Download or read book The Texas City Disaster 1947 written by Hugh W. Stephens and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On April 16, 1947, a small fire broke out among bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in the hold of the ship Grandcamp as it lay docked at Texas City, Texas. Despite immediate attempts to extinguish the fire, it rapidly intensified until the Grandcamp exploded in a blast that caused massive loss of life and property. In the ensuing chaos, no one gave much thought to the ship in the next slip, the High Flyer. It exploded sixteen hours later. The story of the Texas City explosions—America’s worst industrial disaster in terms of casualties—has never been fully told until now. In this book, Hugh W. Stephens draws on official reports, newspaper and magazine articles, personal letters, and interviews with several dozen survivors to provide the first full account of the disaster at Texas City. Stephens describes the two explosions and the heroic efforts of Southeast Texans to rescue survivors and cope with extensive property damage. At the same time, he explores why the disaster occurred, showing how a chain of indifference and negligence made a serious industrial accident almost inevitable, while a lack of emergency planning allowed it to escalate into a major catastrophe. This gripping, cautionary tale holds important lessons for a wide reading public.
Download or read book The Texas City Disaster 1947 written by Hugh W. Stephens and published by Univ of TX + ORM. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On April 16, 1947, a small fire broke out among bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in the hold of the ship Grandcamp as it lay docked at Texas City, Texas. Despite immediate attempts to extinguish the fire, it rapidly intensified until the Grandcamp exploded in a blast that caused massive loss of life and property. In the ensuing chaos, no one gave much thought to the ship in the next slip, the High Flyer. It exploded sixteen hours later. The story of the Texas City explosions—America’s worst industrial disaster in terms of casualties—has never been fully told until now. In this book, Hugh W. Stephens draws on official reports, newspaper and magazine articles, personal letters, and interviews with several dozen survivors to provide the first full account of the disaster at Texas City. Stephens describes the two explosions and the heroic efforts of Southeast Texans to rescue survivors and cope with extensive property damage. At the same time, he explores why the disaster occurred, showing how a chain of indifference and negligence made a serious industrial accident almost inevitable, while a lack of emergency planning allowed it to escalate into a major catastrophe. This gripping, cautionary tale holds important lessons for a wide reading public.
Download or read book Sitting on a Keg of Dynamite written by John Neal Phillips and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2022-09-08 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On April 16, 1947, the French vessel SS Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, exploded in the port of Texas City, just north of Galveston, Texas. Nearly 600 people died instantly and property damage reached catastrophic proportions. The Texas City disaster remains, to date, the worst industrial accident in U.S. history. Among those killed was William Roach, a Roman Catholic priest known affectionately as Father Bill. Sitting on a Keg of Dynamite, by historian John Neal Phillips, tells the remarkable story of Father Bill’s life and premature death against the backdrop of the rapid growth—and near destruction—of an American industrial city. Through extensive archival research and oral interviews, Phillips pieces together previously unknown details of Father Bill’s story to present a well-rounded portrait of the man who is today revered as a hero. Born in Philadelphia, Roach attended seminary in Arkansas before he went on to serve as parish priest for St. Mary of the Miraculous Medal in Texas City. Restless, energetic, and beloved for his humor, tolerance, and empathy, Father Bill was an outspoken advocate for poor and working-class citizens, fair wages, and workplace safety. One evening, as Phillips vividly recounts, Roach sat on the church steps, looking out at the strange orange-yellow light created by hydrocarbon gas flares emerging from nearby oil refineries. “I feel like I’m sitting on a keg of dynamite,” he told parishioners who were passing by. His premonition proved prophetic. When a fire erupted onboard the Grandcamp, Father Bill hurried to the docks to lend assistance. It was then that the ship detonated. There is still much to be learned from the Texas City disaster—and from the legacy of Father Bill, an early crusader for social justice in America. Descendants of the disaster victims received financial reparations, and yet, as Phillips cautions, safety and environmental regulations barely exist in Texas today, particularly when it comes to the petrochemical industry. Sitting on a Keg of Dynamite serves as a cautionary tale for Texans—and all Americans—as environmental accidents continue to threaten our safety.
Download or read book Smeltertown written by Monica Perales and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the history of Smeltertown, Texas, a city located on the banks of the Rio Grande that was home to generations of ethnic Mexicans who worked at the American Smelting and Refining Company in El Paso, Texas, with information from newspapers, personalarchives, photographs, employee records, parish newsletters, and interviews.
