[Summit] Things going BUMP in the night.

[Bresler E]

Hello Neighbors-
Last night I had an interesting/slightly creepy experience:
I was up about 2 AM, when it's pretty quiet, and I heard an unusual noise-
it sounded to me like the distinctly chilling WOMP of something large
blowing up. But soft from being pretty far away. I had about convinced
myself that my tired mind was playing tricks on me when I started to hear
the sirens.  As the third set went right by my house on Hope Street, I
started to be pretty uncomfortable, and frustrated that I had no way of
knowing what the heck blew up.

There was no one who it was appropriate to call/bother about it. Finally I
called the Providence Police non-emergency number and was transferred to
someone who said that there was nothing happening.  I was skeptical that
they really knew nothing about so many sirens at once, but I decided I was
just being a "nervous Nellie".  Since I wasn't going to go out and help or
anything... it was none of my business, and I should go back to bed.

Except when I went in my bedroom, my fan was now pumping a very strong odor
into my bedroom. Whew! I shut the window. Checked the bathroom on the same
side of the house. Also. This was no skunk. I ended up shutting all the
windows in the house. It was very strong.  Strong enough I could taste the
smell. It was pretty sulfurous, a little like burning electrical stuff. Like
when I took target shooting in college.  GUN POWDER??? But A LOT of it. Now
what the heck?? But at least that's not toxic (to breathe).

I told myself firmly that I was over-tired and jumpy, ... and went back to
sleep with the sheet over my nose to help filter out the smell. Trusting
that civil servants were taking care of the problem. What else did I think I
was I going to do? Its got its faults, but this IS a pretty good country to
live in.

BUT my question remains: with all this "homeland security" planning- what's
the plan for communications? Night time radio is all national, seems useless
for local. Not everyone has a t.v. or a computer, and even if you did, who
is going to turn them on in the middle of the night to bumble around looking
for information?

So what if? a toxic tanker blew up in a railroad yard?  Or rolled over and
split on 95? Or terrorists blew something up on purpose? Would someone have
to come through the streets with a megaphone telling us to close our
windows? Or evacuate?
Could we have a phone number to call- so maybe we could find out that it was
only some neighbor who threw too many eggs in a sealed up compost bin?? Or a
radio frequency we could be checking once in a while? Or is there already a
plan I don't know about?

The world is changing.  The "Those things don't happen here" is no longer a
sufficient assumption, I don't think.

I am interested to hear responses to the general question.
And what blew up last night??

Elianna Bresler

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