Timeline of DuPont chemical leak shows discrepancies, delays

LA PORTE, TX (KTRK) -- The unfolding events in the wake of the La Porte Dupont chemical plant leak Saturday in which four workers died has raised questions about how soon plant officials should have made information available to the public -- and to the families of the deceased.

At a Saturday morning press conference a company spokesman said DuPont workers had been "exposed" two hours after a DuPont team saw they were dead. At least one family was outside the plant asking ABC-13 for information about their relatives.

Families were not told until 2pm, according to media reports; and the public was not informed until 4:28 pm Saturday -- 12 hours after the incident.

Our timeline:

It was 4:13 Saturday morning when the La Porte DuPont chemical plant called 9-1-1 for ambulances.

Something was going on at the plant and people were in danger.

No shelter in place was ordered and the La Porte Fire Department said that air monitoring showed no dangerous release escaping the facility.

By 6 am the leak was contained.

But something else was happening 40 miles away.

People at home in Sugar Land and Katy were smelling the release and its reek of rotten eggs.

ABC-13 has found that there is no region wide system to share information like this. There is a system for the ship channel cities but Sugar Land and many other cities are not on the ship channel.

"We saw it unfolding on television," Sugarland spokesman Doug Adolph said Sunday afternoon. "We didn't get a call."

Based on the television reports and their own phone calls, Sugar Land was able to put out a reverse 9-1-1 call to inform citizens that the smell was not dangerous. Officials also alerted residents by email.

At 8:45am DuPont spokesman Aaron Woods told news crews: "At this time, we know of four DuPont employees exposed to the chemical leak."

A DuPont statement on Sunday said officials knew there were "likely fatalities" at 7 am.

DuPont officials made no mentions of that until much later in the day.

At 11:30am, the Harris County Medical Examiner, usually only called for fatalities, was told the scene was "ready for them."

But it wasn't until 4:28pm -- more than 12 hours after the first 9-1-1 call that DuPont acknowledged publicly their employees had died. Families weren't told until 2 pm.

DuPont said they didn't know their employees had died for hours and needed time to notify family members. The La Porte Fire Department did initially pull their first responders out to make sure the area was safe.

At the 4:30 pm taking just a few questions, the DuPont plant manager left leave a company news conference Saturday. The company spokesman did the same three-and-a-half minutes later.

The company did not make anyone available for a news conference Sunday and has said it will not make anyone available today.