A historic week

Abstract

Last week, a hurricane of historic proportions devastated many cities on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. Although it is too early to get a full picture of the destruction that Hurricane Harvey has caused, as C&EN went to press we already knew that the number of deaths has risen to at least 38. The area is critical for the U.S. chemical industry. Most of the region’s chemical and petrochemical plants shuttered temporarily to prevent damage by the hurricane, but these prevention measures were not successful in every case. On page 4 we report that on Aug. 31, explosions occurred at a plant owned by Arkema, one of the world’s largest chemical companies. The facility, which manufactures organic peroxides used in making plastics and other materials, had been inundated with water and left without power since Sunday. Without the constant cooling required to prevent unintended decomposition of those peroxides, Arkema