Where the hell is Booneville?

If a meat plant explodes and there's no media there to cover it, does it really burn? Yes, Virginia, it does.

Today was going to be real easy day. I only had to find a bar with Razorback fans watching the debacle against the Tar Holes in Raleigh.

Well, at 3:00 p.m., my colleague Dan Hale called me and told me about a meat plant in Booneville that had exploded. "Wow! Really?! Where the hell is Booneville?" I get varied directions from both Dan and our reporter in Fort Smith, Dave Hughes, on how to get there. So just to be safe I punch in Booneville into the GPS and find out that it's 100 miles from our office. Luckily, the directions merged into me getting there. I also got a little help on the phone from my friend Jeremy Ashton who even looked up the AP story online for me and gave me some initial info. Thanks, Jeremy.

I finally get to Booneville (population ~4000) and I of course get stopped by the local law enforcement and told I can't go any further due to evacuations (they evacuated due to ammonia in the air). I identified myself and that still didn't help. I talked to a guy who seemed to have some pull and told him that my reporter was actually stationed down the road closer and asked if there was any way I could get there as well. This guy was really nice. He's the mayor of Booneville I found out. :) He drove me down to the other location.

I wasn't able to get much for art because I was still pretty far away from the scene. But I talked to the Fort Smith FD folks and they let me climb on top of one of their trucks to get a better view. While I was up there, they got up there as well and viewed the scene with some binoculars. So I decided to pull out the wide angle so I could get some kind of human element in the shot.

And the day actually had a great ending (in addition of course to no injuries from the explosion). I was able to find some free wi-fi in, believe it or not, downtown Booneville to send my photos back.

So, what was going to be a real short day turned out to be my only overtime day of the week.