2007 – Today has been an urban emergency “breaking news” kind of day:
- This morning,cable newsers were practically hyperventilating about a mysterious natural gas smell in lower Manhattan.
- Mid-day, bomb squads blew up a palette of provisions near a cruise ship in Miami. It tested positive six time for the plasitic explosive, C-4.
- A tanker truck began leaking a noxious gas in an industrial section in Sugarland, Texas. Last I heard, a cloud of poisonous gas was headed toward Houston.
- This afternoon, I read that downtown Austin was closed today after 63 dead birds were discovered.
- Tonight, a sudden, devastating brush fire has taken out eight houses – including homes of as-yet unnammed “celebrities,” according to KCBS — near Pepperdine University in Malibu.
Turns out the test were false positives for explosives on a pallet of sprinkler parts at the Port of Miami, and the cruise ship was allowed to sail with its 2,300+ pax.