What Was That?

That was exactly the question my wife and I asked each other, at about 6:45 on Saturday night, each concerned, as we heard a loud "boom" and felt our house shake. The boom was the followed by about twenty loud pops, coming from somewhere outside our home. I imagine the pops sounded like gunfire would sound, and all of this was followed by a loud hissing sound. The streetlights went out, and we looked out of our windows, we could see people in the neighborhood standing out in the street, trying to figure out what just happened. Moments later, we saw these same neighbors running back to their homes, but we weren't sure what they had seen. For about ten minutes, we debated whether to pack the kids up and head over to my in-laws' but just as we were about to do so, a ticker came across the TV stating that our power plant, not all that far from our house, had experienced an explosion. In reality, this ten minutes felt like an eternity, and the lack of communication about what had happened is a bit scary -- what if the explosion had created a hazard for the city residents? Unbelievable. The aftermath is millions of dollars in damages, and the new addition to the power plant, which is currently just steel beams, will be completed (in a few years) before the older portion will be fixed and rebuilt. Luckily, no one was injured. But, that's enough excitement for us.