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2023 general mayhem & disaster thread

Cardboard55

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Minuteman
Nov 1, 2021
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In an effort to keep track of all the man-made things going on (derailments, explosions, major crashes, protests, etc), thought it might be handy to have a strictly summary thread. Details on events, discussions about them, etc should have their own threads where warranted. This is strictly a one post and done summary to keep a running total of events.

I think keeping weather and shootings and wars would be best served by their own threads, so this will be more of a keeping an eye other stuff.

Format should be: date / location / type of event and one or more official or unofficial references (tweets, articles etc)

Trying to keep as much info in a single post (editing to update, ideally) should be neater than random updates throughout the thread (where possible, of course)

I'll start with a couple tonight:
 
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4/15/23
Rockwood Maine
Train Derailment / fire







Update 4/16/23 - derailment was supposedly caused by track washout (which regular track inspection might have caught, penny pinching in the boardroom strikes again)


Photos here:
 
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I think it really needs mentioning that our food supply is under attack .
Have you had Peanut Butter Capt'n Crunch lately . Don't even taste like it did in the 80's . WTF . Act of Fucggin war right there .
 
4/14/23
Springfield, OH
Derailment (cause of 3/5/23 Norfolk Southern derailment)

Looks like NS practices were the cause of the derailment, not "loose wheels" as NS claimed

(NS = Norfolk Southern railroad, NSC = National Steel Car, different company who builds railcars)



Earlier article of NS blaming "loose wheels"


NS has something of a history with poor train make-up since their institution of very long trains under PSR.
 
4/16/23
Decatur TX
Derailment


UP trains collide near Chico TX


Very brief video clip of wreckage: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/l...exas/287-d8f28abf-7dce-4306-8ab9-27c30811b280

Outstanding non-commercial video of the derailment/crash scene:



Moving loaded grain train vs. sitting (loaded?) rock train. Ouch.

There have been similar crashes where a conductor/brakeman lines a switch for a siding and neglects to reline it for the main afterwards. Of course could be deliberate, as there have been crashes in the past due to vandals tampering with equipment. Switch should have locks, so investigation should be pretty definitive. Terrible for the crew in the train, at least one of whom was lifeflighted to hospital. Safety improvements to locomotives have saved many lives. Say a prayer for the crew.
 
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4/18/23
NYC
Parking garage collapse


Highly likely this was a case of deferred / no maintenance. Water infiltrated concrete joints, rebar rusts, without tensioning from rebar, concrete fails and parking lot floors pancake. It's possible that increased use of EV's, which are generally heavier than internal combustion cars, may accelerate events like these. Normally restrictions to cars only, sets a certain general weight limit for garages. Start loading them up with 5,000 pound Teslas and the equation changes.

File under decaying infrastructure.

See also:


Update: collapsed building was nearly 10p years old, not designed for heavy vehicles, had citations for cracked/missing concrete:

 
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Isn’t this what the Portojohn is for?

No, this thread is specifically tracking failing equipment to see if any patterns emerge. There seem to have been an inordinate number of events (building explosions,. derailments, etc) which possibly could have some malign actor origin. This thread tracks unusual events, nothing location and type of event to see if any patterns emerge, or if this is business as usual with random events grabbing headlines. Things like riots, shootings, wars, corruption, dumb ideas from leaders, etc. are outside the scope of this thread and so numerous that they bury incidents potentially caused by bad guys.

Portajohn, while a delightful institution, is more of a catch-all, with considerable discussion, which makes extracting data or trends extremely challenging. This thread is simply a record of unusual events, without discussion, to make it easy to look back and see if something is truly an isolated incidents or if something potentially nefarious is afoot. We are in an undeclared state of war with Russia and probably Iran and China, along with cartels etc, and have a wide open border. It would be easy for them to slip people in with the aim of degrading our industry and infrastructure, in a manner which has plausible deniability as "things simply getting old and breaking_.
 
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5/5/23
Deer Park TX
Refinery explosion





Probably unrelated, but there has been a recent uptick in Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil depot in Crimea and the (mostly symbolic) drone attack on the Kremlin. Since the US & NATO are pretty much running the proxy conflict,one ponders the possibility of some deniable retaliation. Or it could be the usual deferred maintenance, human error, etc.
 
April updates: there were a few train derailments, perhaps most notably a BNSF train which derailed along the Mississippi River in Wisconsin. There was flooding at the time, and it appears the locomotives hit a washed out section of track. Nothing nefarious. Any significant incidents without an obvious cause (i.e. truck stopped on tracks, etc) will be posted.

For quick RR news, check the following:

Western US https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/list.php?1

Eastern US https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/list.php?2

Passenger trains including Amtrak, commuter trains etc https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/list.php?4
 
May 25
Mexico
Popocatepetl Volcano stirring









Popocatepetl regularly rumbles, but it's getting a little more animated lately, and could wreak serious havoc if it decides to really let loose. As if Mexico needs more problems...
 
