ratified. It was an unusually warm day. At the time, molasses was the standard sweetener in the United States. Molasses can also be fermented to produce ethanol, which is used in making liquor and was a key component in the manufacturing of munitions. The stored molasses was awaiting transfer to the Purity plant situated between Willow Street and what is now named Evereteze Way in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Near Keany Square, at 529 Commercial Street, a huge molasses tank 50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter and containing as much as 2,300,000 US gal (8,700,000 L) collapsed. Witnesses stated that as it collapsed there was a loud rumbling sound like a machine gun as the rivets shot out of the tank, and that the ground shook as if a train was passing by.

The collapse unleashed an immense wave of molasses between 8 and 15 ft (2.5 to 4.5 m) high, moving at 35 mph (56 km/h) and exerting a pressure of 2 ton/ft² (200 kPa). The molasses wave was of sufficient force to break the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue structure and lift a train off the tracks. Nearby, buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet. As described by Stephen Puleo,

"Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage. Here and there struggled a form — whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was.... Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings — men and women — suffered likewise."

The Boston Globe reported that people "were picked up by a rush of air and hurled many feet." Others had debris hurled at them from the rush of sweet-smelling air. A truck was picked up and hurled into Boston Harbor. Approximately 150 were injured; 21 people and several horses were killed — some were crushed and asphyxiated by the molasses. The wounded included people, horses, and dogs; coughing became one of the biggest problems after the initial blast.

...Anthony di Stasio, walking homeward with his sisters from the Michelangelo School, was picked up by the wave and carried, tumbling on its crest, almost as though he were surfing. Then he grounded and the molasses rolled him like a pebble as the wave diminished. He heard his mother call his name and couldn't answer, his throat was so clogged with the smothering goo. He passed out, then opened his eyes to find three of his sisters staring at him.