Disaster Preparedness
Or, America is f-ed, y'all.
Yesterday's CTA derailment and fire was a nightmare, certainly, but should not have been neraly as bad as it was. Listening to the radio last night on the way home, they ran the story, and the CTA said that as soon as the conductor noticed the fire, he orderded the evacuation of the train and led the way to the escape hatch. Victims are saying that thy heard no announcements and finally opened the emergency doors when they could no longer breathe, then felt their way along the tunnel to the exit. My money's with the passengers' version.
It reminds me of something I forgot to tell you about that happened to me the night before we lefff for LA.
Along my metra train route, the Burlington-Northern, there was a massive powdered acid spill in Downers Grove. Yes, Powedered Acid. Sounds sinister; like liquid hate. Anyway,you can always tell you're fucked when you walk into Union stationand are immediately in line, or worse yet, when you get to the bottom of the one way escalators and are in a line. That day, they said that there was a hazardous materials spill in Downers, but they were letting us go to the stop prior. No skin off my nuts, because I'm 2 stops prior. I got on the train, and it was slow leaving and slow going. It was a 5:30 train and I usually get into Westmont at 6:01. We were late leaving, and at some point, I dozed off to awake at nearly 7 PM in LaGrange (about halfway home). They had made no announcements save that they would get us to Downers and might stop in LaGrange to let people off if they wanted. This made no sense; since the train does not usually stop in laGrange, and therefore, no one from LaGrange would be wanting to get off. Just as I was about to go find out what was going on, I heard the doors open. Now, We were halfway between 2 stops, Congress Park and LaGrange. People started streaming off. I went with thinking my wife could come get me; it's only a 15 minute drive home. If you've never walked on train tracks, it can be treacherous. If you've seen Stand By Me, it's like that plus Gravel everywhere. When I got off, it was a 4-foot drop to the ground. I turned around to help the woman behind me down only to notice she was WAY pregnant. 12 days away from due by her count. So, here we all were. Strolling down the rocks (I said gravel earlier, but in reality it's all fist-sized stones). We came to a bridge, but the pedestrian part was out for maintenance, so we had to squeeze between the train engine and the bridge wall. When we got close to the intersection of Lagrange road and the tracks, the train pulled forward.
My stomach dropped. I thought that I'd just fucked myself by getting off, but it only just barely pulled into the station, blocking lagrange road. Why the hell they didn't just pull into the station in the first place I'll never know. At least it's graded there so you can get off. I'll also never know because they made NO ANNOUNCEMENTS of any kind.
I've always thought of Metra as a pretty top-notch organization. They were squared away on 9/11 when the downtown evacuated, and here they couldn't even be bothered to use the PA system. Additionally, there is a suburban bus service. Those buses were sitting empty in their towns and SHOULD have been mobilized to transport stranded people like they do in the city when the trains don't run. As it was, people without someone at home were attempting to walk the 10 miles at least back to their hometowns. It was disgraceful.
I finally got home at 8;15.
What if there was an actual terrorist attack or some other diaster? Would they choke as badly? I guess it's on me to be prepared to take matters into my own hands.
Speaking of disgraceful, LaGrange has a cold stone creamery. While I was waiting to be picked up, I got an ice cream. I ordered a small, and one of the flavors off their menu. The tab? $5.50!
I laughed at the guy. On top of that, it was terrible. I'll never go there again willingly.
Yesterday's CTA derailment and fire was a nightmare, certainly, but should not have been neraly as bad as it was. Listening to the radio last night on the way home, they ran the story, and the CTA said that as soon as the conductor noticed the fire, he orderded the evacuation of the train and led the way to the escape hatch. Victims are saying that thy heard no announcements and finally opened the emergency doors when they could no longer breathe, then felt their way along the tunnel to the exit. My money's with the passengers' version.
It reminds me of something I forgot to tell you about that happened to me the night before we lefff for LA.
Along my metra train route, the Burlington-Northern, there was a massive powdered acid spill in Downers Grove. Yes, Powedered Acid. Sounds sinister; like liquid hate. Anyway,you can always tell you're fucked when you walk into Union stationand are immediately in line, or worse yet, when you get to the bottom of the one way escalators and are in a line. That day, they said that there was a hazardous materials spill in Downers, but they were letting us go to the stop prior. No skin off my nuts, because I'm 2 stops prior. I got on the train, and it was slow leaving and slow going. It was a 5:30 train and I usually get into Westmont at 6:01. We were late leaving, and at some point, I dozed off to awake at nearly 7 PM in LaGrange (about halfway home). They had made no announcements save that they would get us to Downers and might stop in LaGrange to let people off if they wanted. This made no sense; since the train does not usually stop in laGrange, and therefore, no one from LaGrange would be wanting to get off. Just as I was about to go find out what was going on, I heard the doors open. Now, We were halfway between 2 stops, Congress Park and LaGrange. People started streaming off. I went with thinking my wife could come get me; it's only a 15 minute drive home. If you've never walked on train tracks, it can be treacherous. If you've seen Stand By Me, it's like that plus Gravel everywhere. When I got off, it was a 4-foot drop to the ground. I turned around to help the woman behind me down only to notice she was WAY pregnant. 12 days away from due by her count. So, here we all were. Strolling down the rocks (I said gravel earlier, but in reality it's all fist-sized stones). We came to a bridge, but the pedestrian part was out for maintenance, so we had to squeeze between the train engine and the bridge wall. When we got close to the intersection of Lagrange road and the tracks, the train pulled forward.
My stomach dropped. I thought that I'd just fucked myself by getting off, but it only just barely pulled into the station, blocking lagrange road. Why the hell they didn't just pull into the station in the first place I'll never know. At least it's graded there so you can get off. I'll also never know because they made NO ANNOUNCEMENTS of any kind.
I've always thought of Metra as a pretty top-notch organization. They were squared away on 9/11 when the downtown evacuated, and here they couldn't even be bothered to use the PA system. Additionally, there is a suburban bus service. Those buses were sitting empty in their towns and SHOULD have been mobilized to transport stranded people like they do in the city when the trains don't run. As it was, people without someone at home were attempting to walk the 10 miles at least back to their hometowns. It was disgraceful.
I finally got home at 8;15.
What if there was an actual terrorist attack or some other diaster? Would they choke as badly? I guess it's on me to be prepared to take matters into my own hands.
Speaking of disgraceful, LaGrange has a cold stone creamery. While I was waiting to be picked up, I got an ice cream. I ordered a small, and one of the flavors off their menu. The tab? $5.50!
I laughed at the guy. On top of that, it was terrible. I'll never go there again willingly.
posted by Zach at 9:59 AM
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