ISIS had claimed credit for the attack, according to one YouTube video in it, a man showed his TV screen, tuned to an Arabic news channel, on which masked ISIS fighters delivered a speech next to looping footage of an explosion. Another posted a screenshot of CNN’s home page, showing that the story had already made national news. Louisiana is really screwed now,” a user named tweeted at the New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter Heather Nolan. “Heather, I’m sure that the explosion at the #ColumbianChemicals is really dangerous. Others shared a video in which thick black smoke rose in the distance.ĭozens of journalists, media outlets and politicians, from Louisiana to New York City, found their Twitter accounts inundated with messages about the disaster. posted a video of surveillance footage from a local gas station, capturing the flash of the explosion. shared an image of flames engulfing the plant. The #ColumbianChemicals hashtag was full of eyewitness accounts of the horror in Centerville. “A powerful explosion heard from miles away happened at a chemical plant in Centerville, Louisiana #ColumbianChemicals,” a man named Jon Merritt tweeted. Hundreds of Twitter accounts were documenting a disaster right down the road. If Arthur had checked Twitter, he might have become much more worried. Arthur was worried: Had one of his employees sent out an alert without telling him? Soon, two other residents called and reported the same text message. But he’d heard nothing from them that morning, either.
Mary Parish had a Columbian Chemicals plant, which made carbon black, a petroleum product used in rubber and plastics. In fact, he hadn’t even heard of Columbia Chemical. But he hadn’t heard of any chemical release that morning.
Mary Parish is home to many processing plants for chemicals and natural gas, and keeping track of dangerous accidents at those plants is Arthur’s job. “Toxic fume hazard warning in this area until 1:30 PM,” the message read. Mary Parish, Louisiana, got a call from a resident who had just received a disturbing text message.
11 last year, Duval Arthur, director of the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for St. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.Īround 8:30 a.m.
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