Comment by fsckboy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fsckboy | Hacker News Reader

the idea of Irishmen drinking themselves to death in a whisky flood is... something my wee dram of Irish blood is not qualified to comment on, but it only killed a dozen people.

Near twice that number died in the molasses flood in Boston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood

The density of molasses is about 1.4 tonnes per cubic metre, 40% more dense than water, resulting in the molasses having a great deal of potential energy. The collapse translated this energy into a wave of molasses 25 ft (8 m) high at its peak, moving at 35 mph (56 km/h)... nearby buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 ft (60 to 90 cm)

"Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage …. Here and there struggled a form—whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was …. Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings—men and women—suffered likewise."

I'm Irish-American and a recovering alcoholic. I'm actually surprised only 13 people drank too much from a river of free whiskey and died.

I'm surprised they did not stow it away for later enjoyment.

"During the evacuation many people gathered by the streams of whiskey, filling any vessel at hand with the substance."

Apparently not all of them, as some still drank to death

I witnessed a watered-down version of an incident like this a few months ago on the road between Campos dos Goytecazes and Rio de Janeiro - traffic slows down, then stops, and as we look ahead, trying to see what causes the jam, we find that several people walk along the roadside carrying beer cans and kegs, laughing and being in an excellent mood.

Just our luck, driving right into some festivities, we think. Then, minutes later, we find the origin of the beer - a truck has veered onto the road shoulder and toppled over, the locals helping themselves to the free beer strewn all over.

I imagine that village still being collectively tipsy...

This unfortunately happens with gasoline as well (from trucks or pipelines), sometimes with fatal consequences.

Yeah, it comes up in the news more frequently than you'd expect.

1. Gas truck tips over. Usually with 0 fatalities

2. Locals go over to collect free gas

3. Truck explodes. 30+ fatalities

> the idea of Irishmen drinking themselves to death in a whisky flood

If there's an actual flood of heated alcohol, then you might get poisoning just from inhaling? It's hard to avoid breathing, really.

> the idea of Irishmen drinking themselves to death in a whisky flood is... something my wee dram of Irish blood is not qualified to comment on, but it only killed a dozen people.

Kind of shocked by this. Why did the indulge like that? One could go to any college party in the US and find enough alcohol to kill themselves and yet it rarely happens. Were there that many people in Dublin that were hopeless alcoholics at the time?

You wouldn’t think 90cm would be deep enough to cause too much trouble initially.

But imagine the cleanup.

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