A Skeptical Survivalist

I had to wait to get into work recently because of a gas leak that stopped traffic in several places. What would YOU do if an explosion this big popped off around you?

This is a perfect example of a local emergency or disaster that might require a short term relocation or bug-out.

Make sure you get plans in place for small scale local emergencies before you even start worrying about the high impact, low probability scenarios. 

A huge gas pipe explosion in Ohio created a fireball so large it could be seen for miles around.

The blast comes just a day after a house exploded in neighboring Pennsylvania killing five people - including a four-month-old baby - and destroying several homes.

The fatal fire in Allentown is also believed to have been caused by a gas leak. The pipe there had been in service since 1928.

Now major concerns have been raised over the ageing infrastructure across the U.S.

Luckily, no one was injured in the explosion and subsequent fire that broke out on farmland near Hanoverton, Ohio, last night around 10.30pm.

While there was no compulsory evacuation in place, some 400 residents living in the surrounding towns who wanted to leave their homes were offered shelter at a local school and at the Salineville fire department.

2nd asteroid in 5 days - Feb 14th, 2011

The reports of this are myriad and interesting to read. Check out the American Meteor Society logs on it.  Scroll down to event 208.

A fireball that streaked through the skies over East Coast which was described by viewers as the size of a “Cesna plane” and one of “the biggest, brightest, and most colorful ever!”, could have been a passing meteor.

Philly.com quoted NASA scientist Bill Cooke of the Marshall Space Flight Center as stating that the object seen might have been 5 feet in diameter and would have weighed more than 5 metric tons, basing the measurements on the reports of the brightness of the object. Cooke also estimates that the object was traveling at a speed of 33,500 m.p.h.

Cooke further estimated that the fireball’s energy was equivalent to about 100 tons of TNT and was capable of producing a crater 125 feet wide and 15 feet deep on impact.