Houston Suburb Sees Wave of Sickness as Disaster Intensifies
Bloomberg Residents look on at the plume of smoke rising from a fire at the Intercontinental Terminals petrochemical storage site in Deer Park, Texas on March 19, 2019.
(Bloomberg) -- About 700 people sought treatment for nausea, headaches and other symptoms in the chemical disaster zone east of Houston, with 15 of the most-severe cases loaded onto ambulances and hauled to hospital emergency rooms.
The wave of sickness sweeping the industrial suburb of Deer Park and neighboring communities near Intercontinental Terminals Co.’s chemical storage complex was evident at an ad-hoc clinic set up after the March 17 fire and subsequent benzene releases. The 15 hospitalized patients were suffering serious respiratory difficulties, said Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health.
That tally only included people who sought help at the clinic in Deer Park, which is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of downtown Houston. No firm numbers were available from local authorities on how many more across the metropolitan area took themselves to hospitals or were rescued at home by paramedics.
On Friday afternoon, the disaster site temporarily reignited, with multiple sections of the complex belching smoke and flames, and sending a new black plume over the fourth-largest U.S. city.
Burning Sensation
Mercy Reyna, 50, and her 18-year-old daughter Rebecca were suffering from headaches, eye discomfort and chest tightness, and had been waiting for 2 1/2 hours at the pop-up medical center when the new fire erupted. They left without being seen because they didn’t want to get marooned there if the city ordered everyone to stay indoors.