wolverinesarah
6065
162
8
So I was in class today and at 9:07am we were instructed to evacuate campus and leave town. In our tiny college town of Atchison, KS an ethnal plant experienced a chemical gas leak. A shipment of chemicals was placed in the wrong holding container at the facility. The result: Chlorine gas! Long story short, the campus did it's best to evacuate and bus students north of campus to a nearby state lake park. Me? I grabbed my keys, woke up my roommate who was still sleeping, and along with three other friends we drove the hell out of town to the next town over to spend a day of shopping and eating food. It was a pretty good day and we were all cleared to come back to campus by 11am and classes were canceled too.
(Picture is an aerial view of the chemical fog. Caption is a long running joke about how the town is janky and always has a gross smell so we call it Atchi-stench.)
Ronelyn
Holy fuck! Hope everyone made it out safe. Chlorine gas is pretty vicious.
smittenmeow
And you had a good day, nice!
notme222
Cleaning tip: if all that chlorine gas leaves your buildings smelling a little odd, rub down the walls with a mix of vinegar and bleach.
notme222
(Because people are gullible on the internet, I feel I must express that this is a joke. Bleach + acid is how you *make* chlorine gas.)
brushybrushy
Great story! Good job saving sleepy face.
wolverinesarah
She was grateful! There is nothing quite like waking up in a panic induced emergency evacuation .
princeaizen
What was the injury and death toll?
wolverinesarah
I am not aware of any deaths but 52 people were sent to the hospital due to exposure.
AdelaideDetroit
Were there any injuries?
wolverinesarah
52 people were hospitalized. Most of the cases were people being treated for mild exposure, meaning they got detox showers and meds.
Jugarnath
ethnal ?? ethanol ?
Sebastan
ethanal. If it was ethanol no one one would have left
wolverinesarah
It's an ethanol plant. Sorry. Typo. They make a lot of products used for grain feeds as well as processing it down for alcohol.
Aelinsaar
Fun fact, pissing on a rag and breathing through it will actually work for Chlorine, for a little while at least.
ChasePoppins
Yeah but when you survive you'll still be in Kansas.
Aelinsaar
...Good point, just breathe deep and hope for an afterlife.
thelastboomer
Is it cool or what that I know where Atchison, KS is without looking at a map.
wolverinesarah
Northeast corner of Kansas. It was foggy this morning because we are by a river so some of the picture is probably some fog but for the 1/2
wolverinesarah
most part, it was gas in the air. 2/2
RamenDoodle
That's pretty gross.
krugle
In my experience they exaggerate the level of danger of most gaseous chemicals.
Mariodekabro
chlorine gas turns to hydrochloric acid in your lungs
krugle
H2S dissolves soft tissues and can cause pulmonary edema, I breath that stuff every single day.
Mariodekabro
in what concentrations
krugle
Varies for me, but I'm personally okay with working in 60 or so ppm.
Mariodekabro
do you wear any breathing protection at all because at those lvls it will cause dmg to your lungs