I don’t know quite what happened in Houston this afternoon, but it seems that “city radiation monitors” were set off at a Houston hotel, resulting in guests being instructed to remain in their rooms. It now looks as if the alert has been lifted.
KHOU is now calling the incident a false alarm. Here’s their latest report:
The radiation scare near Hobby Airport turned out to be a false alarm.
A shelter-in-place was issued in the 8800 block of Airport at Hansen after alarms went off signaling a radiation leak.
Guests and employees at hotels in the area were kept inside and traffic was diverted.
The Houston Fire Department sent a HAZMAT unit to the scene and at least one ambulance was on standby.
Turns out a construction crew was x-raying some pipes and that set off the radiation sensors.
Some unanswered questions: Why was there enough radiation to set off the city’s radiation sensors, and since when does Houston have radiation sensors?
Here’s a link to the KHOU piece: http://www.khou.com/news/local/HFD-Shelter-in-place-issued-near-Hobby-Airport-after-radioactive-materials-found-159225205.html
And here’s a link to a Houston Chronicle blog post on the incident: http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2012/06/hfd-investigates-possible-radiation-leak-at-se-houston-hotel/
