Roads to Nowhere

Roads to Nowhere
Episode Information
Episode	9
Season	1
No. in Series	9
Air Date	June 16, 2009
Directed by	Douglas J. Cohen
Produced by	Louis C. Tarantino (Executive Producer) Douglas J. Cohen (Executive Producer) Savas Georgalis
Wrtten by	Savas Georgalis
Episode Guide
Previous	Armed & Defenseless
Next	Waters of Death

Roads to Nowhere is the ninth episode of season one of Life After People: The Series. It originally aired on June 16, 2009.

Synopsis

This episode looks at mankind's automobiles, where all roads lead to nowhere. The Motor City of Detroit would break down in the winter like the Renaissance Center and the Ambassador Bridge, the world supply of oil shattered the unattended oil refineries, and San Antonio would be consume by the river instead of Interstate 10 with no one to remember the Alamo. Once cared or threatened by man and the roads, armadillos start to spread once again, Lacy dogs rekindle their hunting instincts, and the Texas Longhorn flourish in the wilds. The episode also examines the Packard Automotive Plant and the 60 square miles of Detroit which were abandoned in 1960s.

Plot

1 Hour After People

Oil refineries and chemical plants all over the world still pumping out the lifeblood that once used to power cars and keep airplanes aloft. The thick plumes of steam billow out from the dense cluster of refineries situated along the Houston Shipping Channel. One fifth of America's oil production passed through the channel, helping to feed an insatiable demand for fuel with the United States consuming 20 million barrels of oil every day and the volume is equivalent to the water held by over 40,000 residential swimming pools in the time of humans. Everything seems to be running smoothly but the alarm bells ring and the oil refineries are in trouble. The problem came in the reactor, a tall column that helps break oil down to petroleum and each refinery depends on storage tanks, some holding as many as 20 million gallons of oil, to feed the reactor continually, and only 1 hour after people, one of the feeder tanks has run dry. William Leffler stated that once the tank goes empty, the conditions inside the reactor will go chaotic because it expects to have continuous flow. He continues that in order for the reactors to work, it have to heat the oil to hundreds or a thousand degrees. Without a fresh supply of incoming oil, the reactor turns the whole refinery into a ticking time bomb. William Leffler stated that with nobody react to it, temperatures could escalate up to thousands to tens of thousands of degrees.

However, the reactor isn't entirely empty because of the deadly gasoline vapors designed to burn only inside a car engine linger. The runaway temperatures have rupture the reactor creating sparks, and the fumes explode. The fire then rushes through pipes connecting to a holding tank filled with refined gasoline and ignites. The process continues as more sparks and heat ignite another tank to another and within seconds the whole refinery is on fire. Like in 2005 where 15 workers died and another 170 were injured at an oil refinery explosion in Texas City when unmonitored gasoline fumes around an igniting spark. Without people, nothing prevent the refinery explosions. William Leffler explains there will be a fire in one refinery and another a half a mile away that could lead to other fires in the refineries. He continues that it happen one at a time and once it start happening, it increases exponentially. Oil refineries around the world that once propelled mankind with fuel is a seemingly endless inferno.

3 Days After People

In Central Texas, a former house pet is in trouble. Lacy dog is not an ordinary pet, but a part sight hound, part shepherd, and part wolf, and is born problem solver. It was gifted with a sharp nose, allowing the dog to sniff any food that has been left behind, and outfitted with a slim athletic body, the Lacy has no trouble leaping onto the kitchen worktop. Once the Lacy finds the last scraps of food in the house, the options dwindling and stomach growling, and the basic instinct starts to kick in. Jimmy Brooks stated that the first food in the menu are house cats because of being plentiful and not smart by hang around. He continues that he have never owned a good Lacy dog that wouldn't kill a house cat and it will be an easy picking. While the neighborhood cats provide meat, the lacy scrounges for water wherever she can find, the outdoor dripping tap throws a lifeline to the Lacy. However, once the tap stops dripping in central Texas, the Lacy faces a decision. Jimmy Brook stated that the Lacy dog were bred to work in high heat and their first objective would find a good water source. Without food or water, the former owner's house is useless to the Lacy. Jimmy Brooks stated that the Lacy dog is a hard driving working dog and were bred to round up ranged hogs and wild cattle. The Lacy has boundless energy that will serves well in Central Texas, a place that collects 35 inches of annual rainfall where water isn't a problem, but the Lacy has to work for food.

4 Days After People

The Motor City, the birthplace of mass produced automobiles, is silent and none travel down the road. No trucks shuttle cargo over the Ambassador Bridge to Canada and the Renaissance Center, the tallest building in the state, stands empty.

