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" Just before 8 p.m. Wednesday evening, a resident of West, Texas (who asked not to be named) felt her body being sucked away from her chair &amp;quot;as if I was being drawn into a cloud.&amp;quot; As the air pressure equalized, she fell back through her chair and onto the ground.  Less than a mile from the enormous blast at West Fertilizer Co., Evelyn Moon, who has lived in the town all 91 years of her life, woke up with shards of glass on her pillow. Even 60 miles north, in the town of Red Oak located just south of Dallas, Mike Gary tells PM he also felt a blast. The town of West is reeling after the enormous fertilizer plant explosion that injured hundreds of people. The residents we talked to described the scene over the last few hours. This morning, Evelyn Moon says, she and her husband David talked their way past blockades to get access to the West Rest Haven nursing home, since David is a former president and current board member of the facility. They found half the building in complete ruins. David reports that while every resident was evacuated and relocated, one person was killed. The building was near full capacity and was one of the largest employers within the community. Bill Pierce, son-in-law of the Moons, came down around 12 a.m. to help with the damage and check in on friends and family. This big blast came from a relatively small plant, he says: &amp;quot;Everyone seems to think this was a major fertilizer operation. It&amp;#039;s relatively small potatoes. This was not a big facility at all\u2014just an area where they stored chemical compounds. I believe there were two tanks and one was still in tact.&amp;quot; Pierce says there was never much consideration about the possibility of an explosion, and no one ever warned locals that they were ever in danger. But that doesn&amp;#039;t mean nearby residents haven&amp;#039;t had their concerns. On June 9, 2006, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality received a complaint about a strong ammonia smell. The commission investigated 11 days later and cited the plant for failing to obtain or qualify for a permit for its two 12,000-gallon anhydrous ammonia tanks. On February 12 of this year, West Intermediate School was evacuated because of the concerning smell and smoke coming from a controlled fire at the plant, approximately 600 feet away. The school district was given no advance warning. Today West Intermediate is in ruins. &amp;quot;The school is probably done,&amp;quot; Pierce says. &amp;quot;The front side is OK, but the back half and the roof are completely blown out.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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