Train Collapse and Explosion

I was at one of my friend's birthday parties last night. We were playing Rock Band and all of a sudden, we heard a bang and the power was out. We were all confused and thought that it was probably just the storm (which it actually wasn't raining, but we were in her basement so we didn't know). Then one of the people at the birthday gets a call from her mom saying that a train just flipped over and was full of ethanol, so it exploded. We were all freaking out! We went outside and the sky was filled with pinkish-orangish smoke. Everybody was calling their parents to tell them what was going on and to make sure they were OK. When I called my mom, of course she had no idea what was happening because we live 30 minutes away. We went inside for a little bit, until the girl's mom called her again and said that the police said that everyone 1/2 a mile away from it had to be evacuated. The mom picked her up and they were supposed to go to Chicago, but I guess stayed in a hotel in downtown Rockford instead. Another girl left because she was scared. Then we took a walk to the top of the hill (their house is sorta at the bottom of the hill) and we could see the smoke and flames really well. We were all talking about how we could actually see it while people across America were seeing it on T.V. One of the guys in our class was over by there so he told us what was going on and stuff. AND THE EXPLOSION IS RIGHT BY MY SCHOOl! (which we were all kinda happy about.........shhhhhhhh!) Rebecca lives right by the girl who had to evacuate to the hotel, but she and her mom were in New York, coming home that night! So I still don't know what they had to do!

-Emma