A while ago, and I am sorry but I can't recall the exact date or year of the report (although it was probably 2012 -13), I saw a newspaper or magazine story that a strange disaster had hit a town in Brazil ....
CARAMEL surge hit town in Brazil. 30,000 tonnes of scalding sugar flowed over walls and threatened houses in Santa Adelia in Sao Paulo state. The flow killed fish and poisoned the local river ...
I can't remember the exact wording, or the rest of the report, but I noted this event because the story reminded me of a disaster I had read about from years ago, where a sugar vat spilt and engulfed a town ..... So I finally looked it up this week.
CARAMEL surge hit town in Brazil. 30,000 tonnes of scalding sugar flowed over walls and threatened houses in Santa Adelia in Sao Paulo state. The flow killed fish and poisoned the local river ...
I can't remember the exact wording, or the rest of the report, but I noted this event because the story reminded me of a disaster I had read about from years ago, where a sugar vat spilt and engulfed a town ..... So I finally looked it up this week.
It was remembered as the 'Great Boston Molasses Tragedy' and was when .....
150 people where injured in what became known as 'The Boston Molasses Disaster', aka the 'Great Molasses Flood and the Great Boston Molasses Tragedy', which occurred on January 15th, 1919, in the North End neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. When a large molasses storage tank burst, and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated speed of 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, and for many decades residents claimed that on hot summer days, the area still smelled of molasses.
Now you wouldn't have thought that this could happen even once, let alone repeat again approximately a century later .... its almost like nature taking a sweet revenge on its ravagers.
150 people where injured in what became known as 'The Boston Molasses Disaster', aka the 'Great Molasses Flood and the Great Boston Molasses Tragedy', which occurred on January 15th, 1919, in the North End neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. When a large molasses storage tank burst, and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated speed of 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, and for many decades residents claimed that on hot summer days, the area still smelled of molasses.
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| Boston Molasses Disaster 1919 |
Now you wouldn't have thought that this could happen even once, let alone repeat again approximately a century later .... its almost like nature taking a sweet revenge on its ravagers.
Sweet Jesus, who'd have thunk it? Of course sugar is very calorific so it should be treated with caution. In a certain comic strip it's called white death and is banned only to spurn the inevitable black market for substance abusers.
ReplyDeleteI think these events were more like a 'brown tide' than a 'white death' ... still a strange way to go. I once met a man who had seen a grain silo blow up 'like a rocket' in the US Midwest in the 1950's. The dust had spontaneously combusted and sent the Silo up into the air. While not common events anymore, it still happened occasionally on the old farms.
DeleteTwo months after this post, The Fortean Times ran the exact same story as this post .... you heard it here first!! LOL
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