Brooks, Kentucky

The Brooks derailment was a rail accident that occurred in Brooks, Bullitt County, Kentucky, United States, about 15 miles south of Louisville.At 08:43 EST on January 16, 2007, a CSX Transportation train pulling 80 cars from Birmingham, Alabama, to Louisville, Kentucky, derailed. The accident caused a fireball to explode over 1,000 feet into the sky. The cars were carrying several hazardous materials that resulted in an evacuation of the immediate area. The derailment was determined to be the largest in Kentucky's history. The responders to the accident were Zoneton Fire Protection District and several Louisville fire districts. The residents affected by the accident reached a settlement with the rail company.On March 30, 2012, the National Transportation Safety Board released their conclusion regarding the probable cause: The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the 18th rail car to properly negotiate a curve because of the inadequate side bearing clearance of the B-end truck assembly, likely due to a broken side bearing wedge plate attachment bolt, which caused a wheel to climb the rail, which derailed the car. Contributing to the derailment was (1) the undesirable contact of the truck bolster bowl rim with the car body center plate and (2) the hollow worn wheels on the 18th car, which further diminished the steering ability of the truck assembly.

WAMZ (97.5 FM) is a commercial radio station in Louisville, Kentucky. It airs a country music format and is owned by iHeartMedia The studios are in the central part of Watterson Park. WAMZ carries two nationally syndicated radio programs: The Bobby Bones Show in morning drive time and After Midnite with Granger Smith overnights. WAMZ is a Class C station with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000 watts. (Most Louisville FM stations are Class B or A, with only a fraction of that power.) The transmitter site is on Brooks Hill Road in Brooks, Kentucky. WAMZ broadcasts using HD Radio technology. Its HD2 digital subchannel carries a format known as "Halloween Radio."

The Valley of the Drums is a 23-acre (9.3 hectare) toxic waste site near Brooks in northern Bullitt County, Kentucky, near Louisville, named after the waste-containing drums strewn across the area. After it had been collecting waste since the 1960s, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) analyzed the property and creek in 1979, finding high levels of heavy metals, polychlorinated biphenyls, and some 140 other chemical substances. It is known as one of the primary motivations for the passage of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or Superfund Act of 1980. While the widely publicized Love Canal disaster is often credited as the reason the Superfund law was passed, Love Canal activist Lois Gibbs has said that Love Canal looked like a suburban community, while "Valley of the Drums became the visualization of the problem." Officially, cleanup began at the site in 1983 and ended in 1990, though later problems have been reported and investigated.

Hunters Hollow is a home rule-class city in Bullitt County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 324 as of the 2020 census, down from 386 at the time of the 2010 U.S. census.

Fox Chase is a home rule-class city in Bullitt County, Kentucky, in the United States. It was formally incorporated by the state assembly in 1983. The population was 436 as of the 2020 census, down from 447 in the 2010 census.

Pioneer Village is a home rule-class city in Bullitt County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 2,671 as of the 2020 census, up from 2,030 at the time of the 2010 census. Pioneer Village was struck by a tornado in 1996.

Hollyvilla is a home rule-class city in Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 537 at the 2010 census.A cat is currently in the running for Mayor of the city, with voting taking place on the city website.

The Solomon Neill Brooks House, near Shepherdsville, Kentucky, was built in 1847. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.It is a two-story, five-bay brick Greek Revival house with a central passage plan.Three contemporary outbuildings are included in the listing.

A recent inquiry regarding the naming of the Zoneton community of Bullitt County led us to pull out an article written by Jeri Pitts and published in The Postboy on 4 Apr 1974. We quote the following from that article."In 1875 this area consisted of scattered farms, a blacksmith shop, two schools, grist mills, general store, churches and a post office. Dr. J. R. Holsclaw was appointed postmaster and told to select a name (at that time the area had none). He had given considerable thought and was still undecided as to a name. "One cold night returning from a house call, while walking along Preston Highway, back then called 'The Pike,' he was thinking about what to name the post office and the community. Ase he rode on horseback his attention was drawn to the ribbons of light made on Tanyard Branch by the moon shining though the bare tree limbs and the pike. This reminded him of something but what? He stopped and looked closer at these patterns. Oh, yes, it looked like zones on a map, he had his name, Zoneton... "Even back then good things happened that deserve our remembrance today, he was completely unselfish in his selection of the name. It would have been normal for him to have used a name such as Holsclawburg or Holsclawville, thereby making his own name remembered after he was gone. But, he chose Zoneton, it was original and romantic in the way it was chosen."Zoneton is an unincorporated community located in Bullitt County, Kentucky, United States. It is served by the Zoneton Fire Protection District.

North Bullitt High School is a school located in Hebron Estates, Kentucky, United States, a small city served by the post office of nearby Shepherdsville. Opened in 1975, it is part of the Bullitt County Public Schools district. There are currently over 1,100 students enrolled at NBHS. The school underwent renovations in 2005 which were fully completed by Fall 2008, adding a second story with additional classrooms. Another expansion for a career readiness center with fifteen additional classrooms was finished in 2014.

Gap in Knob is an unincorporated community located in Bullitt County, Kentucky, United States.

Okolona is a former census-designated place (CDP) in southern Louisville/Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States. It is centered on the intersection of Preston Highway and the Outer Loop. The population was 17,807 at the 2000 census. When the government of Jefferson County merged with the city of Louisville, Kentucky in 2003, residents of Okolona also became citizens of Louisville Metro. As a result, Okolona is said to be a neighborhood within the city limits of Louisville. It was first settled by farmers from Pennsylvania and Virginia in the late 18th century. It was called Lone Oak in the late 19th century. However, a town near Paducah, Kentucky already claimed that name for its post office, so the town rearranged the words into Okolona. Farming, as well as logging and charcoal production were important industries around this time.An interurban line was extended to the area in 1905, but residential development did not pick up until General Electric Appliance Park was opened nearby in 1953.Okolona sits at exactly the same elevation as Downtown Louisville despite being 10 miles (16 km) from the Ohio River, making it one of the city's most flood prone areas. Several square miles of wetlands had to be drained in the area to make development possible.