Centralia, PA
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Retrieved from Business Insider
These photos are of Centralia, Pennsylvania, a small town that was abandoned in the early 1980s due to a coal mine fire. (Spector 2013) The rumor is the fire was started at a landfill and eventually ignited the mine. The burning coal created dangerous fumes that forced the town to be evacuated. (Associated Press 2012) The land started to crack open and even a 12-year-old boy vanished into a sinkhole. All that is left of the town are the empty buildings and streets, the images of which give what to me seems to be a visual image of the desolation in "The Road." The book describes long strectches of abandoned highways that the man and his son follow to the coast. The ash from the unnamed natural disaster in the book covers most of the area. InCentralia, the fumes have caused a lot of the trees and ground to turn a ghostly white. I wish I could take pictures of it myself, but it is closed to the public, but there are many tresspassers. (National Geographic 2013)