Train crash releases deadly chemicals approximately 15 miles from where I live

Mari linked today to the Augusta Chronicle’s story on the train crash in Graniteville yesterday. From a picture caption in the article:

A Norfolk Southern freight train with two locomotives and 42 rail cars struck a locomotive with two rail cars parked at a siding at Avondale Mills Thursday morning, releasing chlorine into the air and other chemicals on the ground near downtown Graniteville, SC.

And from the article itself:

At least eight people died and more than 260 sought treatment for exposure to deadly chlorine gas released after a chemical-laden freight train slammed into a parked locomotive in Graniteville early Thursday, officials said.

I remembered them talking about the evacuation last night on the radio, but at the time I was driving home from biking with Brooke, and we’d gotten rained out, and I was totally drenched…so I guess I was too distracted to fully comprehend what I was hearing.

Pretty scary, especially since it occurred right along the road Mari takes to work. I’m glad it didn’t happen during her commute.