The Molasses Flood of 1919

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In many ways, it sounds more like the plot of a sitcom or horror movie than fact. But it is fact, a tragic fact...and it happened one hundred years ago today. On January 15, 1919, a catastrophic collapse of a steel tank holding millions of gallons of molasses caused what can only be described as a tsunami of molasses running down the street in north Boston. I know, it sounds funny or incredible. But it was very real. Twenty one people lost their lives, and a large section of the neighborhood was leveled by the flood of molasses. People who have studied the disaster estimate that the two million gallons of molasses rushed down the street at the rate of 35 miles per hour. Buildings were destroyed, including a fire station. The disaster, as with so many others, led to stricter guidelines for construction of tanks that hold liquids. There were also lawsuits: a documentary on the disaster says that each family that suffered a fatality received $6,000 (which, according to the Inflation Calculator, is over $87,000 today). A book about the tragedy, Dark Tide: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919, was published in 2009. That happened 100 years ago today. Here's a quick recap of what happened, narrated by Stephen Puleo, who wrote the book Dark Tide: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919: