37,000 customers in WA and ID lose heat and hot water because someone did not call 811

The 12.5″ natural gas pipe was 41″ deep. Just as the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010 was not a “spill” (it was an explosion), the reason 37,000 customers in eastern Washington and northwestern Idaho have no heat or hot water and can’t cook meals is not a gas pipeline “leak.”

In each case, however, news organizations minimized the extent of the man-made disaster with weasel words.