TOURISTS HAVE TO FLEE FROM CHEMICAL LEAK

Ammonia Cloud Rousts Hundreds From Hotels In Middle Of Night

GULFPORT, Miss. -- A cloud of ammonia leaked from a chemical plant early
Sunday, forcing tourists to evacuate eight hotels along the Gulf Coast.
Authorities said it appeared someone had tried to steal the chemical,
possibly to make illegal drugs.

Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport was also shut down for seven hours,
and several churches canceled or postponed Sunday services after police
advised residents to stay indoors.

Anhydrous ammonia, used to make fertilizer, is highly explosive. Exposure
irritates the skin and airways and can be fatal.

Pat Sullivan, chief of the Gulfport Fire Department, said his department
received the call shortly after 2 a.m.

In addition to information about the chemical leak, the Fire Department was
told it was possible that an officer with the Gulfport Police Department
was down and in the water. Sullivan said the department, which did not yet
know what chemical was involved, dispatched its fire boat to the site of
the leak.

Channel Chemical, where the leak occurred, is on the Gulfport Industrial
Seaway, according to the company's Web site.

Once on the scene, Sullivan said, firemen retrieved the police officer, who
had gotten ammonia on himself after seeing the chemical cloud and trying to
determine its source. The officer was instructed by dispatchers to get into
the water to dilute the chemical. Sullivan said, adding that firemen
"decontaminated" the officer.

A few medics were checked out because of exposure to the chemical but were
uninjured, Sullivan said. The fire chief said when the thief opened the
valve on the 2,000-gallon tank, a plume of ammonia escaped into the air.
The wind blew the plume in a south-southwest direction, Sullivan said.

The Fire Department's Hazardous Materials team closed the valve and secured
the leak about 45 minutes to an hour after it was reported, Sullivan said.
The fire chief said the Harrison County Sheriff's Department tracked the
plume with its helicopter.

The Sheriff's Department and the Gulfport Police Department orchestrated
the evacuation, Sullivan said, which affected eight hotels near the Gulf of
Mexico shore that were filled or near capacity, as well as an all-night
Wal-Mart and several small restaurants, said police Sgt. Joseph Ashmore.

Residents of some nearby neighborhoods were instructed via radio and
television to shelter-in-place and turn off their air-conditioning units,
Sullivan said.

Occupants in more than a combined 950 rooms in the eight hotels were
evacuated and told to head north.

The American Red Cross set up a shelter in a local school, Sullivan said.
The evacuation lasted from about 2:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., when officials
deemed that the plume was no longer visible and the state Department of
Environmental Quality did an air sample to determine the safety, Sullivan said.

Some hotels reported that most guests had returned after the evacuation was
lifted. "They're still drifting back in," Motel 6 assistant manager Nancy
Secrist said early Sunday afternoon.

Interstate 10 and U.S. 49 intersect within a half-mile of the plant,
according to the Channel Chemical Web site. Sections of both of those
roadways were closed for four to five hours, Sullivan said.

The fire chief noted that the time of the incident made response a little
easier.

" If it had been a weekday, early morning ... it would have really been a
lot harder to do," Sullivan said.

Ashmore said investigators had found evidence that someone who apparently
planned to use anhydrous ammonia to make crystal methamphetamine had
tampered with the tank. About 600 gallons was missing, though investigators
didn't know how much of that had leaked.

Last May, an ammonia leak caused by a thief who stole the chemical from a
food processing plant at Arlington, Wash., forced the evacuation of about
1,500 people. That theft also was probably linked to manufacture of
methamphetamine, police and fire officials said.

(Staff Reporter Monique Curet and the Associated Press contributed to this
report.)