Good day to go nowhere

[susandennis]

Just over the hill, less than a half mile as the crow flies, a tanker truck fell over on the interstate highway that cuts through downtown Seattle about mid morning. It was filled with propane and leaking. They closed off some lanes and traffic started backing up. Then they closed all lanes both ways and some of another interstate that intersects nearby and holy fuck what a mess. We're in hour #5 now and the tanker is still there and no one else is. Twitter and Instagram are full of photos of totally empty highways in the middle of town. There was a taco truck stuck in the middle of the mayhem and they just opened up and started selling lunch right there in the middle of the freeway.

I no longer watch local evening news. I will be Tivoing all the local channels tonight. This is not a slow news day here in Seattle.

Nor is it a warm day. The thermometer here next to my chair says it's 63 degrees in this room and 43 degrees outside. I have a little desktop heater that I rarely use. I turned it on about 10 minutes ago and in short order a cat hopped up here and situated herself between me and the heater.

But we did get some dolls done.

Comments

[letmesaythis.livejournal.com]

Wow!

[susandennis]

And... then we had a thunder snow/hail shower. And the tanker is still there and it's coming on evening rush hour.

NFW

[meowmensteen]

That little thunder/snow burst was a nice added touch.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

I know a few people who got stuck in that mess!

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

One of those times I'd be grateful it wasn't my job to sort it all out

[susandennis]

absolutely!

[sweetmeow]

My husband was in the propane business prior to his retirement, and I totally "get" what has happened on your freeway. One truly has to watch it and make sure there is no danger of fire and explosion, and to keep people away in case there is. I am not familiar with what the protocol is, but I would assume they tried to get all the propane out of the truck. I know that there are other things the fire departments are supposed to do. But - - what a hassle.

[susandennis]

Yes, exactly. That's what took so long - getting the stuff out of the tank. Also there is a homeless camp under a nearby overpass and they had to clear that out. It ended up closing the highways for 8 hours. I'll bet the propane company guy wishes he'd retired on Sunday!