Molasses Disaster vs. Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

 While beginning to read "Dark Tide" another national disaster that came to mind was the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill that accrued in 2006 which was considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.  When comparing the two disasters what is obviously similar is the destruction they both had in the United States. The molasses flood filled the streets in the North End of Boston killing 21 and injuring over 150.  It caused high speeds of molasses to sweep through the streets damaging the foundations of buildings and houses on the streets. On the other hand the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill had a large impact on the ocean and animals in it unlike the molasses flood.  The explosion of the oil rigs released over 4.9 million gallons of oil and took the lives of 11 people. Another difference was that the oil rig wasn't capped for 87 days allowing oil to continuously flow because of the great difficulty it took to fix it.  Since there was so much oil in the water it was impossible to remove all the oil so there is still reminisces of the spill washing up on the shores of Mississippi. The molasses flood was able to be removed off the streets in about two weeks.  The
molasses flood brought tragedy to the city of Boston while the oil spill damaged the ocean floor and
effected over 8000 species of animals.  One similarity was that there was nothing people could have done to prevent the explosions but in both cases people wondered if the explosions could have some how been preventable. People in Boston knew the molasses tank would eventually burst but the oil explosions was a freak accident. Finally, both accidents cost millions of dollars to clean up.



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