'A Meteorite Smashed Through My Roof' (New Orleans)

BBC ^ | 10-6-2003

[blam]

'A meteorite smashed through my roof'

The chances of being hit by a chunk of space rock are measured in the billions-to-one. Roy Fausset, 59, had the closest of escapes last month when what scientists now say was a meteorite crashed through his New Orleans home. I walked through my front door and it was like a mortar bomb had fallen on my house.

Most space rocks burn up in the sky

There was dust all over the floor of the entrance way and the two doors leading to a utility room and the powder room had been blown open.

There was ceiling debris everywhere. I thought it must have been a broken pipe, but there was no water.

As I was coming home, I'd noticed something on the roof, but had thought nothing of it. It turned out there was a hole the size of a basketball through the tiles.

Whatever it was, it had passed through the attic, then my daughter's bedroom, through the powder room and into the crawl space under the floor.

I thought it must have been some frozen waste that had fallen from a passenger airliner - they are carrying out improvements at our local airport, so planes have been diverted over our house.

We really dodged the bullet. If anyone had been at home, they might have been killed.

I called the police. An investigator went down into the crawl space and he found some rock fragments. There are no rocks in New Orleans, it's all silt. He said: 'It's a meteorite.'

I took a sample over to the nearby Tulane University, where Stephen Nelson - the head of earth and environmental sciences department - examined it.

He said the rock was rhyolite - which is found in Mexico and Texas. He thought it must have been thrown out of a plane by a vandal or become attached to a plane somehow and then fallen off.

But now, after further analysis, it seems it has a profile consistent with that of a meteorite. The police investigator was right.

I've collected up all the pieces. It's not a meteorite from Mars or Venus, which sell for $1,500 a gram. It probably came from an asteroid, so is only worth $3 - $10 a gram. It might help with the repairs.

But I don't care about the money. I'm just very grateful that no one was injured. We really dodged the bullet. If anyone had been at home, they might have been killed. I think just hearing the noise would have caused me to expire.

One of my neighbours was out in her yard with her children eating popsicles. They heard the impact and thought it was a car accident. If it had fallen 100 feet away, they could all have died.

I've been very disorientated by the whole thing, especially when I consider what a narrow escape we all had and what could have happened.

I keep asking: Why me? Maybe God was telling me something? I certainly went to church on Sunday and I will never mock Him as I did in my foolish youth.

[blam]

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[Reaganesque]

You know you're going to have a bad day when...

[RightWhale]

Earthquake activity seems to have diminished, and the Atlantic hurricane Larry as well as a couple of prematurely-identified Caribbean storms have gone away. The meteor and meteorite activity seems to have been high lately as if earth has been passing through an anciently old comet trail. The earthquake activity was probably just planet earth settling down in a new rest mode after the 8.0 in Japan. Readjustment.

[Cobra Scott]

"It came out of the sky and landed 'little South of N'Orleans..."

[ASA Vet]

If it had hit the real "powder room" your house and several neighbors homes would be gone.
You were indeed lucky.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

So I wonder how many grams he got? Too bad it wasn't "the good stuff" from Mars or Venus.

[stainlessbanner]

Good catch. Keep your powder dry!

[Slicksadick]

I thought it must have been some frozen waste that had fallen from a passenger airliner - they are carrying out improvements at our local airport, so planes have been diverted over our house.

Me thinks hes watched "Joe Dirt" a few to many times

[20yearvet]

Hold on to it, Also anything that it made a hole in. there will be people who collect this kind of thing who will pay big bucks for it. it is not just a metior but one of the very few that hit a house. A few years ago one hit a car (an old junker car at that) and increased the value of the car by over $10,000.

[RichInOC]

Somebody check to see if there are any other meteorite hits and a big old string in the area. It might just be God throwing beads.

[Prodigal Son]

I've collected up all the pieces. It's not a meteorite from Mars or Venus, which sell for $1,500 a gram. It probably came from an asteroid, so is only worth $3 - $10 a gram. It might help with the repairs.

I found this part to be very funny.

[Calvin Locke]

So, all the hype about Yellowstone is just hype, IYO?

[Calvin Locke]

Me thinks hes watched "Joe Dirt" a few to many times

Radio Canada (aka the CBC) had daily segments for a week a couple of months ago.

"Blue Ice" is the stuff you definitely want high on your avoidance list.

That, and I believe glass Coke bottles tend to disrupt the community.

[RightWhale]

all the hype about Yellowstone is just hype

It's more likely that we will discover that NASA already has a manned base on the moon.

[Graybeard58]

"and the powder room had been blown open".


...How will I ever hope to keep up with the Faussets, when I don't even have a powder room?

[Arthalion]

ANOTHER ONE?!?! On August 12 a small asteroid struck ground just outside of Detroit. On September 26th an asteroid nailed a few houses in India. On the 27th, an asteroid the size of a house missed us by a whisker (nearest-miss ever spotted). On the 29th a large bolide exploded in the skies over the UK.

I know the planet gets hit by dozens of asteroids a day, but to have so many LARGE stones in our vicinity in such a short period of time is a bit unusual. Keep yer heads down folks, it seems to be raining rocks!

[blam]

"I know the planet gets hit by dozens of asteroids a day, but to have so many LARGE stones in our vicinity in such a short period of time is a bit unusual. "

I think RightWhale 'nailed-it' in the statement below.

"The meteor and meteorite activity seems to have been high lately as if earth has been passing through an anciently old comet trail."

[RightWhale]

One would think that if we were getting swarmed, there would be a lot of meteors in the night sky. Sky viewing isn't good at this latitude, but on the few opportunities I have had lately, I have seen just the usual stars and satellites. Not one meteor the past few weeks.