4 miles east of downtown, on the banks of the Detroit River, some machines are still humming at the city's waterworks plant, even though power plants begin to fail worldwide. John McGrail stated that once the main power failure happened, it would switch over to generator power. The diesel fuel powering the generators will last for 2 more days and the business is usual at the works. The electronic boards at the system control room continue to keep track of the half a billion gallons of water filling the city's pipes, but after people, catastrophe looms, there's no one around to turn on a faucet. Cheryl Porter stated that its pumping water into a system that's not being used and eventually the capacity of the pipes will be max out.

Underneath downtown Detroit are the 4 foot diameter pipes dating back to the 19th century, making it the weakest links in the system. It sent water to Detroit's citizens through the birth of the Model T, the rise of the Big Three, and the collapse of manufacturing in the time of humans. 4 days after people, the pipes have finished their tour of history. Cheryl Porter stated that it will be completely full and start to burst. Compounding the disaster are clay soil, where much of downtown Detroit stands. John McGrail stated that the city is impervious to the flow of water, and when the extent that the water saturate the clay, it has a tendency for the water to go up. George Ellenwood stated that the pressure continues building, pushing up sidewalk and street above until it buckles. 10 foot high fountains have turn Detroit's streets into thoroughfares of water.

1 Week After People

As the oil refineries continue to burn, in Texas, the 100,000 longhorn steer living throughout the state on open ranches or hemmed in in barns face a crisis. The 1,800 pound beasts relies on weekly hay ratio and without people to give food along the barbed wire fencing in order to keep them in, it look to be the end of the road for the creatures, but the beasts aren't feeling anxious. Larry Smith stated that Texas Longhorn is big enough to knock down anything and is well trained and docile that it doesn't need any and already given everything it needs to survive and content. The longhorns were descend from Spanish cattle, a tough breed brought to the New World aboard Columbus ships, and its in their blood to eat whatever is available. Larry Smith explains that all cattle are herbivores and eat grass while the Longhorn cattle will also eat brush, browse, leaves, and anything in order to survive. It also have a pair of horns. Larry Smith stated that the horns are protect themselves against the hounds, wolves, and bears and not many animals will want to go up and tangle with a set of horns like the Texas Longhorn. Although individual longhorns managed to survive the first few days without people, the survival as a species is still in doubt.

2 Months After People

Man stores of oil and gas at the oil refineries haven't run out and an apocalyptic firestorm still burns along the Houston's Shipping Channel. The area processed most of the over 1 million barrels of crude oil produced in Texas every day in the time of humans, more than any other state in the country.

200 miles west and down Interstate 10, sits the city of San Antonio with it's iconic landmark, the Alamo. Nearby, the San Antonio River streams peacefully through the abandoned River Walk, It was the most popular gathering spot in the city in the time of humans but after people, once packed office towers and hotels look down over the empty barges waiting for travelers that will never show. Steven Schauer stated that the San Antonio River created the city of San Antonio. The river has attracted mankind for centuries like Native Americans who lived in the river named their settlement Refreshing Waters, but after people, the tide is about to turn. Steven Schauer stated that the river is highly engineered, where man has influenced, straightened, and built flood control structures within it. All that stands between the river and the destruction of the city is a steady rain, a common part of the country. Steven Schauer explains that while the Midwest has Tornado Alley, Texas have Flash Flood Alley where it run up I-35 from San Antonio all the way to Dallas. Texas has warm, most air drafting inland from the Gulf Coast which collides with cooler, dry air sweeping in from the north setting the weather patterns with frequent rainstorms on central Texas and as a result, half of the top 12 world records for rainfall in 48 hours originate in Flash Flood Alley. Steven Schauer stated that the first rain event would make the River Walk the first casualty. The buildings at the River Walk stand level with the San Antonio River with some 15 feet below the surrounding downtown streets. At the entrance to the River Walk, a three ton floodgate stands guard. Steven Schauer shows the lines in the wall where it is actually the groove that hold the gate door as it comes down. He explains without people, there would be no one to lower the gate during a rain event. 50 people were killed in 1921 where a burst of rain inundated downtown with up to 10 feet of water. Steven Schauer shows that behind him is the lowest point of the river with only five to six inches and it wouldn't take much rain to actually raise the water level in the area and begin flooding out all the restaurants, hotel space, and business space.

Meanwhile above the River Walk, the Alamo, the oldest building in the city, is located at street level and silently awaits the assault.

