Mid-afternoon Friday in Oshawa turned into an impromptu "Let's all leave our houses and get acquainted with evacuation protocols" event:
Oshawa resident Charlie Stacey was getting ready to take his dogs for a walk around 2:20 p.m. Friday when, "all of a sudden, the whole ground just went boom, boom, boom."
Stacey, whose Montrave Ave. home backs onto the CP rail tracks, didn't know it yet, but his house was on the fringe of a derailment that saw some 27 train cars leave the tracks and pile up near Park Rd., north of Hwy. 401, perilously close to area homes.
"I saw all the cars start piling up against the Park Road bridge and then one of the rails curved up 15 feet in the air," Stacey said. "That's what really freaked me out ... it was surreal."
Stacey was one of about 1,000 local residents and students evacuated from their homes and two area schools after the derailment. Police said residents were evacuated from a 10-square block area surrounding the wreckage.
It lacks the full entertainment value of the 1979 Mississauga evacuation, but they'll do their best. Full story here.
Posted by Nicholas at June 5, 2009 08:38 PM
Visitors since 17 August, 2004