Download or read book Failure to Learn The BP Texas City Refinery disaster written by Andrew Hopkins and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Remembering Corpus Christi written by and published by Turner. This book was released on 2010-08-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bay breezes from the Gulf of Mexico sweep into this sparkling city by the sea. The sound of the wind, waves, and shore birds transport harmonic music to the ears of those who walk its beaches and parks. Corpus Christi, Texas, one of the most pristine coastal cities, lies at the mouth of the Nueces River, and from its humble beginnings as a simple nineteenth-century trading post, it has developed into a major city. Farming and ranching, the railroad, port, Naval Air Station, and the oil and gas industry have aided this city in realizing its growth potential. With a selection of fine historic images from her best-selling book, Historic Photos of Corpus Christi, Cecilia Gutierrez Venable provides a valuable and revealing historical retrospective on the growth and development of Corpus Christi. Remembering Corpus Christi brings to life the evolution of this growing community through more than one hundred black-and-white photographs, drawn from a wide pool of topics to depict the history of the people, community, events, and businesses that have shaped this area. The rarely seen images gleaned from several archives provide a unique opportunity to peer into the past and discover the richness of this South Texas city.
Download or read book Lost Restaurants of Houston written by Paul Galvani and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-27 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Stories of immigration, culture-clash . . . and old-fashioned hard work are told through the history of Houston’s long-gone, but still-beloved restaurants.” —Yesterday’s America With more than fourteen thousand eating establishments covering seventy different ethnic cuisines, Houston is a foodie town. But even in a place where eating out is a way of life and restaurants come and go, there were some iconic spots that earned a special place in the hearts and stomachs of locals. Maxim’s taught overnight millionaires how to handle meals that came with three forks. The Trader Vic’s at the Shamrock offered dedicated homebodies a chance for the exotic, and Sonny Look’s Sirloin Inn maintained the reputation of a city of steakhouses. From Alfred’s Delicatessen to Youngblood’s Fried Chicken, Paul and Christiane Galvani celebrate the stories and recipes of Houston’s fondly remembered tastemakers. “In the book, the Galvanis share Houston’s history and love of food. They take the reader on the banks of the bayou when the city received its first inhabitants before time hopping from the Original Mexican Restaurant to The Original Kelley’s Steakhouse. Other stops include Alfred’s Delicatessen and the San Jacinto Inn.” —Houston Business Journal
Download or read book Texas City Channel Galveston Bay Area written by and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 912 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Matamoros and the Texas Revolution written by Craig H. Roell and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-05 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The traditional story of the Texas Revolution remembers the Alamo and Goliad but has forgotten Matamoros, the strategic Mexican port city on the turbulent lower Rio Grande. In this provocative book, Craig Roell restores the centrality of Matamoros by showing the genuine economic, geographic, social, and military value of the city to Mexican and Texas history. Given that Matamoros served the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Texas, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, Chihuahua, and Durango, the city’s strategic location and considerable trade revenues were crucial. Roell provides a refreshing reinterpretation of the revolutionary conflict in Texas from a Mexican point of view, essentially turning the traditional story on its head. Readers will learn how Matamoros figured in the Mexican government's grand designs not only for national prosperity, but also to preserve Texas from threatened American encroachment. Ironically, Matamoros became closely linked to the United States through trade, and foreign intriguers who sought to detach Texas from Mexico found a home in the city. Roell’s account culminates in the controversial Texan Matamoros expedition, which was composed mostly of American volunteers and paralyzed the Texas provisional government, divided military leaders, and helped lead to the tragic defeats at the Alamo, San Patricio, Agua Dulce Creek, Refugio, and Coleto (Goliad). Indeed, Sam Houston denounced the expedition as “the author of all our misfortunes.” In stark contrast, the brilliant and triumphant Matamoros campaign of Mexican General José de Urrea united his countrymen, defeated these revolutionaries, and occupied the coastal plain from Matamoros to Brazoria. Urrea's victory ensured that Matamoros would remain a part of Mexico, but Matamorenses also fought to preserve their own freedom from the centralizing policies of Mexican President Santa Anna, showing the streak of independence that characterizes Mexico's northern borderlands to this day.
Download or read book Galveston written by Jodi Wright-Gidley and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On September 8, 1900, a devastating hurricane destroyed most of the island city of Galveston, along with the lives of more than 6,000 men, women, and children. Today that hurricane remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Despite this tragedy, many Galvestonians were determined to rebuild their city. An ambitious plan was developed to construct a wall against the sea, link the island to the mainland with a reliable concrete bridge, and raise the level of the city. While the grade was raised beneath them, houses were perched on stilts and residents made their way through town on elevated boardwalks. Galveston became a "city on stilts." While Galvestonians worked to rebuild the infrastructure of their city, they also continued conducting business and participating in recreational activities. Zeva B. Edworthy's photographs document the rebuilding of the port city and life around Galveston in the early 1900s.
