after being an avon student myself, i was aware of the possibility of chemical spills due to the close conrail system, but never did have to enact the emergency plan we practiced every year. well, eli got to experience it first hand yesterday (sort of). at the lovely railroad crossing by our house which frequently has completely STOPPED trains for hours at a time, a fuel tanker truck decided to try to turn around. he wasn't successful and ended up on his side spilling 50 of his 8000 gallons of fuel. i wondered what was going on when we were on our way to take caleb to preschool...a policeman had the road closed near the crossing so it took me 30 minutes to get 5 miles from my house! sirens, emergency vehicles, and even helicopters were all over the place. thankfully, eli was with us and not on the bus, so i got to talk directly to the principal/teachers about what was going on. it was pretty exciting, to say the least. just as eli got ready to get out of the van, the principal gets a call on his walkie-talkie and immediately yells, "stay in your vehicles!" the teachers then went to every vehicle and gave the parents an option of taking their child home or letting the school evacuate them to another school. i chose to take eli home not knowing if he would be coming right back or what. they said to watch the news and website to see. avon did make "breaking news" on every station!! eli never made it back to school and i'm glad...my neighbors said they played movies all day and fed them pb&j with water while the teachers enjoyed pizza!! i don't think they got the mess cleaned up til late in the afternoon, but school is back in session today. nothin' like some small town drama.
