Pittsburg is a city in Crawford County, in southeastern Kansas, with a population of 20,233. It is a land of old coal mines, limestone and underground water. There are quarries, but none were blasting on Thanksgiving Day, November 26th.
It was about 1:47 PM Central on Thanksgiving that "Lisa" stepped out of her Pittsburg apartment to have a cigarette. It was raining and cold.
A half a block away, a street crew had spent several months putting in a new street and sidewalk with large equipment. But that work had been completed and the new street was silent and empty of traffic. Then Lisa was confused and stunned by a loud, metallic sound that seemed to activate the railroad crossing without any train coming. Was the loud, metallic sound linked to an electromagnetic pulse?