3 Months After People

At the Houston Shipping Channel, the oil refinery fires have finally exhausted their fuel along with the world's oil refineries. With the refineries reduced to ruins, the 1.2 trillion barrels of crude oil that still lays untapped beneath the Earth's surface would never rise to propel any man-made machine again.

Meanwhile at the scrubs lands of central Texas, the Lacy dog have staked out on its own having no trouble moving without people, and it's not alone, it has discovered food in central Texas that is plentiful. Jimmy Brooks stated that the Lacy would most likely adopt to catching hogs faster than anything else. 2 million feral hogs scoured the Texas countryside in the time of humans. Without hunters to keep their numbers in check, the wild pigs are rampant. Jimmy Brooks stated that feral hog takes three months, weeks, and days to have litter of pigs and would double their population every four months with up to 13 pigs in a litter. The pig herding instincts of the Lacy dog have awakened a primal hunting urge. Jimmy Brooks stated that house pet have no prey drive while the Lacy dog have one. He continues that it'll get out and get it done and know what it takes to bring an animal down. Lacys are not large enough to take down hogs that weight over 200 pounds on their own, but in packs, it thrive. A seemingly never ending supply of food have destined the Lacy dog for success.

6 Months After People

Another Texas resident is enjoying the new world order, the nine banded armadillo. Its armor of bony plates and leathery skin is designed to protect it from predators except for one, traffic. In the time of humans, countless cars and trucks roared down the streets and roads, and when it came getting out of the way, their instincts failed them. Michael Perez stated that armadillos have a tendency to vertically jump. Its tendency to jump, sometimes as high as 3 or 4 feet, serves well against most predators by scaring it away, but when the attacker is a speeding car, the encounter is nearly always fatal. No state in the country had more of death traps for armadillos than Texas with it's 80,000 miles of roads, enough to circle the globe five times. Without cars on the move, armadillos own the roads. Michael Perez stated that without people, there will be increased habitat for the armadillos. The abandoned cities offer new places for armadillos, and were not confined to Texas, they spread deep into Florida, as far west as Nebraska, and as far north as Southern Illinois in the time of humans, but only the cold holds them back. Michael Perez stated that armadillos thrive in Texas because of the climate of Texas are very mild winters and the importance for the creatures are temperatures above freezing. As long as the weather stays warm and no traffic, armadillos thrives after people.

25 Years After People

The extreme climate of Detroit is taking it's toll on the city skyline. Steven S. Ross stated that its tough being a building in Detroit because of the extreme weathers from very hut summers to very cold winters. He continues there's freezing, thawing, wind, rain, ice, and being located by the river will have a result of moisture with very high winds on a very open space.

The Renaissance Center stood as a monument to the industry that delivered Detroit into a golden age in the time of humans. A city where Henry ford's modern assembly line made the family car affordable, his grandson instigated the construction of the Renaissance Center as head of Ford Motor Company. Two decades later, the entire complex, including the 73 story central tower, the tallest building in Michigan, was purchased by General Motors, one time largest car manufacturer in the world. Steven S. Ross stated that the Renaissance Center is a classic examples of late 1960s-1970s design where it is made by steel framed and the outer skin is almost entirely glass. He continues that the steel frame hold the windows in and the buildings up and glass expand, contrate, and vibrate in different ways where the results being worn a little bit. Without people, 25 years have let the Renaissance Center's atrium into a forest. Although the decorative palms have died, native trees like Shagbark hickories and giant oaks moved in. Steven S. Ross stated that as long it provides shelter, plant and animal life will live inside like feral dogs, wolves, and wolverines would come in having an ecosystem.

40 Years After People

Detroit is a wreck and it has a future that has already happened in some parts of the city.

Abandoned areas of Detroit

Parts of the city were abandoned, where a population exodus has decimated once proud factories and crowded city blocks. Steven S. Ross explore and explains the decay within the abandoned areas. From 1900 to 1930, the burgeoning motor industry powered a growth spurt, skyrocketing the city's population more than fivefold to more than a million and a half inhabitants.

