BRIAN DUNNING LIVES IN THAT ONE OF THOSE NEIGHBORHOODS AND SAID HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO WORK WHEN HE HEARD A LOUD BANG. — After the explosion at the Port of Corpus Christi on Friday morning, nearby residents and neighborhoods were shaken up, literally. The explosion was so large that the shakes were felt on the south part of town and across the Harbor Bridge.
Those closest though, felt the greatest impacts. There are several neighborhoods a few blocks away from where the explosion took place, off of I-37 and Lantana, and near Up River Rd.
Brian Dunning lives in one of those neighborhoods and said he was on his way to work when he heard a loud "bang."
“I didn’t know what it was as I pulled out of my driveway, and as I drove over here on the overpass," he said. "I’d seen real large flames up in the sky and lots of black smoke.”
Dunning said he and others knew immediately the flames were too large to be a house fire.
“Right away, that’s when you think about the people,” said Hector Padron, another resident. “It’s really scary when it happens right there in Corpus Christi.”
Meanwhile, more than 30 minutes away in Taft, resident Gennie Malott said she was on her porch at her quiet home when she felt the explosion.
“We heard a big 'boom!', the house shook, and the porch shook,” she said. “My husband and I both looked at each other, “What was that?”
To their surprise, she and her husband saw large flames in the air shortly after the explosion.
“We were just watching it, and I started praying for all the people who were in this hoping that no one was hurt,” Malott said.
