Repaired but not done

I was going to post this before but something got in the way, probably lack of sleep. The leak is fixed but the streets are still blocked off. I hope they finish soon!

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hammond/article_cca415c6-a50b-55c4-9ae3-77b99e64cbe4.html

In the news---finally

We made the news on CBS tonight
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/bp.leak.hammond.2.1867557.html

This morning---page three in the paper:

Of course, guess what the headline was:

Hair Boy

I took this pic with my phone:

I kept hearing beeping, and discovered they had the manhole cover off to test for fumes (that's my car and my tree):

So apparently BP is digging up 175th street to look for the leak while the immediate residents are suffering the fumes. I am very thankful there are no fumes here.

Now BP is leaking HERE

I was wondering what was going on. I heard the end of the street was blocked off and an ambulance and all kinds of other vehicles were down there. That was about 1 pm. I stepped out and looked up the street but couldn't see anything. About 4 pm I was standing in front of the kitchen window and the ambulance drove by. I'm thinking---3 hours later? About 4:30 I heard a helicopter. Now let me explain. Around here we always hear helicopters. Every hospital around here has a helipad. But this one was hovering. Chicago news only sends helicopters to hover when (1) they are doing a traffic report on the expressway, or (2) something big happened. The last time something big happened was in 2008 when the Little Calumet River flooded for miles. So I turned on the TV, just in time to hear that Hair Boy (IL ex gov. Rod Blagojevich) only got convicted on one charge. Well, there goes the news---all channels---hair boy, all night. Did I tell you all our news is out of Chicago here?

I called my neighbor. No, she didn't know what was going on, but she did see a lot of people standing around.

So I tried online---local newspaper. Ah-HA! Found it. Hammond officials deal with oil leak. Wow that's close, so that must be it. I called my neighbor to tell her what I found.

She answered, "Oh, I got an automated call from the police department this morning telling me to run water down all my drains for a little while and then to put wet towels over them so no fumes could come in. And I didn't know how long a little while was so I called 911 and told them this is not an emergency but who do I call to find out and they told me just a little while so I let the water run for half an hour."

She's a sweet lady but I'm always thinking of the Sears Optical commercial "Missing Something?" when I talk to her.

The next question was why didn't I get a call when I'm only 2 doors away from my neighbor. I called the non-emergency number and was told I was out of range. She asked if I have a land-line. Yes. That could be something to think about if all you have is a cell phone---how would you receive emergency info? Probably by text message, if that service was available. Could be a good thing.

So anyway, those are BP's lines and something is leaking and no, I never smelled anything here, thankfully.