June 5
Nationwide and perhaps beyond
Ecozealot mass protests


Sooner or later these ding-a-lings who chain themselves across highways are going to interact with a short -tempered motorist.
 
6/6
Phoenix, AZ, numerous other locations
Fires / arson?



There have been several pallet factory fires this year, along with recent years . Possibly due to homeless, meth addicts or a firebug (domestic or imported)





Note also the phenomenal outbreak of Canadian fires. Putting a crimp in air traffic and likely to cause significant economic damage.

Of course there is also the ongoing drug infusion from China, by way of south of the border:


Why we don't have a death or life w/o parole penalty for fentanyl traffickers is mystifying, unless the powers that be are somehow complicit.


Update 6/13 - at least some Quebec fires have been IDed as arson

 
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Why we don't have a death or life w/o parole penalty for fentanyl traffickers is mystifying, unless the powers that be are somehow complicit.
Everyone from the street cop to the very top are on the take.

Didnt el chapo talk about payoffs to Killary during his trial ?
 
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6/11
Philadelphia
Truck accident/I-95 overpass collapse

Fuel tanker wrecks under I95, burns, and section of I95 overpass collapses



Video right before collapse. You can see the dip in the road as the supporting steel weakens from the heat

Probably legit accident. Tons of petrol facilities around Philly, could well have been an ordinary gas station refilling tanker. Northbound exit ramp where it occurred is a descending, decreasing radius turn. Unskilled or tired driver and Presto!


It will be fixed in record time (I would bet by the fourth of July, incentives will be 7, maybe 8 figures). Expect big political ceremony to take credit.



If this was in flyover the repair would take 6 months or longer.


Similar accidents have occurred under other Interstates (Atlanta?), With new/unskilled often imported drivers flooding the industry, we shouldn't be surprised.
 
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Western Alaska loses phone & internet due to buried cable being damaged.



Official statement is "iceberg" scouring event.
 
6/11
Philadelphia
Truck accident/I-95 overpass collapse

Fuel tanker wrecks under I95, burns, and section of I95 overpass collapses



Video right before collapse. You can see the dip in the road as the supporting steel weakens from the heat

Probably legit accident. Tons of petrol facilities around Philly, could well have been an ordinary gas station refilling tanker. Northbound exit ramp where it occurred is a descending, decreasing radius turn. Unskilled or tired driver and Presto!


It will be fixed in record time (I would bet by the fourth of July, incentives will be 7, maybe 8 figures). Expect big political ceremony to take credit.



If this was in flyover the repair would take 6 months or longer.


Similar accidents have occurred under other Interstates (Atlanta?), With new/unskilled often imported drivers flooding the industry, we shouldn't be surprised.


These same "accidents" happened here in FL (3-4 times) during the O'Bozo administration.
Same MO.
Tanker truck catches fire under an overpass....
 
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May 25
Mexico
Popocatepetl Volcano stirring









Popocatepetl regularly rumbles, but it's getting a little more animated lately, and could wreak serious havoc if it decides to really let loose. As if Mexico needs more problems...
I've been around Popo several times but never go the chance to climb him. Interesting tory behind that mountain. I think he's pissed because of the cartels (government and private) wrecking his county.
 
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6/24/23
RR bridge collapse
MT




Supposedly high water from unusually and wet weather scoured the bridge support. Will update as details become available.


7qhkm4.jpg
 
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7/17/23
Derailment with HAZMAT
PA


Could be from heavy rains and flooding in that area over the past few days. RR's are buying back stock instead of maintaining infrastructure. Track speed in flooded areas should be 10 MPH or less. Dispatchers are in Atlanta and Jacksonville, many clueless new hires who have never been on the tracks they control.


ETA: conflicting reports on HAZMAT





CSX train running on Norfolk Southern tracks.

 
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May 27 - ongoing
Wildfires
Canada

7/18 added Daily Canadian Fire Sitrep with map: https://ciffc.net/en/ciffc/ext/public/sitrep/

See also: https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/interactive-map

A quick reference point for continuing Canadian wildfires which (mysteriously) started all ov
er Canada from April through early June (and possibly beyond). Could be dry weather + poor forest management, could be arson, could be both. So far an area the size of Ohio (!) has burned, and unprecedented smoke has blanketed parts of the US. We have a new vulnerability, should an "all-options" conflict ever break out.


Various news outlets point to "climate 6", and others variously state arson is possible or "conspiracy theory", citing "space lasers" as a culprit. YMMV






It's worth noting that lots of rainfall has perhaps spared the usual western US tinderboxes from going up, but the year is only half over.

Will revisit this later in the year.

7/18 adding a few links reflecting both scope of fires globally, and some news outlets using same to push climate crises agendas:


Canadian fire agencies:


Annual graphs from 1982 showing maybe things (other than size) aren't as unprecedented as advert6:

 
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