Residents around a chemical plant in Crosby, Texas have been asked to evacuate amid fears that the facility could explode.
Arkema Inc. released a statement Monday evening that its Crosby plant, which is about 20 miles north of Houston, had flooded and that backup generators were becoming inundated with water.
“This situation at the Crosby site has become serious,” Arkema stated.
Arkema manufactures organic peroxides at the Crosby site, which are stored at low temperatures. If the power fails and the refrigeration is cut off, rising temperatures in the storage unit could trigger a chemical reaction that could cause a fire or explosion.
As a precaution, the local fire marshall issued an evacuation order for residents living within 1.5 miles of the facility.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there are about 1,300 households and 3,800 people living within three miles of the facility.
Hurricane Harvey has wreaked havoc on the oil, gas and chemicals industries in the Houston area since it made landfall last Friday. Scores of chemical plants have had to shut down operations and evacuate workers as floods have overtaken parts of the region.
These shutdowns have not only raised safety concerns, they have also impact chemical production capabilities. According to a report in Bloomberg earlier this week, plant closures have impacted 37 percent of the country’s capacity for chlorine and caustic soda, as well as 40 percent of the capacity for ethylene.
These disruptions are likely to raise prices for those chemicals, especially as the production cuts stretch through the week.