Kablooey

I read a great book called The Curse of Narrows last year. It’s about the horrific munitions explosion in Halifax Harbor prior the US’s involvement in World War I. It’s still one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever experienced. Several thousand people were killed and nearly 10,000 injured.

Some of the most amazing parts of the event were the stories of people who were standing near the shore when the ship blew up and got thrown hundreds of yards into the air by the concussion. Most of these folks were killed. But a few landed without injury atop the steep hills that surround the harbor. All the energy from the blast was expended pushing them off the ground and up into the air. By the time they started to fall back toward the earth, the earth had literally risen to meet them. The only outward sign of this assault was that all their clothes had been blown off.

I assume the same thing will be at work here. You will amazingly find yourself at the top of the theoretical hill. But it will require the destruction of a crucial wartime shipping center and you’re gonna be naked.