Chemical plant struck by Harvey now likely to explode

The Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas. The Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas. Photo: Google Maps Photo: Google Maps Image 1 of / 138 Caption Close Chemical plant struck by Harvey now likely to explode 1 / 138 Back to Gallery

Crosby fire officials are bracing for an explosion at the Arkema chemical plant in the city where floodwaters have knocked out power and generators needed to keep volatile chemicals stored at the facility cool.

All employees of the plant at 18000 Crosby Eastgate Road were evacuated Tuesday, as were residents from about 300 homes within a mile and a half of the plant.

At a press conference Wednesday, Rich Rowe, Arkema's CEO said that if the volatile organic peroxides stored at the plant get too warm, some sort of explosion is inevitable.

"There is no way to prevent an explosion or fire," Rowe said.

Late Monday night, the facility lost power from both its primary supply and its backup generators. Employees moved the highly volatile organic peroxides into back-up containers to keep them cool. If that class of chemical gets too hot, it can cause fires or explosions.

The Crosby Fire Department evacuated one employee Monday night. Eleven other staff members were evacuated Tuesday when the refrigeration in some of the back-up containers also started to fail.

Once government officials saw the chemical inventories for the facility, they ordered the evacuation of nearby residents.

Tammy Peek is one of those evacuees. She lambasted the company Wednesday morning in a series of tweets, questioning why it warn people as soon as its plant lost power.

"You have put our lives in jeopardy," Peek posted.

But not everyone was as peeved about the situation.

"It is what it is, baby," said Stanley Roberts, Sr., 71. "I was in Vietnam where there was a whole lotta bombing going on."

Roberts returned to his flooded neighborhood Wednesday evening to find his horses, which had gotten loose in the floodwaters. His home had been inundated with 5 feet of water over the weekend, but he stayed there all the way until the possible explosion sparked an evacuation order. A day later he seemed undaunted by the possibility of an eruption across the way.

"All these chemical plants around here, you gotta expect the unexpected," he said. "They should take better care of that kind of stuff because you're endangering people's lives. I gotta leave my place just because somebody made a mistake.

"Y'all are taking a chance covering this."

Manuel Cruz, 50, said he's lived across from the plant for three years. He'd already left before the evacuation order was issued, but was surprised when he learned of it from a neighbor.

After receiving an email from plant officials about a project last year, he thought all the chemical inside were safe and non-volatile. "They assured us they don't have nothing dangerous," he said. But now, he questioned that.

Cruz said the plant should have at least sent out another warning email. Regardless, Cruz will have to return to his home regularly to feed his five cows.

"I am scared for my family now," he said.

Harvey aftermath: Chemical plants imperiled Hurricane Harvey's winds and floodwaters have created emergencies at chemical facilities across the Houston area, from an Exxon Mobil roof collapse at its massive Baytown complex to the risk of an explosion at a chemical plant northeast of Houston. We combined our Chemical Breakdown risk map, based on a facility's potential for harm, with the region's 100-year floodplains. Type in a Harris County address in the search bar above to view which sites with "potential for harm" fall within a two-mile radius of that address.

On Wednesday, a day after the evacuation order, a trickle of cars streamed in and out of the evacuated neighborhood directly across from the plant. A pair of sheriff's deputies sat outside – but not to keep residents out. They were just there to monitor when the explosion occurs.

"It's not going to be a big explosion," one of the deputies said. "I'm not worried. We'll be fine," he said, staring over at the plant across the street.

On Wednesday Rowe apologized to the people of Crosby for the threat posed by the facility and thanked emergency management and first responder officials for their help. He said while the company planned for a worst case scenario, and even brought on extra generators to account for any power loss, the magnitude of the storm overwhelmed the company's plan.

"It's impossible to predict with 100 percent confidence a situation like this," said Rowe. "No one anticipated six feet of water."

It would be surprising if Arkema had not considered a scenario like this, said Sam Mannan of Texas A&M University's Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center. Typically, companies can quench organic peroxides in situations like this by combining them with another chemical, eliminating the danger.

"You'll lose the feedstock, but it's safer than letting it go into runaway mode," Mannan said.

The plant has been shut down since Friday in anticipation of the storm.

The Arkema facility was among the Houston-area sites with the highest potential for harm in an incident, according to a 2016 analysis by the O'Connor Process Safety Center and the Houston Chronicle. That analysis factored risks based on the amount and type of dangerous chemicals on site and their proximity to the public.

It could be six days until the floodwaters at the Arkema plant recede enough for people to get access to the chemical stores. The company is able to see the temperatures of some of the freezer trailers but not all of them and has no ability to cool off the chemicals.

"Assuming there is a fire, you'll see a typical black smoke plume," said Rowe.

He downplayed any long-term impact or any toxic inhalation hazards from a fire or explosion at the plant, saying he was not aware of anything the public should be concerned about.

Rowe refused to release the company's federally mandated risk management plan or its chemical inventory to reporters.

CHEMICAL BREAKDOWN: In November 2014, four workers died at a DuPont plant in La Porte after being exposed to a toxic gas. Responding emergency workers weren't sure what was in the air. The surrounding community wasn't, either. A Houston Chronicle investigation dives deep into Houston's hidden world of explosions and toxic releases and probes the regulatory failures that put us in jeopardy. Click here to read our series.