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SOPHIA OF WISDOM III - NEW YORK BLAST
LIBRARY OF SOPHIA OF WISDOM III
SOPHIA OF ALL SOPHIA OF WISDOMS
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CAROLINE E. KENNEDY - CAROLINA KENNEDIA_________________________________________
JULY 19, 2007
RE: NEW YORK BLAST
Huge Blast Puts New Yorkers on Edge
By ADAM GOLDMAN,AP
Posted: 2007-07-19 10:15:42
Filed Under: Nation
NEW YORK (July 19) - A massive geyser of steam and debris that erupted through a midtown Manhattan street left asbestos in the dust that settled, but city officials Thursday said tests indicated the air was safe of the carcinogen.
Photo Gallery: 'Dark With Smoke'
Frank Franklin II, AP Steam billows up from a Manhattan street after an explosion near Grand Central Terminal during Wednesday's evening rush hour. The blast sent residents running for cover and filled the air with debris.
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Tests were continuing, but the city's Office of Emergency Management said in a statement that long-term health problems were "unlikely."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg had said the possibility of asbestos contamination was the main health concern after an 83-year-old steam pipe ruptured less than a block from Grand Central Terminal, spewing a skyscraper-sized blast of steam, dirt and debris into the air.
Some of the city's older pipes that pump steam beneath the city to heat and cool thousands of buildings are wrapped in asbestos, which can cause fatal lung disease, though the disease is typically linked to prolonged exposure.
Crews worked overnight to assess and repair the damage and determine what happened.
One woman died of an apparent heart attack when the pipe erupted, and about 30 other people were injured, at least four seriously.
Officials quickly ruled out terrorism, but for some witnesses, the explosion, dust, debris and chaos were frighteningly reminiscent of the scene on Sept. 11, 2001.
"We were scared to death. It sounded like a bomb hit or a bomb went off, just like 9/11. People were hysterical, crying, running down the street," said Karyn Easton, a customer at a salon a few blocks from the site of the blast. "It was really surreal."
Thursday morning, stretches of several major thoroughfares in the area remained closed. Most subway service was restored, though the trains continued to bypass Grand Central.
Eight air samples in the area around the explosion found no sign of asbestos, but six of 10 samples of debris and dust came back positive, the emergency-management agency said Thursday. Residents in the area were to keep windows closed, and anyone exposed to the falling debris was instructed to wash carefully and isolate the clothing they were wearing in plastic bags.
City engineers warned that up to six feet surrounding the giant hole might be in danger of further collapse, and officials said workers would not be allowed into office buildings in a zone that covered several blocks. The Buildings Department determined late Wednesday that nearby buildings were structurally sound but some had suffered water damage and broken windows.
The cause of the rupture remained under investigation.
Officials said the pipe might have exploded under pressure caused by an infiltration of cold rainwater, or might have been damaged by a water main break.
Con Edison head Kevin Burke said the site had been inspected hours before the blast as part of a routine response to heavy rain that flooded parts of the city. He said crews had found nothing as they searched for steam rising from manhole covers or cracks in the street _ indications that pipes could be in jeopardy. The steam systems are normally inspected every six weeks.
It was rush hour Wednesday evening when the geyser erupted, generating a tremendous roar as 200-degree vapor sprayed as high as the top of the nearby Chrysler Building. Steam and dirt boiled from the ground for hours.
Many people were struck by falling chunks of asphalt or rock that had been blasted out of the ground. Mud covered some bystanders. A woman who was bleeding heavily was helped by police while a man lay on a stretcher in the street.
When the steam dispersed almost two hours later, a large crater was visible in the street and a red truck lay at the bottom of the hole. Two city buses and a small school bus sat abandoned and covered with grit in the middle of Lexington Avenue.
The steam pipes have ruptured before. In 1989, a steam pipe explosion near Gramercy Park killed three people and spewed loads of asbestos into the air _ a fact that Con Ed later admitted it concealed for days while residents were exposed.
That explosion was caused by a condition known as "water hammer," in which water condenses in a closed section of pipe. The sudden mix of hot steam and cool water can cause pressure to skyrocket, bursting the pipe.
Authorities Thursday couldn't immediately account for how the most seriously wounded victims of the latest eruption were hurt. Police said the woman who died, identified as Lois Baumerich, 57, of Hawthorne, N.J., suffered cardiac arrest.
She and 15 other people were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where two seriously injured patients were being treated in a trauma unit, hospital spokesman Stephen Bohlen said. Two other people were in critical condition at New York Weill-Cornell Medical Center, said hospital spokeswoman Emily Berlanstein.
Among the injured were several firefighters and police Officer Robert Mirfield, who helped evacuate 75 people trapped in a nearby office building by cutting open a gate, authorities said.
Associated Press Writers Eric Vora, Richard Pyle, Tom Hays, Marcus Franklin, David B. Caruso and Verena Dobnik and AP National Writer Deborah Hastings contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-07-18 19:04:12
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1 - 5 of 1278Next1278 commentscaslknight 10:47:27 AM Jul 19 2007
My heart goes out to all the people in New York and the surrounding area. You guys just have one disaster after another. 911 woke me up and made me realise there was so much more going on "outside" my own lil world. Its so "BIG" there with so many people, that there is "ALWAYS" a major disaster going on there of some sort.
Its made me realise just how lucky I am to live where I do. I live in a suburb just north of Seattle, and we rarely have an "incident" here. I can go to sleep at night without the sound of sirens screaming or gunshots blasting.
Im soooo spoiled I dont believe I could ever live in a city like New York or L.A. I can actually close my eyes and sit in my chair and hear absolutely nothing. I think as a human race weve gotton so used to the "LOUDNESS" of the world going on around us, that weve become acclimated to it.
Or have we ??? Look at the type of violence that happens in those larger cities.I mean we have people who have never been in trouble before, suddenly
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