Thursday April 26, 2018 will be a day that lives in the citizens of Superior Wisconsin's memory forever. It was the day that it finally happened. All my life I have heard people saying, "If the refinery blows, Superior will go with it." Well, it did, or part of it anyway, and we aren't. Not a one of us. How the people working near that blast were not killed, is a mystery and a miracle.
The Husky (formerly Calumet, formerly Murphy Oil) refinery is basically situated right smack in the middle of this spread out city. I don't know who thought that was a great idea back in the day, or if the city just grew around it. Possibly because of the rail system? It has been here longer than I have.
I don't know the word for a "perfect" disaster, but that's what it was. No one was killed, although several folks were injured, none life threatening. Emergency response was well trained for this, and right on the scene. People thought this fire would burn for days (it was an asphalt tank) and a special team from Texas was summoned, but our Superior fire fighters, ( I am assuming other local departments were there too.) along with the Husky EMT were able to quell the blaze around 6 pm last night, and then when another broke out around 9:30 they were able to contain it quickly. Several local police departments sent officers to assist our Superior Police Department in handling the evacuation of most of the city, and being smack dab in the middle of it, I can tell you that most people really did evacuate in an orderly manner.
There are so many stories floating around about acts of kindness, it is amazing. When push comes to shove, we are truly SUPERIOR people.
This was my day.
The daycare where I am employed as a Preschool teacher is located less than a mile from the refinery. At roughly 10 o'clock my assistant Nikki had to go across the hall to cover while the director helped a parent. She was only gone a few minutes when the lights flicked off and on several times. Of course the kids were wonky about it, and I was like....... hey, sometimes it happens. We're fine. (They are 3 and 4.) It's a split level building, and being in the basement I didn't feel anything. With the roar of preschool, I didn't hear anything either. That was not the case upstairs, and the one year old class was outside on the playground. The building shook, and they heard the boom. The one year old teachers had a front row seat.
Nikki came back across the hall a few minutes later and told me I had to go look at what was going on at the refinery. I shrugged, and walked over. The kids were all standing on chairs, looking out the lower level windows at the huge black cloud billowing up from the refinery and the fire. I'm not sure how I didn't swear, or panic in front of them. All I could hear was my Dad in my head. "If that thing blows, we're all going with it. There wont be anything to worry about." I just said something to the kids like, "Wow, that's sure a big fire!" as they were excitedly telling me how they saw it blow up. (They are 4 and 5.) I was nonchalant about it, but looks were exchanged over their heads with the director.
I have been through this before. A benzene spill back in 1992 (maybe 93), and a bomb threat in the early 2000's. I worked for the Y during both of those. The second incident happened at nap time, and because the children were sleeping we had some with shoes, some with one shoe, some with none. We did manage to grab jackets. That day I just ran down the cubby hall and grabbed everything as I went. We had to wait outside ( a chilly spring day) for 45 minutes until a DTA bus took us to the Y where we had parents pick up the kids. It has made me a little obsessed about shoes. After the Oklahoma City bombing, no one was fooling around looking for things. You just get out.
I went back to my class, had them go potty and put their shoes on for outside time, like I always do, knowing full well we weren't going out there. I needed them to be ready for whatever happened next. A little while later they were wondering why we weren't going outside. I just explained that there was a fire down the road, and we didn't want to smell the bad smoke. We were safe, but nobody wants to smell icky smoke. That was all they needed, and they went back to playing. Nikki and I both just sat down with them and watched them play. Periodically someone would come through with news, but it was all conflicting.
The schools sent out word to parents that they were remaining in place for the time being as the situation was under control. My break came at 11:25, and I left to run my errands with a firm "If things go bad you text me and I will be RIGHT back here." I made contact with all of my siblings on break. My brother Jerry works closer to the refinery than I do by about four blocks. My sister lives right behind the daycare, and my brother David's family is close by too. All of my younger nieces are at the Middle School, which is close also, as is the High School where Paul was. David's wife Elise already had both the girls out of school with her, so I didn't have to worry about grabbing them if the need arose.
I went to the library to return books, and I went to the dollar store to pick up some things for my classroom (God bless the dollar store). Everywhere I went I could see the smoke. This is from the intersection right in front of the Middle School. The smoke was dying down and things really did seem under control.
While finishing up at the dollar store it almost appeared back to normal. Breathing a sign of relief, I grabbed a chicken slider at Arby's and an iced tea and zipped back to work. I pulled into my spot and took a minute to check facebook, where I marked in as "safe". Got out of my car and that is when the second explosion took place. Pic below is from my brother Jerry, who, as I stated before, works just a few blocks from the refinery.
