Houston Building Explosion
 

We are OK. We are about 2-3 miles from the explosion and a lot of the roads around here are a mess with the closures near the site.

Looks like a gas leak filled a manufacturing/warehouse facility, eventually it ignited. Lots of the buildings around here are steel/sheet-metal.

Mrs. Beard was in the bathroom when it occurred. I slept through it.

Unfortunately, Houston does not have zoning, which means the backside of the business has residential neighborhoods.

https://www.fireengineering.com/wp-c...on-850x567.jpg

https://localtvwhnt.files.wordpress....trip=all&w=770

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houston cars and coffee ?

Amazing how much damage an out of control Mustang can do.

I cycle right by that building every single weekend and its only 4 miles from my house. It shook m
y house so hard (again 4 miles away) I thought it was thunder.

I live on the top floor of a 5 story apt building 10.5 miles from the explosion and it woke me up. I thought someone had come home drunk and plowed into the wall in the parking garage. I was planning to walk the garage today looking for damage. It was a very solid jolt that shook the building (at least the part that I'm in). The missus slept through it.

Thank goodness it happened at ~4:30am when there aren't many folks out and about. I'm sure it would have been much worse if it had occurred during rush hour.

I assume we felt it because of the size and height of the building. I'm guessing folks in 1 and 2 story homes around us may not have noticed.

Weather radar picked the flying debris


https://twitter.com/JeffLindner1/status/1220666385870835712?s=09

Glad you guys are ok.

I had a meeting scheduled for 12:00 today a few doors down from there. Customer called and said don't show up. We don't even know if we have a building any more.

Wow, like I said, glad it was 430am vs later.

Glad you are okay. Saw this on the news and you were the first person I thought of! Had no idea you'd be so close.

Now reporting at least 2 dead

It seems like there's a fair amount of damage to nearby homes.
Gallery from the local paper showing damage on homes.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Massive-explosion-rocks-west-Houston-Friday-15000793.php

My wife said something about someone's ceiling collapsing on them and having them pinned until someone came and pulled it off of them.

It's a shame that we're having cold weather. It looks like lots of the folks in that area are poor, and now have some issues that are going to make their homes harder to keep warm.

I woke up to a faint bang and heard the house creak a little. Looked at the clock 4.:26 am. I live 30 miles away!

I went to high school 2 miles away from the explosion.

Glad you Houstonians are all OK.

We've had the floods and fires. What next the locusts, frogs and red rivers?

Wait, We already have those too...

So I guess next it is Boils...

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed there have been a LOT of these gas explosions in the last 6 months to a year? Commercial buildings and homes.

A new way for terrorists or anarchists to blow stuff up without having to make a bomb? Just cut a gas line and get away from the scene and wait for the boom.

Probably not... I'm sure the FD investigators would see a cut gas line, right? Vinnie?

widebody911... LOL @ the "Hey sweetie" note.

https://alabamaliving.coop/article/40-years-after-the-kopper-kettle-explosion/

I was living in Alabama when the Copper Kettle blew up. I had driven past it just the day before. After the cleanup I still remember a radio commercial for something that said they was a few doors down from "the Auburn crater"

It always seems weird that the stinky gas leaks can go for so long and not be reported. We had on in OKC area not too long ago that the homeowners called the gas company about a gas leak. As they pulled up the house exploded.

Oh, man ... do NOT post pictures.

I'm still stuck that there is no zoning...

Nope. None. Nada. Nunca.

No income tax. You get what you pay for.

Some parts of Texas don’t require any building permits either

TN has no income tax but we have zoning in all major cities.

As far as "you get what you pay for", you get what your local govt decides you should get with the money you paid.

Come see our property tax rates! TANSTAAFL!

No. This was inside the city limits of Houston. All sorts of permits are required.

When I was going to the University of Houston, I had a part time job at a tool & die machine shop on Stephanie Lane, the next street over. It is no longer there but would have been a few thousand feet away. There was hardly any residential areas close by at that time. It has all encroached since then.

+1

Higher up co-workers living in the Memorial area with nice, but not opulent, 4k sq foot cribs were paying $12k twenty years ago.

We trade income taxes for sales and property taxes.

feds are sending a Chem Haz team out


I'm glad this didn't happen in a chemical plant...

What you described is likely ~$40k/yr now in property taxes.

Memorial is one of the $$$ areas of Houston, so your home value is higher than it would be in other locations.

The current tax rate for most of Houston is 2.421583%

I can't argue. I did say the guy was a more senior co-worker so perhaps he could have swung a half million dollar house back then to tie in with the $12K number I remember him saying.

I lived up 1960 from 10 by Champion Forest. Huntwick was the neighborhood. I paid $4k on a purchase price of $165k which sounds in the ballpark.

One has nothing to do with the other, but you go girl.

Some car content to this tragedy:

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/01/25/1M-worth-of-Corvettes-trapped-after-deadly-Houston-warehouse-explosion/7851579977070/

Show me a great city that was built without tax funded regulation- sister

You think income taxes and zoning are related somehow?

I cycled past this area yesterday and it looks like a war zone, there were cranes being brought in with police escorts to remove the building debris.

State Farm disaster relief is on site for the residents and lots and lots of houses with plywood screwed into shattered window frames and also for the garage doors. The curbs look like Harvey with home debris. Very sad for these families.

So, that would be a no you can't? Girlfriend

Fairly certain that about 100% of the municipalities in this country collect some sort of tax revenue, so the answer to your question that is unrelated to the statement you are incapable of supporting is no.

Apparently the discussion is a bit over your head, and you have to want to learn to be taught. I am sorry I can't help you