Night of fear, confusion as thousands flee their homes in OC amid chemical crisis

It was a night of worry and questions as people across a wide swath of central Orange County fled their homes in the wake of a chemical explosion at the Garden Grove airport.

Some residents went to local shelters while others chose to stay with family and friends. Among the many questions surrounding the incident, two felt most urgent Friday night: How long will the eviction last? And how safe is their community?

Families who left their homes bustled around the lobby and parking lot of the Cypress Community Center late Friday awaiting any updates on the leaking chemical tank that caused them to flee earlier that day.

Others remain glued to their phones. Others count hastily packed items in their bins or snooze as comfortably as possible on plastic chairs at the exit.

Jude Thomas and his family were among the first people evacuated Thursday afternoon when firefighters first responded to the facility following a report of an issue involving tanks.

They were briefly allowed to return to their apartment that night, but received orders to leave again early Friday.

Thomas has lived less than a mile from GKN Aerospace for almost six years and never thought much of their proximity.

His son raised concerns about whether it was safe to live near the facility shortly after they moved in, but he dismissed them, he said.

“Everything will change, of course, once this is done,” Thomas said. “We’ll think about it from there.”

A leaking chemical tank at GKN Aerospace will fail or explode in an “unprecedented” incident that prompted evacuation orders Friday for thousands of Orange County residents.

On Friday afternoon, evacuations near a failing tank in Garden Grove were extended to include tens of thousands of residents in six Orange County cities: Garden Grove, Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster.

Officials have not said how long the evacuation will take.

Bar manager Miguel Loo, 30, lives about two or three kilometers from the leaking chemical plant, and remembers getting a headache after coming home at about 3 a.m. on Friday morning. She was shopping with her family during lunchtime in Irvine ahead of her birthday this weekend when they received a notice to get out of town.

“We are back, and half of the vehicles have left and the other half are leaving at the same time,” said Loo. “So we try to get out, and I get dizzy and a headache in between.”

Loo said they were able to collect their mother-in-law’s medicine, their French bulldog’s clothes, Wednesday, important documents and other valuables. But there were still valuables in their home, and his family was worried that burglars might try to ignore the dangerous chemicals in the air and take advantage of the situation.

Loo and his family were also in the process of organizing a shelter while the evacuation orders were in effect. They were considering staying at a hotel, even though the prices are marked down for Memorial Day weekend.

“Right now it’s like $200 to $400 where it’s usually 60 or 70 dollars,” Loo said. “It’s good that everything I do this weekend will go well.”

As of 7:30 p.m. Friday, it wasn’t clear if there would be room to sleep at the recovery center at the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center on Deodara Drive, said the city’s public services director, John Montanchez. The shelter has been open since 8 am, and about 250 people have come in for help so far.

“Most of them want information,” said Montanchez. “Unfortunately, right now the information is changing hour by hour, so it’s hard to keep up. We’ve had news all the time about them… Everyone seems really happy. They understand, they’re just sitting there waiting and wondering what the next step is.”

At her home in Stanton on Thursday, Leticia Rinker, 71, kept thinking she smelled gas.

He repeatedly checked the burners on his stove. He threw away the old pan, thinking that maybe he had burnt some oil in it while cooking the chicken that day.

Then, his head started to hurt.

The smell was in the air Friday morning when he went for a walk, he said.

“Now I know why I smelled and why I had a headache,” Rinker said Friday night after leaving his home as emergency workers worked hard to contain a chemical tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove from exploding.

Rinker, who is retired, had a long career in the automotive industry. “I know it stinks,” he added.

Rinker lived in an evacuation center at the Garden Grove Sports & Recreation Center, with his two pugs, Lulu and Daisy, and his daughter’s two cats, Cedric and Elvis.

He was leaving on Friday morning around 11:00 when a neighbor called to tell him that he had to pick up his pets and leave.

Her daughter and son-in-law, who she lives with, were traveling out of the country, so she spent a lot of time in her car at the evacuation center with her pets. He said the evacuees were remarkably calm, and the aid workers served them “delicious spaghetti.”

“Everyone is very relaxed, just chilling, sitting down,” he said. “A lot of people have their dogs. It’s okay, you know? It’s not a riot.”

Even so, he said he didn’t know when he would be able to go home and he was upset that he didn’t grab the food for the animals because he didn’t think he would be gone for such a long time.

“I’m just sitting in my car,” he said from the exit. “I don’t see the point of going anywhere and wasting my gas, as it’s high.”

Rinker said he has friends and neighbors who refuse to leave.

Rinker has lived in Stanton, near the aerospace manufacturer, for three decades and said he had never experienced anything like this.

“All I need is for my house to explode,” he said sarcastically.

Then, with a sigh: “I try not to think about it. I love my home.”