Boom!!

This happened a week ago, but better late than never. . .

Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:30 p.m. Nick and I woke up in a panic. We weren't even sure why we were so startled or what had woke us. Shortly after checking on the boys we heard distant thunder, so we assumed it was just another storm moving in. The next day Nick had the morning off. When I woke up and went down stairs Corbin informed me that Owen thought a storm was coming because of the sky. When Nick came down for breakfast he noticed the sky and took some pictures.

About an hour later after getting on the computer Nick had solved the pieces of the puzzle!

Here is the real story: In the middle of the night, there was a large explosion at the oil refinery that is about seven miles from our house. The explosion in the middle of the night caused an earthquake that measured a 2.8 on the richter scale and caused a huge mushroom cloud over San Juan. Not exactly something you want to wake up to, but luckily nobody was seriously injured. Over the next two days the fire raged, with additional storage tanks exploding and leaving a broad plume of deep black, unhealthy smoke over our neighborhood. The pictures we show are from the morning after the fire.

Here are some pictures from just outside our community.

Nick took the boys to see how close they could get.

The fire was huge. Several local roadways were shut down that weekend. Saturday it rained and because the smoke was right above our area we were told to stay indoors because of the possibility of acid rain. As a result of road closures, our church was cancelled for those living west of the blast. For all others only Sacrament was held.

We attended the local spanish branch and really enjoyed it. Nick was my translator for first and second hour. The boys had a great time in primary, and they got to be in the same class. Their teacher lives in our community and had a snack time at the park the following day (Monday).

The fire was contained Sunday. Because the fire was just next to the Army base, the base has been temporarily closed, and school has been canceled for all the kids in the ward who go to school there.

Here is the picture of the area that was burned. It is pretty crazy how close to the freeway it was and how bad the damage was. I think 17 of the 40 tanks caught fire. We are grateful that nothing worse happened!