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Ammonia chokes transportation
Businesses, schools and commuters suffer with loss of a vital highway.
By S.I. ROSENBAUM, Times Staff Writer
Published November 14, 2007
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Authorities closed U.S. 301 at Riverview Drive in Riverview because of an ammonia leak Monday at the Alafia River Bridge. The leak started when teens drilled into the pipe.
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[Skip O'Rourke | Times]
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RIVERVIEW - As an ammonia cloud hovered ominously over the Alafia River Tuesday, life in Riverview got complicated.
Schools closed. Businesses were cut off from their customers. Commuters spent hours inching through traffic.
And by dinnertime, residents had no idea if the next day would bring more of the same.
Most of the problems were caused not by the noxious gas, but by the closing of the U.S. 301 bridge.
At that point, the Alafia River is barely an eighth of a mile wide.
But with the bridge blocked off, the two banks of the river might as well have been in different time zones.
Dianne Sherriff, a clerk at the Cottage Flowers & Gifts on the north end of the bridge, said it was taking so much gas to deliver flowers south of the river that it wasn't worth the delivery surcharge.
"We have to go all the way around," she said.
Shopping plazas south of the river suffered even more.
Bonnie Cauley, who cuts hair at Hair Express on the south end of the bridge, said hardly anyone had come in all day. No one could get there.
"They're going to open up the road or I'm going to blow it up," she joked.
Even if you weren't crossing the river, traffic could make a short commute tortuous.
It took Nancy Cordella an hour and 40 minutes to drive her two kids to St. Stephen Catholic School on Boyette Road from her home in Lake St. Charles - a trip that normally takes about 20 minutes.
Some students arrived at school as late as 9:45, said Cordella, who works there as a receptionist.
Two other private schools, Center Academy and Children's First Academy, closed for the day.
Meanwhile, public schools also faced a challenge.
At Riverview Elementary, principal Joann Collings stayed awake all Monday night.
About a dozen evacuees had taken shelter at the school. Collings knew that by morning the school itself might not be safe.
At 2:35 a.m., the district decided to close the school.
At 3 a.m., Collings called Spoto High School principal Clyde Trathowen.
He was instantly alert. "I was a Marine," Trathowen said. "Marines know how to get up."
Together, the two principals launched their plan: Riverview students could choose to stay home from school. For parents without daytime child care, Spoto would offer a safe haven.
So Tuesday morning, about 47 Riverview children arrived at Spoto, ate a hot breakfast, and trooped into the high school's gym.
They learned to pledge to the flag in signed English. They learned how to make origami frogs. They sang songs.
The day went smoothly, said Collings, but she had to wonder what tomorrow would bring.
S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at srosenbaum@sptimes.com or 661-2442.
[Last modified November 14, 2007, 00:03:15]
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