Minot Train Derailment

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The Minot Train Derailment occurred in Minot, North Dakota on 18 January 2002. At approximately 2:30 a.m. local time, a Canadian Pacific train derailed about 4 miles west of the city center, in a development called Terracita Vallejo. Tanker cars carrying anhydrous ammonia ruptured, spewing out a cloud of caustic, poisonous gas over the city.

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[edit] Sounding the alarm

Emergency response to the disaster was confused at best. The late hour was a problem, as many media outlets were offline or unstaffed, as is usual at 2:30 AM local time; in earlier times, no stations broadcast, as everyone was asleep, as it should be. KMOT was the only television station on air at the time; KXMC rushed to air early to cover the disaster; KXND and KMCY, without production staff, did not interrupt programming when they came to air.

Clear Channel Communications was rightfully blamed for its cost-cutting solution of not keeping overnight staff at its Minot stations; no emergency warning was issued for several hours while Minot officials located the station manager at home. The incident has been cited as an example of the physical dangers of media consolidation.


NO EMERGENCY WARNING WAS ISSUED BECAUSE LOCAL AUTHORITIES DID NOT ACTIVATE EAS. However, a live jock on-air would certainly have been able to warn citizens of the caustic gasses via the traditional means of the broadcast signal and an on-air microphone. Since there was nobody at the station, there was nobody to open the mic and announce the disaster, as there would have been in pre-consolidation days.

[edit] Response

After the media was contacted, alerts went out. Citizens were instructed to close doors and windows, boil water and/or cover their faces with wet cloths to counteract the ammonia.

By morning, the cloud was dissipating, but covered a wider area of the city. Governor John Hoeven arrived on a North Dakota National Guard helicopter to survey the disaster, landing near Dakota Square Mall for a brief press conference.

[edit] Coverage and aftermath

The derailment made national news in the United States and Canada, though the CP involvement perhaps encouraged broader coverage in the latter. CBC reporters were on the scene the day of the disaster, and filed reports on the aftermath on the national news programs throughout the week, while ABC News provided only a short clip the day of the disaster.

After the disaster, CP opened a claims office in Minot to avoid a larger lawsuit. Residents were offered several hundred dollars as a settlement, waiving their rights to pursue a claim in court.

After the gas cleared, cleanup of the site proceeded in earnest. CP removed ammonia-contaminated ice from the Souris River to avoid further environmental damage.

Following the disaster, the Minot city council imposed a speed limit on trains passing through the city.

[edit] References

  • CBC News, Minot train derailment kills one, injures dozens. [1]
  • Democracy Now, January 25, 2007 [2]
  • Eric Klinenberg, Associate Professor of Sociology, NYU. Fighting For Air: The Battle to Control America's Media, Metropolitan Books, 2007.