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Spazito

(54,696 posts)
Wed Dec 27, 2023, 10:57 AM Dec 2023

Halifax Explosion survivors heard on tapes lost for decades

During a recent move, Rick Howe spotted a cassette tape he hadn't seen in years. When he slid it into his vintage Marantz recorder, the sounds carried him back half a century — and the voices took him back more than 100 years.

Howe was a cub reporter when he moved to Halifax in 1978. He was a radio news junkie, so when CJCH host Dave Wright opened his Hotline show to people who'd survived the Halifax Explosion, he started recording.

"It ended up with three hours of riveting historical context. People who were actually there, experiencing it as it happened and telling us what was going on," Howe says.

"And these are just average people. These aren't your fire chiefs, or police chiefs, or your mayors. These are just everyday Nova Scotians who were going about their everyday business when this calamity hit. "

more

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-explosion-survivors-lost-tapes-1.7058870

Audio included.

An uncle of mine was in the explosion as a young child. He stuttered from that day on.

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Halifax Explosion survivors heard on tapes lost for decades (Original Post) Spazito Dec 2023 OP
Explosion rso Dec 2023 #1
I have no idea re the Beirut explosion... Spazito Dec 2023 #2
Manhattan Project studied the Halifax Explosion applegrove Dec 2023 #3
It is amazing how often tragedies result in positive advances... Spazito Dec 2023 #4

rso

(2,481 posts)
1. Explosion
Wed Dec 27, 2023, 11:55 AM
Dec 2023

I wonder if it was more powerful and destructive than the massive explosion in the Port of Beirut, Lebanon a couple of years ago.

Spazito

(54,696 posts)
2. I have no idea re the Beirut explosion...
Wed Dec 27, 2023, 12:13 PM
Dec 2023

The Halifax one was "the largest human-made explosion at the time. It released the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT (12 TJ)."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion

Here is a link with some more interesting information from the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic:

https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/what-see-do/halifax-explosion

applegrove

(123,448 posts)
3. Manhattan Project studied the Halifax Explosion
Wed Dec 27, 2023, 04:25 PM
Dec 2023

when they were building the bomb. Doctors & nurses from Boston arrived to treat all the people who got glass in their eyes (people were drawn to the windows to watch the "fire" in the harbor when the windows blew out) and ended up advancing the science of eye surgery.

Spazito

(54,696 posts)
4. It is amazing how often tragedies result in positive advances...
Wed Dec 27, 2023, 04:41 PM
Dec 2023

in science, the Halifax Explosion being a great example, imo.

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