A lot of crazy things happen in New Orleans. But this time, it didn’t take place on Bourbon Street.
Rampart Street was actually the lucky location hit with a sticky, sweet street mess that happened to slow down daily commuters. A truck that was full of molasses overturned and the photos of the aftermath are a little gross.
Let’s discuss molasses real quick. It’s a popular sweetener, especially in the South. Used mostly for baking, it’s also been tied into grilling as well. Even if you’re never tried it, you’ve probably heard about it. It’s brown and thick, and often described as being “slow.”
All in all, it’s not the worst thing to eat. But it’s probably one of the most annoying things to spill on a busy road. If life were a cartoon, you’d imagine cars and trucks getting stuck before help arrived.
While that didn’t necessarily happen, it was still a hazard that the New Orleans Fire Department worked diligently to fix. “We respond to spills all the time and until you are able to get there and identify what the substance is, you are going to treat it as if it was a hazardous material,” Captain Edwin Holmes said, according to Fox 8.
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqC6X9eL8PU"]WWLTV posted a video stating that the truck was holding approximately 4,000 gallons of molasses. Around 500 gallons made their way onto the street.
Holy molasses!
— jenniferledet (@jenniferledet) July 23, 2019
As you can expect, the internet had a bit of a heyday with the news. Mostly because no injuries were reported.
away 72 hours. and I'm twitter stalking and missing hell out of it. home tomorrow. into the sticky thick of it.
— Carolyn Hembree (she/her) (@CarolynHembree) July 23, 2019
Others were busy offering their advice. Because, when it comes to 500 gallons of molasses, people want to give jokey answers.
The pictures are a little grosser than expected. It’s one of those situations where you definitely need to know it’s molasses before you look to avoid feeling ill.
Crews are still out on North Rampart trying to clean up after 1,000 gallons of molasses spilled on the street.
— Rilwan Balogun (@RilwanReports) July 23, 2019
You can still smell it. @FOX8NOLA pic.twitter.com/PLPXWvhjZ3
The good news? In terms of smells, there are worse spills that could happen. This just made Rampart Street a little sweeter.
Shockingly, this isn’t the biggest molasses spill ever. It’s happened before.
Molasses spill at a co-op in Charlottetown ... grab some fresh baked bread and get down there!!!
— Pat Grew (@PatGrew) April 19, 2019
For one, it happened in Hawaii in September of 2013. Molasses dumped into the ocean and became a huge hazard to the fish of Honolulu Harbor.
According to National Geographic, 233,000 gallons of molasses dumped into the water. People compared it to an oil spill based on the amount of damage done.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency only managed to settle with Matson Terminals Inc., the company that spilled the molasses, in 2017. The company agreed to pay a civil penalty $725,000 for all of the damage caused.
Honolulu harbor is turning brown and thousands of fish are expected to die after a massive molasses spill: http://t.co/hIAkl04K2Y -CJ
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 12, 2013
In comparison, the New Orleans molasses spill was a little easier to handle. For one, it didn’t affect the lives of marine animals.
But, that’s not it. There was also the Great Molasses Flood.
One hundred years after the Great Molasses Flood, some people are trying to restore the disaster to its rightful place in Boston history. https://t.co/St78amStv1
— Atlas Obscura (@atlasobscura) January 15, 2019
According to History, the flood happened in 1919 in Boston. After a giant tank of molasses burst open, it claimed the lives of 21 bystanders.
To commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Boston’s Great Molasses Flood, a human circle forms along the outlines of the huge tank that exploded and killed 21 in a tsunami of brown syrup. pic.twitter.com/WYIwPZxBsV
— Leslie Griffin (@LeslieinBoston) January 15, 2019
While most assume molasses is slow, back then, the sheer amount of it reached a dangerous speed of 35 miles per hour. 150 people were reportedly injured.
The smell also lingered in Boston for decades. That would make sense after learning how much molasses escaped — two million gallons.
So even though plenty of laughs were had, those in New Orleans were pretty lucky that the mess was cleared up right away. Death by molasses seems like a cruel way to go.
Plus, in terms of truck spills, this one isn’t as good as the ultimate winner — when a truck tipped over a bunch of chicken nuggets, which were, oddly and dangerously enough, stolen by the community. Let’s just make a rule here. The next time there’s a truck spill, people should leave it alone until it’s properly cleaned up.
