A good live link Here.
The police seem to have evacuated the area shortly before the blast. Apparently three hours ago an RV exploded on Second Avenue.
So far it seems like casualties are not great. Hope it stays that way.
The newscasters are saying it could have been worse on a non-Christmas day.
RV explosion (cause undetermined, but seemingly intentional) on the street. a few buildings damaged, 3 minor injuries. Link to local news.
StG
I turn on the tv thinking of watching diehard, and saw the explosion reported on the news.
I hope this is a one off explosion.
Do we have any Dopers in the area?
I believe there are.
There will be a news conference at noon Nashville time. Right now there is a small quick stand up news conference. It was at the at t building.
Apparently there was a call about shots fired, police responded, saw the vehicle, called the bomb squad. Police started to evacuate residents in the area. The bomb went off while the bomb squad was on the way.
Good thing they were able to get residents out. The buildings are very damaged.
The noon presser said that there was a message from the rv saying it would explode.
Apparently the bomb was in an RV and the RV was broadcasting an audio warning for people to evacuate.
Witnesses told investigators they heard gunshots early in the morning and a message coming from an RV parked in the street warning anyone in the area to evacuate. Officers said they are looking into these reports. SOURCE
Pure speculation but it seems someone had a beef against AT&T.
I’m ten miles south of downtown. We heard a rumble at 6:30. I thought it was restless kids upstairs. It’s been nonstop coverage since then.
AT&T owns WarnerMedia, the parent company of CNN. There are a lot of people with gripes against CNN.
Wouldn’t they bomb CNN then? (there is a CNN office in Nashville and it is not where the bombing was)
Follow it to the top. Why bomb the minion when you can attack the brain?
Still pure speculation, in any case. If the bomber(s) had the foresight to try to eliminate casualties, surely they would have had some manifesto in place about who they are mad at, and why. Terrorism doesn’t work very well if your target is unaware of what’s going on, nor will the target have any motivation to change the “objectionable” behavior if they don’t know what it is.
(The above is an attempt to apply logic to the activities of morons, at least they must be considered morons if they thought a bomb like this would have any effect whatever aside from some property damage.)
As an aside, a local news announcer here said, ad lib I think, “three people injured, but they’ll recover, so no casualties…” Dear news announcer: “casualties” includes injuries as well as deaths. Try reading something other than your teleprompter once in a while. Sex appeal is no substitute for education.
The AT&T building there is an unmarked, bombproof building. I find it unlikely that was the target. The bombers took pains to limit casualties. The major damage was done to the businesses around there. These same businesses were in serious trouble due to the pandemic. A lot of same businesses are due a generous insurance payout now.
My personal suspicion is that one of the less scrupulous business owners decided on a “Bladen County Solution” to his problems.
Here is a link to a surveillance video that caught the explosion. There is audio so you can hear the bomber’s recording being broadcast telling people to evacuate - Nashville Explosion 12/25/20 - YouTube
I don’t believe most business insurance policies cover acts of war or terrorism. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but the policy I have has a specific exclusion for these types of damages. You can get specific riders to cover such damage, but those riders tend to be extremely specific, meaning a rider to cover international terrorism would not cover domestic terrorism.
OK now that’s a crap Christmas for Music City. But at least there’s the relief of no fatal or major injury.
Gotta say, this is a weirdly elaborate set up, the looped warning message on loudspeakers is one way strange touch.
Yes, commercial property insurance coverage does not include general coverage for terrorism as a default. Under a federal law (TRIA) insurers must offer the endorsement/rider to include it but it is up to the customer. And it kicks in only if the government declares it an act of terrorism.
There is a person at 3:10 in the video calmly walking their dog down the sidewalk (about three minutes after the blast). So weird.