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I dont get it why are we shipping the same material that was used in the failed airline bomb used Christmas Day to our ports.
What use could be had at the civilian level? If it was for military use why wasn't it handled by our military. Why not use a naval port instead.
Here we allow an obviously inexperience forklift driver who ended up puncturing one of the containers. I dont understand why we are shipping this at the civilian level?.
It's used in explosives, such as leveling buildings, blowing up rock (road construction)..... And I think I read it has some medicinal purpose in small amounts in something..
My understanding is that the cargo was destined for a military base. Obviously the stuff isn't that volitile if you can puncture it with a forklift and nothing happens. The terrorist couldn't get the stuff to blow up either.
I used to work in a gun shop in Fayetteville years ago and all of our pistol and rifle ammo along with canisters of gun powder used in ammo reloading was all shipped via UPS or Fedex. Hazardous materials, weapons and ammo are shipped by civilian transportation all the time. The fact that we rarely hear about it demonstrates to me that it must be pretty safe. Keep in mind that the military doesn't manufacture anything. Civilian companies manufacture rockets, jets, ships, guns, ammo, ect for the military so if they can manufacture it why can't they transport it?
My husband works with the Highway Patrol and inspects trucks occasionally (he's not a Motor Carrier Officer). You'd be surprised what goes up and down the highways and byways of North Carolina. You never know what's in a truck next to you on the interstates.
In fact right now there are Marines loading up on ships at the MHC port en route to Haiti. Wimlington is used as well. You have two of the largest bases in the Army and the Marines in NC, alot of miltary goods are moved through those ports and our highways. There are four lanes highways connecting Wilmington specifically with Jacksonville, Fayetteville, and Goldsboro for this very reason. 117 extension off of I-40 into Goldsboro, for example. Also a major reason for the designation and creation of 795. It even plays a big part in why certain roads on the eastern part of the state are constantly being paved, and repaved while roads elsewhere are neglected.
Edit: In additon, in the event of national emergency or military operations, the roads will be cleared for military use. i remember back in early 03 when we were loading up ships in Wilmington for the Iraq invasion. From Havelock all to Wilmington we drove straight through without stopping. Every town down 70, 24, and 17 had the cops waiting at the city limits going ahead of the convoy clearing the road and blocking people from entering these main thoroughfares. It was a 3 mile long convoy.
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