I ran into the building and up to the office to let them know what happened. They weren't in there, but in classrooms, and were totally unaware because the window covers were on for nap time. I then ran down to my class, who were mostly asleep, and very calmly, firmly said, "Ladies, please put their shoes by their nap mats, there has been another explosion." Christy and Nikki were awesome. No questions, no freaking out, they just quickly got it done while I clocked back in and put my things away. Our owner, who is in the cities, and was trying to assess the situation from there, decided right after that we were to close, it was before the schools did, so our parents had a little bit of a jump on the traffic.
The next hour was spent quickly packing up kids into worried parents arms so they could head to safety. We let them sleep (if they were sleeping) until someone arrived to get them. They were confused, and again, I explained it was the bad smoke. We were all going home because no one wants to smell icky smoke. Lots of smiles, and see you tomorrow, as they were whisked out the door. I'm sure I will have lots of stories on Monday. (We are closed today, as are all the schools.)
At 1:45 I was free to go, so then I could consider my family, and myself. I already made contact with my sister. She and her hubby, and the two dogs were picking up Cece and heading toward our house. I spoke to Jerry, who was on his way home, and he let me know that his wife Jenny had picked up Paul and they were home. Elise, Dave and the crew were all up at the Duluth Mall, making plans to get safe for the night with Anthony's family. (Ashlyn's boyfriend )All kids and siblings accounted for. Leon works in Duluth and I text him I was leaving, I knew he was safe. I walked outside and just stood and stared. At this. It was much more intimidating than the picture, I assure you.
The quickest way out was to turn left and drive toward the smoke. (my usual route is to drive right by the refinery) and then turn onto 28th street. It was still open. I didn't want to get stuck in the school traffic, so I turned right instead. I also really wanted to stay away from the refinery. That choice turned into a half hour adventure of gridlock, but people were patient and sane. Leon was concerned that I not drive through the smoke. I was like dude........ I have been here all day. If there are bad things in the smoke, it's a little late to worry about it now. The smoke at that time, and all day in fact, blew south, away from the center, away from most of the schools. I can't imagine how awful it would have been if that hadn't been the case.
While I was on my lunch break my youngest niece text me to see if I was alright. She also called me while I was in the traffic jam, just to make sure. Love that girl. ♥
When I finally arrived home Kate, Tom, Cece, and their dogs Keeper and Princess were there to greet me. I had left Jake in the house because it was supposed to rain. (didn't) He was excited to get out and see what the heck was going on! Because of the south wind the evacuation area ended just a few miles from our house. Here are a few pics from about 3pm from my front yard looking toward Superior. I live 25 minutes away from the refinery.
People thought the fire would burn for days, but at about 6pm they had it out. There was talk about lifting the ban around 9pm. That didn't happen. Another fire popped up, which they quickly contained, and the ban was lifted this morning at 6am. My sister and her clan left around 7:30 am, but we were all up at 4:30am. Her husband is a railroad engineer, and of course he got the call, and HAD to get to a train. Kate drove him in and I got up to sit out in the living room with Cece. She has a safe sleep "tent" that worked awesome! She has down syndrome and this is the first time she has actually slept when she was away from home. Usually she just wanders. Keeper was upset so I took him out in the rain to go potty. We finally settled down and then Princess jumped onto Cece's tent and plopped right down to lay on her. I jumped off the couch and pulled her off, and she tried it again, so I put her in the kids room and shut the door. (what the hell?) Then Keeper started in again, and Jake was joining him from the bedroom. Leon came out and put Jake out to go potty at some point, and then I tossed Keeper outside on the tether at some point. We settled again, but Mo started flinging himself against the big bathroom door where I tucked them for the night. I let the cats out since the other dogs were away. During all this Cece would stir, and she did wake up for a minute after Princess jumped on her. I opened the tent to make sure she was OK. It has mesh on the sides, but I wanted to check for scratches. She was fine.
Kate got back at at about 5:45, just as Leon's alarm was going off for work. Cece also woke up for good. So Leon got ready for his day, and Cece got ready for hers. I made coffee and some breakfast, then helped pack them up and get them all stowed away into the vehicle. They are now home safe and sound, and Cece had her first sleepover at Auntie's house.
I'm a little shell shocked, and a whole lot grateful today. There's a news conference in a few minutes that I will catch, then I need to put this away and get back to living. There is a nap to take, and then groceries to get. Life goes on. ♥
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