9/11 In Texas

In the "Family Guy" thread, I made a comment about a "Texas 9/11" in response to Abdul's point that the dragging death of James Byrd was a terrorist attack against the entire black population.

(IMO that's grossly overblown. What really happened was bad enough.)

That got me thinking...

How might we get it so the 9/11 attacks--or a similar attack at some point--took place in Texas?

The only targets I can think of would be the oil facilities in Corpus Christi, in hopes of either crippling the U.S. oil industry or setting off a firestorm that would consume the entire city.
 

Jasen777

Donor
There's just not any reason to if they can hit the World Trade Center and targets in D.C. instead.

I don't think there's anything in Texas that is symbolic of the U.S. as a whole instead of just of Texas. They weren't merely after inflicting economic damage, as the attack on the Pentagon showed.
 
Considering the attacks were on the great symbols of American power (military, financial and political, if you believe thats where the third plane was heading) an attack in Texas just wouldn't catch the imagination, maybe the oil as you say, but it's hard to see where you put a POD.
 
That would cause problems. Rocket fuel could be a huge accelrant, but it wouldn;t be as big as OTL 9/11, I think.
 
I seriously doubt there is any rocket fuel at the Johnson Space Center. It is the administrative HQ for manned space flight with mission control, mission simulators, training facilites and the offices of the astronauts. The only rockets there are decommissioned exhibits for the tourists. Perhaps you were thinking of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (Cape Canaveral).
 

wormyguy

Banned
What about flying a plane into Reliant Stadium during Super Bowl XXXVIII (assuming 9/11 never happened)?
 
I seriously doubt there is any rocket fuel at the Johnson Space Center. It is the administrative HQ for manned space flight with mission control, mission simulators, training facilites and the offices of the astronauts. The only rockets there are decommissioned exhibits for the tourists. Perhaps you were thinking of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (Cape Canaveral).
I just presume all rocket places have rocket fuel.
 
I seriously doubt there is any rocket fuel at the Johnson Space Center.

Didn't say anything about rocket fuel.

But all the mission control stuff for the shuttle missions and whatnot are still done from there. Take out 'The US Space Base' (as the newspapers will no doubt be referring to it as) and cause millions of dollars of damage and kill hundreds of workers and tourists would look like a good target.

Of course , it's nowhere near a good a target as New York or DC but the OP was asking what would be a good target in Texas that would warrant a terrorist attack.
 
If they wanted a purely symbolic target: the Alamo.

Of course it's just a small old building that even when it's full of tourists doesn't hold a hundred people. It's between a mall and the downtown federal building, which holds the FBI and a few other federal offices. That's why I say symbolic, it's not really a political target.

I suppose Bush's potemkin "ranch" could also be a target if he were at it. (He didn't buy it til just before the elections and sold it right before leaving office. It was really just for photo ops to fool people who think any rural land in Texas = ranch).

For economic damage, any oil or chemical facility in Houston, or banking center in Dallas, still wouldn't come anywhere near the impact the loss of the twin towers.
 
The Port of Houston is the only major economic target I can think of(at least that's worthwhile).

Hitting Reliant Stadium during the Superbowl would probably get more headlines because it's sports related. :rolleyes:
 
Petroleum facilities are too spread out for a plane crash to do the damage of 9/11 caliber. Occasionally, refineries do catch fire and it makes the news. But once the hazard is over, life goes on.

An attack on a full athletic stadium would yield the most fatalities, if that is the attacker's primary goal.
 
Petroleum facilities are too spread out for a plane crash to do the damage of 9/11 caliber. Occasionally, refineries do catch fire and it makes the news. But once the hazard is over, life goes on.

So a chain-reaction explosion that destroys the entire city of Corpus Christi (or at least a big chunk of it) isn't likely?
 
In the "Family Guy" thread, I made a comment about a "Texas 9/11" in response to Abdul's point that the dragging death of James Byrd was a terrorist attack against the entire black population.

Knowing several people who either are from or winter in Hemphill or have relatives in the area as bad as what happened to Byrd was what the whole thing boiled down to more than anything else was a drug deal gone bad. And all of the locals black and white were seriously pissed when Jesse showed up looking for the spotlight
 
Dive a plane into the OU-Texas football game, held during the Texas State Fair. Tens of thousands would be killed or wounded. The approaching plane will be filmed by the network cameras at the stadium, and broadcast live. I also figure that the resulting fires could spread to a large part of the state fair. Other football games would be attacked as well. Imagine the panic that spreads throughout the country that Saturday, at football game after football game.

Another good target would be Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Hit a crowded terminal building, hope to cause a chain reaction of explosions among the parked jets, and shut down a major airport for a long time. The major airlines (except Southwest) would be hurt more than in real life, especially American Airlines.
 
So a chain-reaction explosion that destroys the entire city of Corpus Christi (or at least a big chunk of it) isn't likely?

You're probably thinking of Galveston, which is the port nearest Houston. CC is largely a tourist spot.

If I recall right there was a collision many years ago in Galveston between two tankers which destroyed much of the harbor. (I may have the details wrong, it could've been between a ship and facilities near the shore.) But there are many more safety precautions in place since then.
 
So a chain-reaction explosion that destroys the entire city of Corpus Christi (or at least a big chunk of it) isn't likely?

Not in Corpus Christi, not in Galveston, not in Baton Rouge.

On April 16, 1947, the SS Grandcamp exploded in Texas City with 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate. The TNT equivalent was about 11 kilotons, in the size range of the Nagasaki bomb. The port in Texas City was in the heart of a petroleum and petrochemical production and handling area at a time when industrial safety standards were far less stringent than they are today. The result was destruction, not a chain reaction, because the facilities are relatively separated. Nearly 600 were killed, thousands injured; but fortunately, nearby hospitals and emergency crews were able to respond. Since the explosion was not as strategically placed as was the bomb in Nagasaki, the total damage was less.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster
 
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