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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2011 2:09:46 GMT -6
This incident happened may 4, 1988 while I was working at the corner of lake mead blvd. and boulder hwy. in Henderson,NV. I felt the wind hit me in the face on the right hand side of me and then looked over to the left knowing something wasnt right. I looked over st. rosa da lima hospital and noticed an explosion happening and then BOOM ! Then a wave came and then boom, BOOM !!! The first explosion caused a wave to come at us, the second and third caused 2 more which were big. It measured 3.5 on the richter scale in the state of California 100s of miles away. When the 3rd wave came, it knocked the guy next to me up in the air into me and my cigarette which burned his face but he was so stunned he didnt notice. It sounded like 20,000 ac/dc cannons going off and I took my last drag of what I assumed to be my last cigarette because I thought Reagan had upset Gorbachev and this was it. The pepcon facility, which made rocket fuel (ammonium perchlorate) for the space shuttle and the minuteman missile 2 project had caught fire while welders were repairing a steel frame and fiberglass walls which caught fire and spread to the 55 gallon drums and caught the facility on fire. This video gives it no justice because it was filmed on black mountain looking down, while I was in the valley looking up,which caused a mushroom cloud to roll for several minutes. I remember a jet flying into mccarran International in rt. to Las vegas which almost went through the cloud trying to land but had to abort and sway to the right missing the mushroom as it kept going. I consider this a near death experience. It blew windows out and doors off their jams 7 miles away, while I was only about 2-3 miles from this facility. It also leveled the kidd marshmallow plant next to it which you can see go up in the video. Sadly, 2 people were killed and 372 injured, but it could be worse because if my memory is correct, there were over 900 employees at this facility and 700 at the kidd marshmallow plant(please correct me if im wrong). I also remember cars crashing all around, a sign at albertsons grocery store crashing on top of a car, and a dog getting hit and damage was everywhere as we drove around making sure people were alright shortly after. One more thing ill mention about this was some guys I worked with started running and I told them you may as well enjoy the show because this is it !!!The last part of this video shows a sample explosion test which was conducted later as part of the investigation into this incident.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2011 2:16:11 GMT -6
heres another: The explosion was estimated to be equivelant to 10,000 kilotons and caused an estimated 100 million dollars in damage. If you ask anyone who was there even to this day it will make the hair on their arms stand up,,, including me. I also would like to mention that this wave was huge and when it hit me it knocked me up in the air also,,,we had a saying back in that day,,,,,,,,,,"surfs up " lol
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2011 2:57:27 GMT -6
thanks auntym for teaching me how to post videos,,and you too lorelei,,I appreciate it !!!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2011 3:15:06 GMT -6
thanks auntym for teaching me how to post videos,,and you too lorelei,,I appreciate it !!! Wow Cliff... that is very scary! I'm glad you weren't injured in the explosion!! ~hugs~ Thanks for sharing this with us.
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Post by auntym on Jun 29, 2011 10:43:22 GMT -6
thanks auntym for teaching me how to post videos,,and you too lorelei,,I appreciate it !!! hi touched.... you're half-way there..... now take the youtube address (you now know how to get) and come back to your POST MESSAGE section, then right above the smiley faces you will see the youtube button in red, click on that, it will now look like this, .... (youtube) (youtube) .... place your indicator directly in the middle of the 2 youtube brackets.... then right click and scroll down to paste.... click REMEMBER, THE INDICATOR HAS TO GO DIRECTLY IN THE MIDDLE OF BRACKETS .... or else it won't work....you now should have the youtube video pasted onto your post.... GOOD LUCK
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2011 11:57:30 GMT -6
I like the written accounts a ton better than utube. I'm so glad you weren't hurt touched...and you're so right the tragedy could have been much worse.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2011 12:52:25 GMT -6
thanks to all of you,,,youre awesome people !!! When experiences like this happen,,,it reminds me how precious and fragile life is and to not take anything for granted One of the most important things about this that I failed to mention was a hero in my book . His name was Roy Westerfield. He was one of the two killed in this disaster. He was stricken with polio which caused him to be bound to a wheelchair and knew that if someone stayed behind to help him,,, it may cost their lives also so he stayed behind and called the fire department and warned others to evacuate,,,if it wasnt for him,,,what a great man!!!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2011 14:18:12 GMT -6
A very truly great one
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Post by lois on Jul 31, 2011 22:46:43 GMT -6
Touched.. My friend Louise, lives in Henderson. She never told me about this incident. She lives almost on Boulder Highway. but not sure if she did in 88. she is now a member here. They left Illinois in 80 I will have her read this thread. She surely would of felt it. She tells me when they have quakes, usually from California.
I had not read your thread til now.. I find many later when I combing around..
You were being watched over for sure that day. Close to death gives a person a new outlook, I can understand that well.. More than a ufo encounter at least with me, but both was the same year in my life.
thank you for posting.. I should of heard this on the news.. but don't recall it..
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2011 17:34:41 GMT -6
yes lois, if she lived there during that time there would be no doubt that louise felt it . I was working for Cascade Car Wash (its no longer there)from the age of 16-19 and ended up supervising,hosting, and managing the business but after this happened I moved out of henderson and started working road construction. As fate would have it, we started building interstate 15 from henderson to Las Vegas which was right next to where the disaster took place. I could see guys with hazmat suits working close by where we were. I would like to hear from Louise about this if she was there. An all glass casino was being built down boulder hwy and they had just put the glass in a couple days before the explosion and it shattered all of it. There was so much damage,,,everywhere.
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Post by casper on Aug 3, 2011 19:46:58 GMT -6
WoW!! Your lucky you didn't get blown to pieces!! When stuff like that explodes it can cause all kinds of destruction. I saw a gas station explode once because some dumbo drove away with the hose still in their tank and it caught on fire. It made a pretty big ball of flame but i bet it was nothing like a rocket fuel plant exploding.
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Post by andrewsmash on May 5, 2014 4:31:23 GMT -6
Hey cliff , Many thanks for sharing your story with us and yes I am very glad that you weren't injured in that explosion also with it hast off to the hero of the story - Roy Westerfield.
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