This year especially has been a crazy one already for West Virginia. We have had some heavy snow, a train derail, a landslide, pipeline explosions, and so much more. And the year isn't even half over!
Here are seven videos of some wild events that happened in West Virginia recently.
1) On February 16, 2015, a CSX train carrying 109 tank cars of crude oil derailed in Mount Carbon, West Virginia. 14 of those rail-cars ended up catching on fire, which is the fire that you can see in the video below.
This was a pretty crazy time for West Virginia. We were hit with a heavy snowfall at the time, resulting in a winter storm warning. Hundreds of families in the surrounding community were evacuated from their homes and two nearby water treatment plants were also shut down as a result of this derailment.
2) In Decemeber of 2012, a gas line in Sissonville, West Virginia exploded. This explosion destroyed three houses and melted a part of Interstate 77. The investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board wrote in their report that the pipeline was corroded and hadn't veen inspected since 1988!
The investigators said that Columbia Gas Transmission should have figured that the pipeline was corroding because gas company inspectors had found corrosion in two other pipelines in the same system recent to the explosion.
The National Transportation Safety Board said that the explosion blew out a 20-foot section of the pipe which was installed in 1967 and sent the pipe flying about 40 feet from its original location. All of this occurred about 100 feet away from Interstate 77, mid-day!
My Mama and I drove by the area of the interstate probably almost a year after this happened, and you could still see where the fire took place. The grass had barely started to even make its way back to growing in that area, and it was still black in some areas.
3) In March of 2012, 11 roads and bridges in Logan County, West Virginia alone were closed due to the high water, flooding, and rock slides. Mudslides had trapped several people in their homes and cars, but thankfully no one was reported as injured. Roughly 200 homes were damaged by the flood waters, along with tons of cars being damaged as well. The real crazy part of the video starts around 47 seconds in, so you can just skip to the wild part!
4) I drive on this very part of Interstate 64 every day of my life, and I can definitely say that this part can get ridiculous. Even when the weather is perfectly normal, people still drive like complete idiots right here in this curve! I don't even think of driving here when its snowy or icy because I've seen videos of accidents like this way too many times.
It is very sad to think that people just can't slow down when it is bad like this. Or better yet, please just don't go out at all. My family will break out the crackers and water bottles before we go out in crazy weather. Just ask yourself, is it really worth it? I know that a lot of people still have to work, but please just take it slow. Or you'll end up in a crazy video on the internet of wrecks on Interstate 64!
5) On January 26 of this year, a gas line in Brooke County, West Virginia exploded.
Essentially, the firefighters and emergency responders were just told to wait it out. The explosion needed to just burn out so that no one would get hurt.
The cold weather and snow definitely helped with the fire. It made it so that it didn't get nearly as crazy as it probably could have been had it been normal weather. Fortunately, they were able to shut off three valves to the pipeline which probably also assisted in not letting the fire spread.
Not just in West Virginia, but in the United States, there were five pipeline explosions just in the month of January! How wild!
6) In March of 2015, many homes and buildings were evacuated and were damaged by a landslide in Charleston, West Virginia.
The landslide happened at the end of a runway at Yeager Airport in Charleston.
7) The Upper Big Branch Mine disaster is one of the worst recent disasters that happened in West Virginia, maybe even the worst. On April 5, 2010, an explosion occured and 29 out of the 31 coal miners at the site were killed.
This mine accident is the worst in the United States since 1970, when 38 miners were killed in Kentucky.
The Upper Big Branch Miners Memorial is a 48-foot black granite monument with life-size silhouettes of 29 miners etched onto it. On the back of the monument, there is the "Story of Coal," which talks about the coal industry and its impact on West Virginia and the nation.
Below is a tribute to the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, which is still remembered in West Virginia every single day.
My sister and I have always had bad luck in June, so if it isn't even June yet and West Virginia has already gone through so much - I can only imagine what the last half of this year is going to be like! You'll find my sister and myself under a rock somewhere if anything else goes down!
What are some crazy things that you have seen happen in West Virginia? I know that there are many more things that I could add to this list, so comment below!
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