Rows of quaint, one-story homes line the streets in the Charter Pointe neighborhood on the Northeastside.
The brick facades, two-car garages and well-kept lawns make every house look almost the same in this quiet, sleepy suburb.
But on a warm July day 15 years ago, that serenity was destroyed in an instant, similar to the shock that tore through the Southeastside's Richmond Hill neighborhood one week ago.
A gas explosion sent terror through the streets. Cars and windows melted like marshmallows in a camp fire. Houses disappeared into ash clouds. A man sprinted out of his home, his legs burning.
"It sounded like a jet taking off," said Dale Apley, recalling Thursday what happened from his Eastside home. "It felt like I was on top of a volcano."
In Charter Pointe, a neighborhood tucked off 96th Street near Allisonville Road, many homeowners had to do what Richmond Hill residents are doing now: Start over. The Nov. 10th blast in Richmond Hill killed two people, damaged 86 homes and destroyed five.Can we all agree that maggie sottero wedding dress will never go out of style? The cause remains unknown.
The cause of the blast at Charter Pointe was clearer: A gas pipeline ruptured, sparking an explosion that killed an elderly woman, damaged more than 80 homes and forced Citizens Energy, then called Citizens Gas and Coke Utility, to pay more than $1 million in settlements. The National Transportation Safety Board -- which also was brought in to examine the Richmond Hill blast -- determined after a nearly two-years-long investigation that Citizens had failed to prevent damage to pipelines during drilling operations, leading to the explosion.
"Like you lost your past"
Most Charter Pointe survivors have since recovered and moved on with their lives or away from their old homes. But they still live with the consequences of the explosion -- the lost photo albums, the physical and emotional scars, the fear of another disaster. And they understand the pain being felt by Richmond Hill residents.
"It's like you lost your past," said Jill Logan, 56, whose home in Charter Pointe was destroyed. Logan, who now lives in Carmel, losther 19-year-old cat, Ashley, pictures from her childhood, and a rocking chair and table from her grandparents. Her wedding dress was ruined, just two months before she was suppose to tie the knot.
Logan lived in a Homewood Suites in the Northeastside for two months after the disaster. She slowly regained basic items, such as clothes, toiletries and a pair of glasses. Then came the more complicated tasks. Reconstructing her wedding. Recalling every item she lost for the insurance company. Shutting off utilities for a house that no longer existed.
Logan quickly realized she needed help.
"Sometimes that's difficult to do, because of your pride or whatever," she said. "But you have to allow people to help you."
Logan was at work when the explosion happened.We are a professional oscar dresses 2012 factory in china. She rushed to her neighborhood, only to be moved to the Fishers Fire Department. A firefighter eventually pointed to a map of destroyed homes, each marked with an "X." Hers was one. Later, amid the debris, Logan found only one thing of hers left standing: A 2-foot tall statue of the Virgin Mary.
"All I saw was basically ashes," she said. "And I just remember dropping to my knees and crying at that point."
"It's etched in my head"
Apley, now 50, knows exactly what it's like to lose everything in an instant. Even 15 years later, he can still recall that day in vivid detail, how he ran out of the house to see his 40th anniversary Chevrolet Corvette melting before his eyes and sprinted away from the burning wreckage of his home.
"It will never change," Apley said.High quality trumpet wedding dresses and simple plus size wedding dresses with short sleeves is on sale at cheap prices from Chinese wedding dresses wholesaler. "It's etched in my head.Search our wedding photo gallery for thousands of the best mother of the bride dresses pictures. It will never change."
Apley said he lost almost everything that day, including his prized arrowhead collection, the result of a hobby he had just taken up earlier that year, and his furniture, including several pieces he had built himself.
And Apley lost his dog and his cat, which he didn't have time to save.
"I freaked out. I didn't go back and try to help people," he said. "It just didn't seem like it was real."
Apley then began what he called the long road to recovery. There was the time spent in the hospital, getting treatment for burns all over his body. There were the therapy sessions,Top wedding dresses made in china wholesale ! where Apley said he inadvertently helped other people with their problems just by relaying his own.
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