Driftwood’s Fog of War
by William Crisp
Part 2
“It seems too logical; I’ve missed everything, even my death.” Cyrano de Bergerac
As I looked over the old notes and reports for last week’s part one of the Driftwood series, it occurred to me how clean and neat everything appears, after the fact, as far as what information we had. In truth, very little was known as a final fact during the first and second day of the event.
Upon first investigating the wreck, it was not possible to tell what was safe and what was not. Early on, some rail cars were considered safe but it was uncertain how safe for how long.
Then there were other concerns; for example, would there be a reaction between products on the train if they came into contact with one another? Would cars under the heap lose containment ability? How much product like the sodium hydroxide had escaped from the cars? Even with our best hopes, by nightfall of June 30, 2010, Officer Robert Mader and I had realized that this was going to be a major event.