At the Detroit's Packard Plant, it was abandoned for 40 years and is a sad reminder of an once thriving car industry that pumped life into the city. The Packard name was once synonymous with luxury and churning out everything from convertibles to limousines, but the public stopped buying it's designs and burdened with a crushing debt, Packard closed it's doors. Steven S. Ross stated that plants and animals have colonized the area around the plant. The roof is slowly turning into a forest with Steven S. Ross showing the trees ight along the wall by windblown seeds wedge into the crack that inevitably exists where pavement meets a wall and identified them as goldenrod. Without the windows, the interior is beginning to look like the outside. Steven S. Ross shows the hardwood floor on the fifth floor of the building which have been bowed upward case by the wood soaking through the winter making the result of the wood expand. He continues that underneath it are dirt that were blown in from the outside. He then stated that in 30 or 40 years, the wood will be gone and become a giant flower bed. Where workers once assembled Packard engines, saplings take root and moss begun to colonize the floorboards. Meanwhile, the harsh climate eats away at the plant's foundations. Steven S. Ross shows the entryway wall that has warped away by freezing and thawing. He then shows a crack on the guard that is a bell of very thick cast iron where he then shows another one on the other side as a logical conclusion. The seasons haven't been kinder to homes once cared for by people. As competition from foreign car manufacturers intensified, one million residents fled the urban center from 1950 to 1980 and of the 137 square miles that make up the city, 60 are empty and left behind are blocks of abandoned neighborhoods. Steven S. Ross shows an abandoned building that have deterioration to be accelerated by harsh climate of Detroit by freezing and thawing during the winter and fairly heavy rainfall during the year. The brick and mortar structure decays from the top down with Steven S. Ross stated that the rain from the weather have cause the roof to be destroyed. As water seeps into the brick, it expands and contract causing it to freeze, thaw before prying the brick away from the facade. Another 75 years would collapse the entire building into an unrecognizable heap and nothing remain after a century. Steven S. Ross stated that brick and mortar is clay and limestone and is very much like the surrounding soil. It doesn't take long at all for a building to crumble in the harsh climate. A school has only been abandoned for two years cause by the population decline in Detroit making fewer students to teach and schools keep closing. Steven S. Ross explains that one summer and two winters in Detroit have cause the damage with paint being peeled off, the ceiling collapsed because of the leaking water, and plaster catches dirt making it the beginning of plant life.

50 Years After People

Detroit, the city once ruled by the big three automakers, begin to crumbles. A place that once cranked out 15 million cars every year have let cars decaying on its streets. Most cars doesn't have inflated tires anymore but the rubber and synthetics will last hundreds of years. Within another 25 years, the tough Detroit climate reduce the car into a skeleton.

In San Antonio, repeated rains have spawned cycles of flooding along the River Walk. Waterlogged foundations have leave the buildings tilting at odd angles as silt and sand inundate the area. Steven S. Ross calls it death by inches and explains that it happens slowly and insidiously. He continues that the river itself, although not flowing fast, would flood over and over that brings a lot of silt and sand to cover part of the area where the buildings sink unevenly as it settle. Eventually, the lean is too much for one of the buildings, like the Tower Life Building, which falls into the river it once overlooked.

Meanwhile, the facade of the Alamo stares back untouched on its elevated perch on the city's street level. But an enemy is attacking the compound from within, live oaks, which already dominated the Alamo courtyard in the time of humans. Bruce Winders stated that there are many oak trees and are tend to grow very large with its limbs extend outward and weight of the limbs which causes it to reach down to the earth where it support themselves. Without people to redirect the massive limbs, the oak trees begin to demolish the Alamo walls. Bruce Winders shows a limb that's been held up by an iron post to keep it off the ground. He continues that without people to constantly cut the limbs back, a lot would continue to grow and crush the wall. He also stated that the oak trees would drop acorns and wildlife would come and bring seeds. Over 200 years after the Alamo fell to the invading Mexican army, an army of trees conquers it again and the Alamo doesn't stand a chance.

150 Years After People

Detroit's 1,850 foot long Ambassador Bridge was stood as the longest bridge in the world when it opened as a gateway to Ontario in 1929 and it was the busiest border crossing between the U.S. and Canada in the time of humans, carrying one quarter of the merchandise, including most of the auto parts traded between the 2 countries. However, 150 years after people have the vertical suspension cables to start give way and nothing will cross the bridge. Steven S. Ross stated that the vertical suspension cables are exposed to the wind and weather and vibrate quite in the wind. He continues they're major wear area and major maintenance problem for any keeper of a suspension bridge. After people, no one will repair the damage in the cables. Steven S. Ross stated that the weak spots are at the bottom of the cable where it tie into the deck. The vertical cables lay over one of two horizontal white lines known as catenary cables with 37 steel strands, each about a foot in diameter, and interweave to form just one of the catenary cables. Steven S. Ross stated that as multiple cables break, it change the shape of the catenary cable that holds the thing up because it's no longer taking an even amount of weight at each interval. Another vertical cable snaps and a segment of the deck crashes into the river and a 150 foot gap gashes through the road to Canada on the Ambassador Bridge. Within seconds, the other sections falls into the Detroit River.

