Louisiana Sinkhole Evacuees Won't Be Home For Awhile [1]

Huff Post - 11/30/12, Susan Buchanan

(This is an updated version of an article published in "The Louisiana Weekly" on Nov. 26, 2012.)

At the eight-acre, Bayou Corne sinkhole in Assumption Parish, owners of slab houses are waiting for methane-gas monitors to be installed in December. The sinkhole deepened in November and coughed up debris and hydrcarbons late in the month. Cypress trees fell into the gap. Residents are watching natural gas being flared from the site and are ventilating homes while bayous around them bubble.

Over 200 people, who were evacuated or voluntarily left 110 homes since August, are staying away. They felt tremors last summer when the sinkhole formed after an underground cavern wall was breached. The hole on the western edge of the Napoleonville Salt Dome, contains salt water and crude oil, and is on swampland leased by Texas Brine in Houston from Occidental Chemical Corp.

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