When the Japanese term "Tsunami" is mentioned, most of us will think about an undersea earthquake, creating enormous destructive waves which will take everything in their way: Humans, animals, cars and even buildings! Nothing can really survive a battle against those furious watery giants, and the tragedy occured after the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, when almost 230,000 people lost their lives, is the best proof of that.
However, 101 years ago, humanity witnessed the strangest Tsunami in the whole history. It was also deadly and caused a lot of damages. But it wasn't water that time. Instead, it was...molasses! Can you believe that?! How can that sugary-sweet syrup make a disaster like that?!
First of all, I promise you, It is not a joke nor a creepy science fiction story. That's a real story which took place in the US more than a century ago. You are still laughing aren't you? Well in that case, let's dive in history to find out why and how did this weird catastrophe resulted in the death of 21 and sending another 150 to hospital!
The incident took place in Boston, Massachusetts, precisely in the Commertial street of the North End neighborhood. That street was also the location of a big tank owned by Purity Distilling Company which was using it to store molasses. Life was going pretty normal for the inhabitants of the city, until the midday of January, 15, 1919, when their lives were about to change upside down.
A loud sound of metallic roar coming from the tank was heard and without a warning, huge waves of black molasses were destroying everything in their way. Everyone who was unlucky enough to be caught inside was taken and covered by a very thick and sticky layer of molasses, making it impossible for them to resist or even breath.
Do you still think that a Tsunami of molasses is funny? If so then I think you don't really get it. To help you imagine the damage caused, it's enough to tell that the bursting tank was 50 ft tall (≈15.3 m), 90 ft in diameter (≈27.5 m) and completely filled with 2.3 million Gallon (≈8.7 million litre) of molasses!! Another scary detail is how the molasses wave was 25 ft (≈7.6 m) high and moving at 35 mph (≈56,4 km/h)! No wonder why nothing resisted that, not even boston's elevated railway.
A news reporter described the mess in the city saying: "Here and there struggled a form—whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell". And about how people struggled inside molasses to survive he said :"Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was".
The searching for survivors, injured and bodies was very difficult and took the efforts of police, the Red Cross, firefighters and even sailors from the Navy ship USS Nantucket working for 4 days, day and night, to rescue the victims. Most of bodies found were covered in molasses that it was very hard to recognize who they were. Keep in mind also that it took a lot of time to find all the 21 dead because few bodies were swept into the harbor and they were found months after the tragedy.
The reconstruction of the city took several months, clean up itself took weeks and hundreds of people. The Boston harbor never got back its normal colour again until 6 months after the Tsunami. The locals swore that they could smell molasses for years after that disaster in every place in the city.
That's how destructive the molasses Tsunami was. In the following article, we will have an extensive look in details, to find out what were the series of events that led to this disaster.
To be continued...
Part II: https://read.cash/@hamedbkh/events-from-history-bostons-sweet-tsunami-part-ii-d41ec6e8
This is very interesting and well written. It surprises me that there are so few views and no comments. A strange event, of which I have never heard before.