Download or read book Houston on the Move written by Steven R. Strom and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Houston completely transformed itself during the twentieth century, burgeoning from a regional hub into a world-class international powerhouse. This remarkable metamorphosis is captured in the Bob Bailey Studios Photographic Archive, an unparalleled visual record of Houston life from the 1930s to the early 1990s. Founded by the commercial photographer Bob Bailey in 1929, the Bailey Studios produced more than 500,000 photographs and fifty-two 16 mm films, making its archive the largest and most comprehensive collection of images ever taken in and around Houston. The Bob Bailey Studios Archive is now owned by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. Houston on the Move presents over two hundred of the Bailey archive’s most memorable and important photographs with extended captions that detail the photos’ subjects and the reasons for their significance. These images, most never before published, document everything from key events in Houston’s modern history—World War II; the Texas City Disaster; the building of the Astrodome; and the development of the Ship Channel, Medical Center, and Johnson Space Center—to nostalgic scenes of daily life. Bob Bailey’s expertly composed photographs reveal a great city in the making: a downtown striving to be the best, biggest, and tallest; birthday parties, snow days, celebrations, and rodeos; opulent department stores; Hollywood stars and political leaders; rapid industrial and commercial growth; and the inexorable march of the suburbs. An irresistible “remember that?” book for long-time Houstonians, Houston on the Move will also be an essential reference for historians, photographers, designers, and city planners.
Download or read book The 1910 Slocum Massacre An Act of Genocide in East Texas written by E.R. Bills and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-13 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In late July 1910, a shocking number of African Americans in Texas were slaughtered by white mobs in the Slocum area of Anderson County and the Percilla-Augusta region of neighboring Houston County. The number of dead surpassed the casualties of the Rosewood Massacre in Florida and rivaled those of the Tulsa Riots in Oklahoma, but the incident--one of the largest mass murders of blacks in American history--is now largely forgotten. Investigate the facts behind this harrowing act of genocide in E.R. Bills's compelling inquiry into the Slocum Massacre.
Download or read book With the Bark Off written by Neal Spelce and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if you got a call from Lyndon Johnson to be in Washington DC tomorrow to take a trip around the world? If you are twenty-four-year-old broadcast journalist Neal Spelce, you buckle up. A two-week diplomatic dream trip turned into a lifelong rollercoaster ride. Spelce began his career as a part-time journalist in the LBJ family-owned Austin TV station in 1956, which vaulted him into a lifetime of memorable experiences with Johnson and many icons of the twentieth century. From his live reporting during the UT Tower shooting tragedy to his lifelong association with LBJ, Spelce found himself behind the scenes in many of the twentieth century’s crucial moments. The Austin-based journalist shares candid moments with LBJ and five other US presidents, including a rare interview with father and son presidents George Bush while the three were cramped together in a small bass boat on a Texas lake. During his lengthy media career, Spelce saw Austin grow from a college town to a thriving city. Along the way he interacted with Texas legends such as Darrell Royal, Willie Nelson, Dan Rather, and more, all part of entertaining stories that he tells, as LBJ liked to say, “with the bark off.”
Download or read book The Texas Outlook written by and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Living Waters of Texas written by Ken Kramer and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-06 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In ten impassioned essays, veteran Texas environmental advocates and conservation professionals step outside their roles as lawyers, lobbyists, administrators, consultants, and researchers to write about water. Their personal stories of what the springs, rivers, bottomlands, bayous, marshes, estuaries, bays, lakes, and reservoirs mean to them and to our state come alive in the landscape photography of Charles Kruvand. Allied with the Texas Living Waters Project (a joint education and policy initiative of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation, and the Environmental Defense Fund, among others), editor Ken Kramer joins his fellow activists in a call to keep rivers flowing, to protect wildlife habitat, and to save tax dollars by using water efficiently and sustainability. INSIDE THIS BOOK:Introduction: the Living Waters of Texas—Ken KramerWhere the First Raindrop Falls—David K. LangfordSpringing to Life: Keeping the Waters Flowing—Dianne WassenichHooked on Rivers—Myron J. HessFalling in Love with Bottomlands: Waters and Forests of East Texas—Janice BezansonOn the Banks of the Bayous: Preserving Nature in an Urban Environment—Mary Ellen WhitworthA Taste of the Marsh—Susan Raleigh KaderkaBays and Estuaries of Texas: An Ephemeral Treasure?—Ben F. Vaughan IIIRio Grande: Fragile Lifeline in the Desert—Mary E. KellyLeaving a Water Legacy for Texas—Ann Thomas HamiltonTexas Water Politics: Forty Years of Going with the Flow—Ken Kramer
Download or read book Growing Up in the Lone Star State written by Gaylon Finklea Hecker and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating collection of oral history interviews details Texas in the early twentieth century and how life in the Lone Star State helped the interviewees achieve success.
Download or read book Applied Crisis Communication and Crisis Management written by W. Timothy Coombs and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2013-06-11 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed to give students and public relations professionals the knowledge and skills they need to become successful crisis managers, Applied Crisis Communication and Crisis Management: Cases and Exercises by W. Timothy Coombs, includes a wide range of cases that explore crisis communication and management in action using a practical approach. In the first two chapters, the author introduces key theories and principles in crisis communication, which students apply by analyzing 17 cases drawn from recent headlines. Cases are explored from pre-crisis, mid-crisis, and post-crisis communication perspectives, and include a range of predominant crisis scenarios from product recalls to lawsuits to environmental disasters.
