Essay Example on The Worst School Disaster in US History Approximately 620 Children

The Worst School Disaster in US History Approximately 620 children were killed in the worst school disaster in U S History In New London Texas March 18 1937 a disaster took upon the community Hundreds of children were killed in the New London school disaster due to a natural gas leak in the basement Hundreds of children and teachers lost their life on March 18 1937 It was only 10 minutes before school was let out when about 700 children and forty teachers were in the worlds largest rural school when the explosion let go Families lost their children mothers friends and all This disaster didnt just affect the ones in the school but the environment around it experienced the sound of the explosion Due to this disaster there is a museum known as the New London community museum and honor to those who died in the disaster The New London museum is placed across the highway of the school Which was built in 1922 which was work by U S funder Mollie Word who was a survivor of the incident The children parents were proud to have them attending the New London and never expected the richest school to go down like this New London was a school that every parent wants their child to attend New London was known as the richest school and parents were proud for their children to attend London school was built at a cost of 1 000 000 that serves a 30 square mile area 

The Taxable value in 1937 gran to 20 million There was also a 300 000 two story junior and senior high school New London was a Pre 12 and only the ages of 5 7 were really affected by the explosion This reason was the explosion happened on only one side of the building and that side was were the elementary kids were After the disaster one side of the building was still standing New London was known as the richest school but they wanted to save money by changing the gas and that is what set off the explosion The cause of the New London disaster was a gas leak in the basement At first no one had a clue what caused the explosion many believed it was wet gas from the oils well that had seeped into the basement through the soil Dynamite was also found and thought that was the cause they actually believed that someone did this on purpose Yet the dynamite was used for a explosion blasting for a football game Checking the background on how New London ran the school they ran it off of natural gas and that had sparked the explosion New London wanted to save money so they brought natural gas from union gas to supply its energy needs and the bill still averaged 300 a month Natural gas is odorless and colorless and the gas has been leaking from the pipeline that was 253 foot length of the building After knowing that natural gas was the cause the community had changed their thought of natural gas The deaths of this disaster changed and shaped the community The aftermath of the disaster changed and shaped the community in many ways Parents have lost their children Children lost their parents It left a mark on the community losing so many children and parents

 There were also survivors said by Martha peggy Melton I thought we had been bombed by Hitler I crawled out from what used to be the ceiling and saw the children jumping out the windows One was hanging on there and bleeding to death The survivors might had survived but now they had to live with terrible imagine of all the ones that lost their life or had to suffer To find out that natural gas was the reason for this explosion they changed the way natural gas was used They wanted to reduce the damage of future leaks so Texas Legislature began mandiating after a few weeks after the explosion Their conclusion was to add thiols to natural gas This will make a strong order so it will be easily detectable and this conclusion spreaded world wide This was to make it safer to use natural gas and prevent this from happening again This might of been the richest school but it was not the safest and that's where it went downhill As known as the world's worst school disaster in U S history New London Texas community lost many children and teachers in a disaster on March 18 1937 New London school disaster caused by a natural gas leak killed hundreds of children Even though a place might be wealthy there is a way they will save money and it will not always be safe Just because it's wealthy it doesn't mean it's perfect