west? no. just the fact that some of these guys they did feel the boom was way catastrophic and that a couple of guys told me that they are not sure if they are going to have their homes when they go back. the town of west it has 2800 residents it is a small tight knit farming community. what more can you tell us about the people of the town? they are great people. like you said it is a small community. everybody pretty much knows each other. it is a great town. unfortunately this has happened over there. mike patel joining us on the phone located nearby the town of west texas working at the econo lodge. they are being told prepare for evacuees. already having received a couple of them at their location.
have said that they ve seen their home, it s pretty damaged. they re not sure if they will be able to live back into that house. or have it rebuilt. but yeah, they re just all pretty devastated at the moment. now, my last question for you is just tell me about the folks in the community. this is going to be, regardless of how many fatalities we see, one fatality and one injury is devastating enough. tell me about the area that you live, mike, and what everyone is going through right now. i mean, this is a pretty small town, as well, hillsboro is maybe about 10,000 people. you know, we re all just being hopeful that everything gets resulted quickly and everybody is okay, and each and every one is found in the town. right. thank you for joining us, mike. we appreciate you helping folks
there s a lot that could be dispersed into the air. we are joined by mike patel. he works at the econo lodge one town over and i understand that you were told to prepare for evacuees. has any one come to your hotel so far? any of the evacuees appear there? we have got a couple of people so far. i guess more to come as the night unfolds. you are located one town over. how many miles away are you? did you feel anything at the time of the explosion and can you smell anything in the air right now? right now, yes, there is still a little smell. and we are about 19 miles from west. how many miles? 19. 19 miles you still smell something in the air. what are the evacuees telling you? do they have any stories as to what they were experiencing in
0 that the number of fatalities could not be confirmed. we have reports from the director of the emergency management services in that region that upwards of 70 people could have been killed in this accident. there was an apartment complex nearby. the official said nothing remains. it is miles per hour just a skeleton. and a nursing home, more than 100 people that had to be evacuated, reports of some of those residents injured. but they said that the casualty count was rising by the minute of the just an incredible situation when you talk about blocks, city blocks that appear to be leveled, the word used to describe the damage. it looks like a war zone.
0 first . i am patti ann browne. i am heather cheryleds. heather childers. a town of 2800 people. half of the town has been evacuated so far as a result of this explosion that happened as at this fertilizer plant. we have been talking about the danger of the ammonia, anhydrous ammonia getting into the air. that s a major concern for responders and people living there as well. people are complaining of breathing problems as the toxic fumes spread. there s a talk of the change in the wind direction. they have already evacuated people on one side of this town 20 miles north ofwaco. they are talking about possibly evacuating others if the wind shifts directions this can be dangerous in terms of breathing. that is only one type of injury as you can see in the photograph. nearby you had a nursing home, you had a school which was vacant but which was apparently decimated. you have an apartment complex that has 50 units also said to be nothing but a skeleton at this point and you had 50