White powder leads to evacuation of housing authority office building
The mystery substance turns out to be silica powder.
The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority offices were evacuated Thursday afternoon when a white powdery substance was found underneath the desk in Executive Director Sandra Hudson’s office.
A Gordon County hazardous materials response unit responded to 326 W. Ninth St., where Heath Derryberry used a portable IR spectrometer kit to analyze the substance and was able to determine that it was not hazardous.
“That’s what we wanted to hear,” said Rome-Floyd County Emergency Management Agency Director Tim Herrington.
Rome police initially responded to the call regarding the discovery of the white powder at 10:52 a.m. Thursday and took a report.
Fire department and other emergency personnel were dispatched to the offices at 12:31 p.m. when Herrington said the building evacuation was ordered.
“We always have to play by the rules with these situations, just in case,” said Rome-Floyd County Fire Chief Troy Brock of the evacuation order.
Derryberry said the silica powder is used in a variety of applications, but had no thoughts at all about how it got there.
“I just ran the tests and determined what the chemical breakdown was,” Derryberry said.
“Nobody in our office has any idea how it got there,” Hudson said.