Here's a video that shows the extensive damage to an area about 20 minutes south of where I live.
http://vimeo.com/15705460
It's pretty bad - we're used to hearing of flood damage, but this is 5-6 feet deep of toxic sludge that rolled through a couple villages. The farmers (most of the residents) just have to move away and start all over from NOTHING. Imagine that. :sorry:
(http://redsludge.bm.hu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/image002.jpg)
(http://redsludge.bm.hu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/01_6781.jpg)
Damn. Why is the sludge 'toxic?
Quote from: Dan Filetti on November 30, 2010, 07:30:47 AM
Damn. Why is the sludge 'toxic?
From what I understand, it's a by-product from an aluminum plant there. It has killed 9 people and burned over 120 people. They talk about planting crops there again eventually, but I just don't see it. I joined a benefit ride last month for the victims. The people here don't have much, so this really hurt.
(http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Slideshows/_production/ss-101005-red-sludge/ss-101007-red-sludge-04.grid-9x2.jpg)
Here's another video recorded while it happened:
Red Dread: Toxic sludge spill swallows towns, kills 4 in Hungary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEMWh6EjJoY#)
Wasn't Union Carbide -was it?
Quote from: Dan Filetti on November 30, 2010, 08:21:42 AM
Wasn't Union Carbide -was it?
IIRC it was not UC, but was a tailings dam at the top of a hill that broke its containment wall and the strong acid poured down to hill to innundate the town.
Arnie
that is bad, the whole town displaced by a red sludge washout.
I wonder how old the dam was and how it broke open so much all at once.
Quote from: Mark Olson on November 30, 2010, 03:36:17 PM
that is bad, the whole town displaced by a red sludge washout.
I wonder how old the dam was and how it broke open so much all at once.
Not to belittle this, but you want to read about 'bad'...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood)
2000 + deaths, and enough water to wash locomotives, more than a mile downstream!
Dams can and do break all at once with catastrophic consequences sometimes.
Dan