Just upstream from the Ambassador Bridge, the central tower of the Renaissance Center still stands taller than any other building, but the broken windows have left the structure unable to retain any heat from the sun. Steven S. Ross stated there's a lot of rubble and during the winter, a fair amount of ice loading build up because of the sun not directly warm the building and most of the glass is gone. At the central tower, one of the upper floors loses its grip and the rest of it collapses, it then brings down one of the adjoining buildings as it falls which then destroys the atrium below.

200 Years After People

On the skeleton of the Ambassador Bridge, the white horizontal catenary cable that once held up the span is ironically helping to topple its remain. Steven S. Ross stated that the big cable is anchored on either side and when the deck is no longer, the tension will be uneven. He continues that the big vertical towers would bend toward the land side with the top spread apart and put strain on the towers. The towers of the Ambassador Bridge finally yields and the remains of a great transportation link disappear.

In San Antonio, the river has swallowed the city. Steven S. Ross stated that the whole downtown San Antonio area will be little hills and little remnants of buildings. The Alamo is still standing but just barely and like the great stone temples of Cambodia's Angkor Wat, years of uncontrolled tree growth have the structure in a death grip. There's no one to remember the Alamo and more importantly, no one to take care of it, as the chapel collapse.

After breaking out into the wild, the Texas Longhorns cattle are finding that history is repeating itself. In the 1800s, the longhorns escaped from the confines of their Spanish missionary masters. Larry Smith stated that the animals will evolved that could survive on its own, can grew very long leg, very strong hooves, and could travel long distances for forage and water. Longhorns acquired a genetic diversity that serves them very well. Larry Smith explains that there is no need for veterinarians within the cattle due to extremely disease resistant making the Texas Longhorn adoptable without humans. While many dairy and beef cattle died out quickly without people due to struggle to give birth without human assistance, the longhorns don't have the problem. Larry Smith explains that the calves would hit the ground and start running immediately. He continues that as far as an animal can survive without humans, the Texas Longhorn can because they've already proven it can. After 200 years, the longhorns numbered in the tens of millions, like they did in the 1800s.

1,000 Years After People

Along the banks of the Detroit River, what has become of the Motor City have turned into massive oak trees looking down on the wetlands. The place that gave birth to the history changing V8 engine, the SUV, and pickup trucks, the sound of a roaring engine is long forgotten.

However, there is one place where an American made vehicle can be found. Over 200,000 miles away from Detroit, at the Moon, 3 moon buggies remain that were left behind by 3 Apollo missions. It stand in near mint condition, because the moon's environment doesn't attack man's technology like Earth. Jan Zalasiewicz stated that the Moon has no water, no air, and no active geology. He continues that anything on the moon's surface will still be there even what's left from the Apollo missions.

Epilogue

All that's left of a civilization once swarmed by fleets of cars and trucks are the motionless relics at the moon and life after people is quiet and still.

Transcript

Life After People Wiki has a transcript for this episode. To see it, click here.

Credits

Flight 33 Productions

• Executive Producers
  • Louis C. Tarantino
  • Douglas J. Cohen
• Producer
  • Savas Georgalis
• Writer
  • Savas Georgalis
• Editors
  • Manny Madla
  • Tom Ronca
  • Kyle Yaskin
  • Samantha Jetter
  • Gerald San Gemino
• Original Music
  • Eric Amdahl
• Narrator
  • James Lurie (United States)
  • Timothy Watson (United Kingdom)
• Associate Producer
  • Jessica Loveless
• Researcher
  • Pedro Azevedo
• Director
  • Douglas J. Cohen
• TBA

Errors

• The Texas City Refinery explosion were reported to be 180 injuries instead of the episode information of 170.
• During the scene of the Houston Ship Channel fire, cargo containers can be seen on flames unconditionally.
• The episode stated that 1 million people have fled Detroit between 1950 to 1980's, however around 600,000 people actually left Detroit in that timeframe and only around the first decade of the 21st century where the population drop 1 million people comparing to the population of the 1950's.

Trivia

• Roads to Nowhere is the first episode where it started in 1 hour after people.
• It is also the first episode where the abandon locale featured is in the city that the episode is featured in.

Gallery

The thumbnail of the episode (a flaming refinery) on History's official Youtube channel.

The thumbnail of the episode (a burning oil refinery), as seen on History.com.

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The , as seen on Hvault.

EXPLOSIONS at Oil Refinery Destroy the Environment - Life After People (S1)

A clip of the episode beginning.